Page 5 of Devil's Due: Sarge

I catch sight of Vlad the moment the sliding doors to the hospital lobby open. It takes 2.5 seconds longer for me to pick out Nicola, who, good god damn, is every bit as fine as my brother described her. And she’s staring at me like I’m a lollipop ready to be licked. That doesn’t fly with me. I’d never go after a girl my brother was into, and I’m about ready to say something when whatever Vlad says snags Nic’s attention. The level of heat in the eyes she turns on him, I know I wouldn’t have stood a chance even if I wanted one.

“Brother,” I greet Vlad while giving his woman a slow onceover.

“Sarge.” Vlad drops his hand to the small of her back. “This is Nicola.” Looking back and forth between them a couple of times, I can’t help the low chuckle that escapes my lips. That’s a claiming move. Damn, I never thought I’d see the day. The man with the legendary dick is claiming one woman? I’m in awe of her for snagging the unattainable.

But then I realize I’m being rude not responding, and smile at her. “Good to meet you.”

“Good to meet you, too,” she sweetly answers, and good lord, Vlad steps in front of her moving back as if herding her away from me. He’s clearly got it bad already. He’d have to because of anybody in the world, he knows me. Knows I’d never betray him like that.

“I texted Caitlin.” Vlad gets to the reason he’s summoned me here. “She’s in back with the doctors looking after Nic’s friend Greer. We had a run-in here with Chit. I had to run him off.”

Chit?Fuck. He’s a member of the Tennessee Horde chapter and friends with Rage. I narrow my eyes scowling while doing a sweep of the waiting area and outside the doors from this vantage point. “What the fuck Chit doing up here?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. What I know is that we can’t leave Greer without a guard and I’ve got to get Nic out of here.”

Yeah, he does. Chit’s bad news and I’m ready to get real serious when I glance back at Nicola and see the fear behind her eyes—the fear she’s trying real hard to hide. She’s brave, I’ll give her that. I smile as I attempt to lighten the mood.

“That bad, eh?” I ask like every word out of his mouth didn’t gut me.

“He about lost his life in a waiting room,” Vlad answers, and I note his hand has moved from the small of her back to grip her hip. With his arm around her like that, he hasn’t just claimed her, he’sclaimedher.

“Fuck, get your woman home.”

“You don’t mind staying?” she asks me.

“My president gives the order; I do what I need to do. My best friend asks me for help, I don’t hesitate—ever.” There’s nothing for her to fear. Greer is my mission. I’ll give my life to protect her if that’s what it takes. I will never let another woman down. Period.

“C’mon, Nic.” Vlad presses that hand he’s glided back to the small of her back a little harder to get her moving. “We need to go.”

“Okay. Thank you, Sarge, for helping,” Nicola says to me tentatively. It has to be hard to leave her girl behind. She takes great responsibility. I’ve got mad respect for her. Mad respect. I nod, watching them as they walk away.

Once they’re out the door, I walk over to reception asking for Greer’s room. They allow me to call up. The Lords president’s wife, Dr. Brennan-Ellis answers.

“It’s Sarge. Vlad put me in charge of Greer’s safety detail.”

“Be down in a sec,” she says, and I swear I hear her mumble, “lucky girl,” as she hangs up.

Seeing her walk through the interior door into the waiting room, with her curly red hair, she stands out in a crowd and I don’t know about Greer being a lucky girl, but I know for a fact that Duke is a lucky, lucky bastard first for bedding, then marrying a woman as shit-hot as she is, and with brains as well. That’s not a combination we see much of in the biker world, and until I’d met Nicola with Vlad, I’d thought the Lords had snatched them all up.

“Good to see you again,” she says. I nod, smiling. “We got to her just in time.”

My smile immediately drops. “Condition?”

“She’s on heavy antibiotics and they’ve got her on pain meds, so she’s knocked out for the time being. Now it’s a waiting game to see how she responds to the medications.”

We board the elevator and she leads me up two floors. Halfway down the hallway, Dr. Brennan-Ellis opens the door to a room. I stop short, taking in the hospital bed with a woman sound asleep. It’s unnatural for a woman so beautiful to be so sick. Even with her eyes shut, she takes my breath away. What the ever-loving hell?

She’s definitely shorter than me, but then again, just about everyone is shorter than me – she's just quite a bit shorter than me, made apparent by the imprint of where her feet are under the blanket.

And that long, blond hair she has, which even sweat-matted, reminds me of corn silk. I don’t want to look at her in this condition, but at the same time, I can’t get myself to look away. It’s like this unconscious woman reached the hand of her soul out and plunged it through my chest, drawing me in closer.

My heart feels like it’s racing inside my chest and I feel like I’ve stopped breathing altogether. Like someone knocked the wind out of me, even though I’m still clearly standing. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I’ve been around plenty of women in my life, I’ve had plenty of women in my life, but I’ve never experienced this before. Not even with—no, I don’t like to think about her. Next subject.

“Now that you’re here,” Dr. Brennan-Ellis starts, “I have to head back to Thornbriar. But she’s in good hands here. I’ll be in touch with the doctors checking up on her progress.” The gorgeous doctor has a wicked little grin playing across her plump lips and I know I’ve been caught. She sees on me, on my face, whatever this is that I’m feeling. “If you need anything from me, please reach out. I’ll be back here soon as I can.”

I still can’t tear my eyes from the woman lying in the bed. I realize Dr. Brennan-Ellis just spoke to me and it requires an answer. “Yeah…” I clear my scratched throat. “Thank you,” I say with total sincerity. Given the update that Dr. Brennan-Ellis gave me on her condition, Greer is a very sick woman. Unsure of exactly what she’s going to mean to me, I just have a gut feeling she’s going to mean something. My gut feelings have never let me down before.

After Dr. Brennan-Ellis takes off, I pull a chair from the corner of the room, positioning it next to the bed in the direction of the television attached to the wall, then I find the remote. At first, I stop on stock-car racing. But even with the volume turned low, the rumbles from the engine still sound too loud in the room, so I keep scrolling until I find aDirty Harrymarathon.

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