Page 82 of Scar

Gratitude for her new friend filled her. “Thank you, Sissy. I owe you.”

“Make him happy, Tally. That’s all I ask.”

Tally’s lips quivered as she smiled. “That’s the goal.”

* * *

Scar wokeup twice on the ride back to Mount Grove. Tessa had encouraged him to allow her to give him some morphine. Scar had tried to refuse, but then Sissy put her phone next to his ear and Tally urged him to take the painkiller. Tessa swore it was a low dose, just enough to take the edge off, and he trusted her. Each time he awoke, Sissy’s phone was still next to his ear, Tally’s voice lulling him back to sleep.

The rear of Keys’ new van had two sections, split down the middle. On one side was his computer equipment bolted down to a desk and a cushioned chair connected to a track on the floor. The other side where Scar was had been outfitted into a mini ambulance. It wasn’t big enough to do extensive surgery, but it was stocked to do nearly everything else.

After the third time waking, Scar tried to sit up.

“Uncle Bulldog!”

“Shit!”

Hands like liquid fire gripped his shoulders steadying him. Scar flinched but allowed José to get him upright enough that he was leaning against the van wall with his feet down dangling over the bed. The blanket Tessa had placed on him covered his waist and hips; his top half was still bare from Tessa’s earlier examination.

José sat down next to him on the cot. He picked up Sissy’s phone that had fallen in the folds of the blanket. Scar could hear Tally’s voice asking what was going on.

“He’s fine,” José assured her. “The pigheaded dickwad just decided he was going to sit up on his own.” He raised an eyebrow at Scar as if waiting for him to argue the slur. Scar did not. “Good. It sounds like you’re maybe a half hour behind us.”

José held the phone out for Scar. He accepted it, noticing he was still hooked up to an IV. Sissy was sitting in the front passenger seat next to Keys, who was driving. Tessa and Bear were on the rear bench and the empty office chair was swiveling like José had stood up from it.

Scar put the phone to his ear.

“Scar, can you hear me?” He blew into the phone to indicate he could. “Bulldog says you’re almost back to the clubhouse. I’m going to go.Pleaselisten to what Tessa says and don’t be a stubborn ass. I keep encouraging Tom to break the speed limit, but he refuses. Drives slower than my grandma,” she grumbled. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He closed his eyes, trying to process the warm feeling inside his chest that he would see her again.

“I know,” she said in barely a whisper. There was empathy in her voice, like she could sense through the phone the overwhelming feeling brewing inside him. “We have a lot to talk about, but not now. You need to concentrate on getting better and I need to concentrate on notmurdering Tomif he doesn’t drive faster!”

Scar’s lips twitched. He didn’t remember a lot that she’d said over the past couple of hours, fading in and out as he did, but he was pretty sure most of it was senseless. She was speaking just to help calm him, and it had worked.

He had so many questions for her, but she was right that it wasn’t important now. The important thing was that they would be together again soon—and this time there would be no secrets between them.

He was hers. All the remaining pieces of him. They were hers, to do with as she would.

After Tally disconnected the call, Scar lowered the phone to the cot. He wished he had a way to speed time up. He needed to be with hernow, notsoon.

Tessa stood, carefully balancing as she walked towards him. “Are you feeling better?”

He nodded. It wasn’t much better, but at least he didn’t feel like his next breath might be his last anymore.

“I want to do an x-ray when we get back. I’m concerned you have some broken ribs.”

Scar twisted, doing a self-assessment. His right side pained him, but not in a way that made him think his ribs were broken. Likely bruised. He shook his head at her.

Tessa’s eyes narrowed. “I’d still like to do the scan. It doesn’t have to be today,” she added quickly when he scowled, “but it would make me feel better. I know it would make Tally feel better too.”

Scar’s eyes narrowed. That was a low blow, but the smile Tessa gave him said that she knew it and would use it again if it meant she got her way.

José chuckled next to him. “Well played, Tessa.”

Her grin widened. After checking Scar’s IV bag, she went back to sit by her husband. Scar watched her to make sure she got there okay. The ride was currently smooth, but they were still moving at a steady speed. Once she was seated and buckled back in, Scar’s gaze moved to José.

His brother was staring at him with a mixture of elation and anger.

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