Sasha and I look at one another, a slight knowing smile on our faces. I see her eyes dart to Maggie as she raises an eyebrow at me.

“Uhh, I can give you Zofran, but I’ll have to inject it. Or you can take two of these antacids.”

“I’ll stick to the antacids for now,” Sasha tells him, holding her hand out. “Thank you.”

“Sure thing. Let me know if it doesn’t go away soon. It won’t take long to get you hooked up with some Zofran.”

“Will do, thanks.”

Hawk lifts himself onto the counter and takes a seat.

“Sasha?” I grab her attention, motioning toward the chair next to Maggie’s bed. “Why don’t you take a seat?”

Still chewing the antacids, she crinkles her nose, trying to get them down. I have to agree with her, it’s not the taste that’s awful. It’s the texture.

“Sucks the party had to be cut short,” Maggie states.

“Oh… I don’t know about that,” Sasha disagrees. “I think it was a very good idea for Blade to caveman me out of there when he did. It’s been a while since I last drank, and my tolerance is shit.”

Her eyes meet mine, and I laugh.

“I did notcavemanyou out of there,” I insist.

“What would you call it, then?”

“Well, you were swerving. I wanted to make sure I had a good grip on you.”

Sasha laughs at my horribly made-up excuse for throwing her over my shoulder.

“I was simply trying to pull you out of a situation before you completely lost all of your sanity. That’s all.”

All of us break out into laughter, and even Sasha agrees that I did the right thing. When her eyes catch mine again, I see that some of her fire returned.

“It’s a damn good thing you got me out of there when you did,” she winks. “Oh, by the way… Do you know what happed to my wallet and cell phone? I have no idea if they were taken or what, but I haven’t seen them since I got here.”

“Oh, shit,” I exclaim. “Yeah, no I have them.”

“Youhave them? Were you ever planning on giving them back to me?”

I send a quick glance to Hawk who has no interest in backing me up. I honestly wasn’t keeping them from her on purpose.

“I swear to you, it wasn’t intentional. With everything that’s been going on, I completely forgot that I had them. They’re upstairs in my room. I can go get them for you right now if you want me to.”

Sasha looks like she’s going to yell at me for a brief moment. But instead, she takes a deep breath and the expression on her face shifts from irritation to acceptance.

“No, it’s okay. I reallydon’tneed them. I was just curious. If I’m being honest, it’s been wonderful being unplugged from everything.” She walks toward me, wrapping me in her arms. “I do really want to go back to work, but it’s been nice not having anything to worry about for a while.”

A satisfied warmth spreads through me, hearing her words. Her happiness is my top priority, second only to her safety. Knowing she’s content with her current situation, though semi-undesirable with a psycho on the loose, makes me very happy.

We continue laughing and carrying on for a while longer as we wait for news of Jasper. After approximately thirty minutes, the laughter quickly fades from my face as a loud knock sounds on the door.

I open the door and come face to face with SoCo. He nods his head toward the sofa, requesting that Hawk and I join them once more.

“I just got off the phone with Pretty Boy. Jasper and company began to fire at him and Ronin just before the exit for Gettysburg. I don’t know how they were recognized, unless they got too close to the car.” Stone shakes his head with irritation. “One of the bullets hit Ronin in the leg, causing him to swerve into Pretty Boy. They both dropped their bikes, and the car got away.”

“Fuck!” I shout, taking my anger out with a punch to the back of the sofa.

“What about the Bastards?” Drama chimes in. “Did they see him? Did they grab him like they were going to?”