Road to Destiny (Scorpio Stinger MC Book 5) (11 page)

“We’ve managed to get his heart going again, but I’m going to be honest with you. You might want to say your goodbyes because next time he may not be as lucky. I’m sorry; there’s not much more we can do.”

“Can we go and see him?” I asked, my arm protectively around Mia’s shoulders. She leaned into me, holding onto my cut with both hands as if it were the only thing keeping her upright.

The doctor nodded. “Yes. I normally wouldn’t allow all three of you at the same time, but—”

Razor ran his fingers through his hair. “Fuck, Doc. You’re supposed to save his life. This is no good.”

The doctor looked kindly at Razor. “We’ve done everything we can. It’s up to the machines now. But we will keep monitoring him. Someone will be close by all the time.” He turned to Mia. “Mrs. Malone, the children—you can bring them, too.”

I sucked in a long, slow breath. This was serious.

“Come. Let’s go see the man.” I tried to keep my voice light, yet it faltered. I wasn’t nearly as brave as what I tried to sound. “I bet he’s wondering where we are.”

My arm slipped lower to support Mia’s body. We followed Razor into Cobra’s room.

Fuck, he was making a bad habit of hospital beds and being hooked up to machines. Maybe smoking wasn’t so bad a habit after all when compared to surviving bullets.

Mia gasped when she saw her husband. The bandage around his head had been changed, and somehow, he just melted into the whiteness of the sheets. It broke my fucking heart to see him like this.

As if he sensed that we were in the room he slowly opened his eyelids, his gaze falling on his woman. Intense love radiated from his eyes although they were filled with tears. I hadn’t seen Cobra cry since we were teenagers.

Mia had found an inner strength and left my embrace to rush to her husband’s side. She grabbed hold of his hand while leaning over slowly to kiss him.

“Baby,” Cobra murmured. I swallowed the lump in my throat at how much love was contained in that one word. Fuck me, I was getting soft and I really didn’t care.

“Cobra, you scared the shit out of me . . . out of all of us.” Mia’s voice was hardly above a whisper, and filled with anguish.

“Hey, Bro,” Razor said, his voice thick and filled with emotion as he shuffled closer to the bed. Cobra held up a hand to high-five him.

“Hey, Brother,” Cobra croaked.

We stood around for a while, the air so thick you could slice it with a blunt knife.

Cobra turned his head to me. “Ryder, I need to speak to you alone.”

I just nodded. Fuck. If our earlier conversation had been uncomfortable, this discussion was going to be worse.

“Don’t send me away. Whatever you have to say to Ryder, I want to hear it, too.” The determination in Mia’s voice didn’t invite argument. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Razor took the hint. “I’m going out for some fresh air.” He turned on his heels and left the room, closing the door softly behind him. That was new for Razor, who usually slammed doors wherever he went.

Cobra blinked fast and cleared his throat. “Don’t let me down, Ryder. As much as I love Razor, he can’t be Pres of the Scorpio Stingers. He doesn’t have the right temperament.”

“I already told you to stop worrying about that shit. Concentrate on getting better so that we don’t need to have this conversation. You’re not getting out of this that easily,” I said with a hollow laugh.

Mia frowned as she looked at me. “I don’t understand. Why can’t you just give Cobra peace of mind?”

I held up both hands, showing my palms. “Whoa, hang on a minute. That’s not how I mean it. It’s not that I won’t fulfill Cobra’s wishes . . . it’s that I want him back as our leader. Where he belongs. I’m happy to be VP for the rest of my life.”

Mia’s eyes softened. “That’s what we all want.”

T
he second Ryder walked into our room, tense and his skin pale, fear gripped my heart.

I’d wanted to go with Mia but the guys wouldn’t let me leave the damn compound and after stewing about it for a while, my anger morphed into worry. The longer they stayed away and I wasn’t sure what was happening, the more my mind kept making stupid things up.

“How’s Cobra? And Mia? Is everything okay?” I blurted out. I’d been biting my nails, trying to read a book, trying to relax, even taking a warm bath to soothe my tight muscles, but nothing helped.

Ryder shook his head and came to sit at the edge of the bed. His head fell into his hands and his shoulders slumped forward as he sobbed. I crawled to where he sat, rubbing up and down his back, waiting for him to fill me in.

