“You shouldn’t be out in the hall, King.”
The asshole calls me King like it’s supposed to be some kind of insult. He has no idea how much pride I have wearing that skull and angel wings on my back.
“I’m checking on Sunshine and the baby.” I go to walk around him, but he blocks me. He doesn’t say anything, just gives me a threatening glare. He’s a good head taller than me, bald and thick, with tattoos crawling up his neck and eyes the color of night. But I’ve seen a hundred men like him, and just like them, he doesn’t intimidate me. Once you’ve seen what trauma does to a human body, you realize no one is unbreakable.
It’s obvious he doesn’t like me. He and Lily used to date, and he’s pissed that it’s over. He’s also possessive and jealous—two volatile emotions, especially when they collide.
But he’s no real threat.
He’s more like an irritating bug that won’t quit buzzing around your face at a Fourth of July cookout.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if he’s come looking for me to make sure I haven’t put my hands on his girl, and it makes me think about waking up with Lily in my arms. A rush of heat heads south, and I know that more than anything, I want to wake up with her in my arms again.
Pushing past him, I keep going until I come to the room where I helped Sunshine deliver her baby. The room smells sour with a heady odor of sweat, stale air, and breast milk. Pale light streams in through the dirty curtains, casting ribbons of light across the filthy carpet.
Sunshine is nursing her baby daughter in bed and looks up when I walk in.
“How’s she doing?” I ask, nodding toward Bluebell.
Sunshine looks at her daughter. “She’s perfect.”
“And how are you feeling this morning?” I ask as I take her blood pressure.
“Ready to go home and introduce this perfect piece of heaven to her brothers and sisters.” She looks up. “Max is taking us back to the compound this evening. But he’ll be back to check on Odin tomorrow. He said Odin’s burned up pretty bad.”
“He is.”
“Is he going to make it?”
“He’d have more chance if he was in a hospital.”
Going by Sunshine’s expression, she just mentally eye-rolled me. “No point crying about things that can’t happen, Doc. Max won’t allow anyone near a hospital if it can cause blowback on the club.” She tsks me. “Thought a man like you would know that, given you being involved in a club and all. It’s why we need a new doctor in our ranks.”
I don’t say anything. Instead, I check her temperature to make sure she isn’t developing a fever. Our environment isn’t the cleanest, and the chance of an infection is only one little bacterium away. The best Max can do for his wife and his newborn daughter will be to take them away from this place as soon as he can.
“You just missed Max,” she says. When I don’t say anything, she adds, “Max believes in starting his day with an orgasm. He says it calms the mind and prepares the body for the day. He’s probably taking care of that right about now.”
I think about Max fucking Lucien in the next room.
Again, I don’t say anything because I don’t want to discuss it.
Or relive any of the graphic details.
Besides, I have a feeling Sunshine only said it for shock value to entertain herself with my reaction. I don’t know her well, but I know her enough to know she likes drama and theatrics.
“Do you know where he is?” she asks.
Sunshine looks at me strangely as if she can read my mind, but I have no interest in entertaining her.
“He’s fucking that little prick, isn’t he?” she says. “When he left me this morning, I knew he’d go looking for it.”
“You know about him and Lucien?”
She laughs. “Not a lot happens in the club I don’t know about.”
I shrug it off because I really don’t care about them or what they do.
“He’s a virile man, sugar. He has needs and urges, and while I’m out of action, he needs someone to satisfy those needs. If it’s Lucien today, it’ll probably be one of the club girls tomorrow. The honest truth is I thought he would’ve brought one of his girls with him. But then again, he does like a piece of ass. I would’ve thought Otto was more his flavor, but let’s face it, that brown nose is already halfway up his ass, and it would hardly be a challenge. But Lucien?” She sighs. “Oh well, s’pose there’s no accounting for taste.”
“You should get tested,” I say flatly. “You and Bluebell.”
“Hey, my husband ain’t no dirty cock. We might be a sexually free bunch, but we ain’t stupid. That’s another reason we need a doctor in the club.”