Page 97 of Nitro

Reaper glances at Tucker before replying, “He cut himself. Deep.”

“Like with a kitchen knife or something?” I ask.

“Or something,” Reaper says.

I can tell I’m not going to get the full story out of him without a lot of prying and a lot of work. Since I’m already exhausted from shopping, I give up and go to our bedroom. I text Nitro, asking for an update. He writes back right away, telling me that Matrix is stable and that Nitro will be home as soon as he can. He wants me to rest until he gets back.

Although I try to sleep, I can’t. Matrix is like a brother to me. He may as well be Nitro’s blood brother, even though he isn’t biologically related. I can’t imagine how worried Nitro must be right now. I wish I could be there with him. If nothing else, I could at least comfort him.

Hours pass with no additional news. So, I wait, and pray for Matrix and Nitro and all the other guys in the MC. They’re my family now. When something bad happens to one of them, we’re all affected. My heart hurts for the guys. I hope Matrix will be okay because they don’t deserve to suffer another loss. Losing their childhood was enough. Losing each other is unthinkable.

Chapter 26: Nitro

I haven’t been inside a hospital since Julia had Eli. These places creep me out. There’s an aura of death around them. I wouldn’t even be here right now if it wasn’t for one of my brothers. Matrix really fucked up this time. Based on what Scar told me, Matrix almost bled out. He had to have several transfusions just to stay alive. Thank God the doctors and nurses were able to save his life.

Scar steps out of the hospital room to join me in the hallway. The doctors are only letting one person in at a time because Matrix needs to rest. Scar went in first. He was with Matrix for a long time before I even arrived. I’m champing at the bit to get an update.

“Well, how is he?”

“Um…” Scar blows out a long breath. “Not good.”

“He cut himself again, right?”

“Yep. I knew I should have forced him into inpatient therapy.”

“This isn’t on you. There’s only one man responsible for this shit, and he’s not here.” I’m referring to Blackstone, of course. Fucking prick.

“He lost a lot of blood.”

“Was he drunk when he did it?”

“His blood alcohol level was well over the legal limit. The doctors think that could be why they had trouble stopping the bleeding. Booze will thin it out.”

“But he’s good now, right?”

“Depends on how you define that.” Scar grabs my arm as I try to walk past him toward the room. “Before you go in there, you need to understand something.”

“What?”

“He’s not really there. I mean, physically, yeah, but mentally…” Scar shakes his head.

“Is he checked out?”

“On another planet.”

“Did they give him a sedative?”

“Yeah, but this is worse. The shrink came in to do an evaluation. He asked me if Matrix has ever had problems with dissociation before.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I had to explain a little bit about Matrix and what happened to him. The trauma.”

“Did you say anything about Blackstone?” I ask in a whisper.

“No. How can I? It’s only going to complicate shit. Besides, no one will believe it. They think he walks on water.”

“Because he’s good at hiding who he really is. That’s the fucked part.” Frustrated, I pace in front of the door.

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