Page 74 of Absinthe Dreams
She also had several scratches and marks along one side of her cheek, along the cheekbone, and around her eye. Not serious, already scabbing with only a little bit of bruising around them. I raised a thumb to lightly flick her skin near one and asked without saying a word.
“Bone fragments,” she said tiredly. “From when they shot Cypress in the face.”
“We saw it on the cameras,” I told her. “You alright?”
“Yes,” she said, then hesitated. “No… you know, I don’t honestly know how to answer that right now.”
“Yeah, that’s fair,” I said.
I felt it coming. Like this pressure on the horizon… that this was it – this had to be it. So much in such a short amount of time andthis…There was no fuckin’ way she would stay with me now.
“Is it always like this?” she asked, and her voice sounded tired, vulnerable, weak almost.
“No.” I shook my head. “This? This has been building for a long time,” I said.
“Can we talk about it at home?” she asked, glancing out toward the hallway and the cops all milling around.
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said, and felt a sort of sense of relief in that she still had our backs. Then again, she knew the kinds of things that happened to people linked to MCs who proved disloyal, so that might have more to do with it.
I guess I’d have to see.
“What’d you say?” I asked low and she sighed.
“I told the truth,” she said, and her green eyes were intense on mine, saying that whatever was going to come out of her beautiful mouth next wasatruth, but notthetruth. “That you guys went out for a ride, Cypress didn’t want to go because hepulled a muscle fishing, and it was too uncomfortable to ride. He opted to stay back with us ladies and playCards Against Humanity.”
I nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s about right. You know how we all like to be there for charity rides, but Cy’s shoulder?—”
“Ribs,” she corrected. “The muscle along the ribs connected to his back.”
I nodded. “Right – his back and ribs, the shoulder thing was last year.”
She nodded.
“My mistake,” I murmured.
“I’m the doctor, after all,” she said, and I nodded again.
Silence stretched between us, and finally, when her voice came again, it broke on a sob, having lost all of its will to be strong.
“I tried to help him, to save him. I hope you know that.”
I looked up sharply, squeezed her hands in mine, and said, “I know, baby. We all know. We saw in the cameras.”
The story spilled from her lips in a quiet rush, how Cy had gone to the bathroom, and how they had all heard the bikes and thought that we had returned. How before anyone thought twice about it, Sandy had opened the door for us.
“She thinks this is all her fault, and that all of us will hate her.”
I shook my head. “No. No fuckin’ way. If she hadn’t opened the door, they would have blown it and more of you could and would have been hurt.”
“My thoughts exactly,” she said, sniffing and working hard to regain her composure, wiping at her tears with one hand.
“Right now, on this, we’re cooperating with the pigs,” I said low.
She nodded her understanding.
“I’m so proud of you,” I told her and got up, hugging her tight and kissing the top of her head.
That’s how the medical staff found us – locked in an embrace. I held her tight, almost so tight I was waiting for her to protest that she couldn’t breathe, but no protest came.