Oh. My. God. Cobra is dead
.

I fought for breath as the implications ran through my head. I couldn’t stand not knowing for certain. All those feelings of dread came rushing back.

“He . . . um, did he die?” My voice was barely above a whisper. 

Ryder’s head jerked up, his eyes filled with sorrow. “Not yet. But just before we left he had a relapse. I've never seen him like this—not even at his worst. I’m not sure he’s going to make it, and I can’t handle it.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket. I waited as he hauled it out and pulled a face when he saw the name on the screen. I stole a glance at the screen. Razor.

“Yeah?” Ryder sounded as tired as he looked.

Razor’s hysterical voice boomed down the line. “Cobra had a stroke after you left. A fucking stroke! I thought that shit was for old people.”

Ryder’s eyes widened and his skin paled. “What? Is he okay?”

“No, of course he’s not okay. The fucking doctor said he’s on life support because he’s in a fucking coma. Jesus, didn’t my brother just talk to us? How can he be in a fucking coma? They’re full of shit, those fucking doctors.”

Ryder sucked in a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Razor, calm the fuck down.”

He rose from the bed and paced the room. He was about to crack, and I didn’t know how to help him.

Razor’s voice was so loud I could still hear every word. “Don’t bother coming back to the hospital. My brother’s a fucking vegetable—there’s nothing we can do.”

“Mia? Does she know?”

“Yeah, she’s here with me. Having a meltdown. I’m gonna bring her home soon.”

“No, don’t drive. Get an Uber. We can get your bike in the morning.”

“Fuck, now you want me in a coffin, too?” he yelled. “You know I hate driving in anything with four wheels.”

“Razor, grow some fucking balls. This isn’t the time to be a pussy.”

“Fuck you, Ryder. I’m coming on my bike. I’ll get an Uber for Mia.”

“Be careful.”

Razor screamed some obscenities but Ryder just ended the call and placed his phone back into his pocket.

I rose from the bed and went to Ryder where he stood by the window. “What was that all about?”

“Razor has claustrophobia, and he hates driving in anything with more than two wheels. I thought if I made the crazy fucker angry enough he’d be challenged to come in a vehicle with Mia. Didn’t work.”

“I’m so sorry about Cobra. And poor Mia. It must be so damn hard on her.”

“I’ll call the docs for more information. I’m going outside for a while to get some fresh air.” He circled his arms around me and placed a kiss in my hair. “I’ll be back soon. Just try to relax, okay?”

Part of me hated when Ryder shut me out like that, but I couldn’t blame him for needing a brief reprieve. His whole world had been turned upside-down, and I could see the worry eating at him.

What did Cobra being in a coma really mean? How would it impact the Scorpio Stingers, and more importantly, Ryder? So many questions muddled my brain, and a headache pounded at my temples.

Lying on the bed, I pulled the covers over my legs and closed my eyes while a million thoughts ran through my mind.
When something happens to one person it impacts on so many other lives.

After what felt like forever, Ryder came back into the room. He stopped at the door and removed his heavy boots, then threw off his cut and belt and crawled onto the bed.

“I just need to hold you, baby,” he murmured against my hair, and I could taste the saltiness of tears on his cheeks.

This is bad. Really bad.

I placed my arms around his wide neck and kissed his lips, his cheeks, and finally, his forehead, too. Strong biceps tightened around me, squeezing my body to his as if he’d never let me go.

I wasn’t sure who was comforting whom, but I let him kiss me deep and long, our tongues lashing at one another until we were both breathless.

“I need you, baby,” Ryder groaned into my mouth.

“I need you, too.”

That was all there was to it. Simple yet profound.

I undid Ryder’s zip and tugged at his pants until his cock sprang free. It was hot, and thick, and pulsing against my palm.

“I need to be inside you,” he said in a hoarse voice as he pushed my panties aside and ran a finger through my slick wetness.

Guiding his cock to my pussy, I ached for him to fill me. With one surge of his hips he thrust his length inside me while a deep moan escaped my lips. This was what I wanted, what I needed more than anything.

Ryder fucked me relentlessly, a man on a mission. His emotions were raw and real as he poured himself into me. I took what he gave, meeting him equally thrust by thrust, giving him what he needed, too.

