Page 83 of Tank
"Don’t,” he chokes. “Just... don’t."
Bianca slumps into a waiting room chair. Her arms wrap around her stomach, squeezing tight like she's trying to hold herself together, desperate to stay whole. I sit next to her; the space between us is a void filled with words we can't bring ourselves to say. I don’t know if I can take her hurt on top of mine, don’t know if I can bear the weight of it. But I reach out anyway. I pull her closer, steady and firm, and she relents, leans into me. Just a little. Only a little. But it’s enough.
"She’s so strong," she whispers, her words fragile and breaking. "Stronger than people think. But this... this could break her. What if she doesn’t make it?”
Her voice trembles, and something in me snaps.
Not fear. Not anger.
Love.
And with love comes guilt. Pain. Remorse. A thousand things I’ve tried to bury, all rising to the surface now with a vengeance.
“I owe you an explanation,” I whisper, my arm still around her. “Everything. No lies. No deflection. After this, I’ll tell you everything. Who I am. Why I came to Boise. Why I lied.”
Bianca lifts her head, just enough to look at me. Her eyes are wet with tears, but there's something else there, too: hope and a kind of love that makes my chest hurt. "I know," she says simply, like she’s been waiting for me to admit it all along. "I know you’re not just some bearded baker with a secret cinnamon roll recipe."
She tries to smile. It falters. Her eyes shine with tears, hope, love.
“But right now,” I say, squeezing her shoulder, “Ricky needs us. And Vanessa needs him. We hold the line here.”
Bianca nods. “Yeah. Okay. One crisis at a time.”
She turns her hand and places it over mine. Holds it there. It’s not forgiveness. It's not everything I want from her. But it’s a beginning.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “I’m glad you’re alive. And… I’m glad you came for me.”
I lean back, exhaling through my nose, still gripping her hand like it’s a lifeline, like it’s the only thing tethering me to this moment and not the one we left behind. The adrenaline’s wearing off, and I feel every ache, every bruise, every second of war we just lived through. But I’d do it all again. Because this woman — this strong, stubborn, brilliant woman — is sitting beside me, alive. And she put her hand in mine.
I’d face death a thousand more times for this.
Minutes tick by. Then minutes more. Silence, heavy sits between us, and I realize it’s been so long since I’ve even thought about the fact that I killed Moretti. Because maybe, just maybe, killing him wasn’t what I really needed. Maybe Boise gave me something else.
Then the trauma room doors creak open.
Chapter Forty-Six
Bianca
The look on the doctor’s face rips something out of Ricky’s mouth, out of his chest, out of his heart, and his scream echoes through the emergency ward like a siren going off in my soul. I freeze—my body cold, breath caught in my throat. But before I can move, I see Tank step away from me and rush toward Ricky.
He doesn’t hesitate.
He drops to his knees and throws his arms around Ricky in a tight, brutal hug, pulling the sobbing man against his chest like a wounded brother.
“Ricky, you are not alone,” Tank murmurs, again and again, like a mantra. “Do you hear me? You are not alone. You have me. We’re brothers.”
I blink through my own tears, stunned — not just at the raw grief pouring out of Ricky, but at the way Tank holds him. With no fear of the emotion. No shame. Just this unbreakable, fierce tenderness. My throat tightens.
Tank’s not just a killer. Not just a soldier or a biker or a bruised man with dark tattoos and buried truths.
He’s got a heart big enough to carry someone else’s pain.
I move to them, drop to my knees beside Tank, and lay my hand on Ricky’s back. He’s shaking violently, clutching Tank like a drowning man. I whisper that I’m here, too. That we both are.
Then I notice movement near the doors.
Diesel, Havoc, and Mayhem — Tank’s MC brothers — have arrived. They’re standing there in the middle of the hallway, looking grim and out of place under the fluorescent lights. I rise and walk to them, my limbs shaky, my heart breaking all over again.