As if choreographed, we came at the same time, both our chests heaving as we panted while catching our breaths. My cheeks were wet as tears streamed onto the pillow. Once my orgasm hit me it was as if a dam wall had burst, and everything came flooding out all at once.

Ryder lifted his head and stared down into my eyes. “Princess, you okay?”

How did I answer that question? Parts of me were fine while others were full of dread, sorrow, and pain.

I evaded Ryder’s question by asking one of my own. “Did you speak to the doctor?”

A cloud passed over Ryder’s eyes. “Yeah.” He rolled back onto his pillow and stared at the ceiling. “It’s not looking good for Cobra.”

“What do you mean?”

“He has two weeks to improve then we have to decide . . . decide if we keep him alive artificially on machines or if we let him go in peace.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Who makes that decision?”

“Mia. Mainly she has to sign off on it, but I’m sure she will want all of us to give our input. The next two weeks are going to be hell.”

I ran my fingers over Ryder’s brow. Deep furrows had set between his eyes.

“Even if we keep him alive, there’s no guarantee that he’ll wake up. And if he does come out of the coma, he may not be the same man as the one we know.”

I processed that information slowly while my heart squeezed.
How fragile we humans are.

“I believe in miracles,” I said in a soft voice. “Do you?”

Silence fell between us as Ryder closed his eyes. Just as I thought that he’d drifted off to sleep and wasn’t going to answer my question, he rolled to his side and met my gaze. His hand closed around my neck and his thumb stroked my skin.

“Before you, I never imagined another miracle happening to me. I thought I’d used my life’s quota the day Cobra and Razor saved my life in juvie. But then you proved me wrong.” Ryder smiled at me. “So yeah, I believe in miracles, because you are living proof that they exist.”

My fingers weaved through Ryder’s. “Well then what we need here is a good dose of miracles coming our way. If we believe hard enough, Cobra can pull through and get better.”

Ryder’s smile widened. “This is exactly why I love you as much as I do. You never stop amazing me. We better put in a large order for those damn miracles, because Cobra and Mia are going to need it.”

T
he next morning as I pushed open the door to the president’s office, I frowned as the aroma of cigar smoke hit my nostrils. I stepped inside the office, nearly choking on the thick fog, to find Razor sitting behind the desk on Cobra’s chair, with a cigar dangling from his lips. His gaze met mine but there was no warmth in it.

“Good morning, brother,” I greeted him, keeping my voice neutral. Cobra’s near-death was fucking with my mind, and I had no doubt that Razor was going through all kinds of shit himself. He might not have been as close to his brother as I was, but I knew he idolized his older sibling. “You’re smoking Cobra’s cigars.”

“Yeah. He had a secret stash in a locked drawer.”

I glared at him, not asking the obvious question about how he got into the drawer.

“So, finally, it’s come to this. I’m going to be a fucking orphan.” Razor’s tone was bitter as hell. “Of all the things that happened to me in life, this is one thing I never expected. Cobra was supposed to be around for a very long time, and now the fucker is going to leave me.”

He took one long final drag of the cigar, then extinguished it by grinding it on the side of the overfull ashtray, letting it drop to the table and join the spilt ash because there wasn’t space on the heap for another butt. As much as it irked me, I ignored the mess. Now wasn’t the time to be petty or sweat the small stuff, but I wasn’t going to shirk my duty to put him straight.

“It wasn’t his own doing, so quit feeling sorry for yourself. Cobra hasn’t breathed his last yet, and there’s hope until then. Either way, he left a legacy, one you can be proud of. Yeah, his big as fuck boots are going to be hard to fill the day he does bite it, but he’d expect nothing but the best from all of us.”

Razor smirked. He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his broad chest. “I’ve been sitting here all night thinking. This club has been built on the blood of my family. I’ve decided that I’m ready to step up and be Pres of the Scorpio Stingers. It’s what Chopper Malone would have expected from me.”

My mouth hung open. This was a strong reaction for Razor and one I never saw coming. It was also awkward as fuck. 

“I understand that you feel this way, and I admire you for wanting to step up. But you are aware that Cobra asked me to be Pres while he recovers?”

Something resembling a thunderstorm passed over Razor’s features. “Ryder, I’ve respected you since you became one of us. Hell, I treated you like family. But this is different.”