Chapter Nine
Zag
“Maybe we could get one of the girls from the club to put on a slutty nurse’s outfit and try to wake him up that way?”
“I swear to Christ, your mother must have dropped you on your fucking head when you were a baby.”
“My mom is dead, you fuckface.”
“You think you asshats could lay off the fucking cussing while we’re in the hospital?”
My eyes flitted open and landed on King and Snapper standing next to me. “You first,” I croaked.
King and Snapper’s faces snapped down at me.
“You’re awake,” Snapper gasped.
I closed my eyes and sighed. “It feels like I’m dead.” My whole body hurt, and my head felt like it was going to explode.
“That’s because you should be,” Frost chuckled. “Most people don’t survive being buried under ten feet of rubble and debris.”
“Where am I?” I drawled. I opened my eyes and glanced at Frost. “What happened?”
“You don’t remember?” Frost asked.
Everything was pretty foggy, but I remembered everything that happened before the basement blew up. I didn’t remember being found, but I did wake up for a bit to talk to the police.
“Jones County Memorial. You’re pretty banged up.” King moved to the foot of the bed and folded his arms over his chest. “We’ve been waiting for you to wake up for three days.”
“What about Tess?” I asked. If I was alive, she certainly had to be. “I want to see her.”
“Who?” Snapper asked.
“Tess. The woman who was with me. Where is she?” What the hell did he mean by who? If they found me, they had to have found Tess.
Snapper snapped his fingers. “Oh, her. We don’t know much about her other than she is at Miltonville General.”
“Was she alive? Was she hurt badly?” I demanded. I got that the guys didn’t know who she was, but I would have figured they would have at least tried to find out more about her.
King shook his head. “As far as we know, she is in stable condition. We don’t know much more than that.”
“Someone needs to be there with her,” I insisted. “Why don’t you know anything more?” All the other times, shit had hit the fan; the club had made sure everyone was okay, but now with Tess, they don’t even know her name.
“Because we were worried about you, Zag,” King replied. “By the time we got here, you were already in the hospital, and you’ve been out since.”
“We thought you were dead for a while, brother.” Snapper laid his hand on my arm. “You might have some internal injuries going on.”
“You should know about Tess,” I insisted. “Someone should be with her.”
King nodded to Frost. “See about one of the guys running over there.”
“I can do it,” Frost volunteered. “I’ll pick up Indy on the way.”
“Wait,” I called. “She doesn’t talk.” I cringed and ran my fingers through my hair. “Well, she does, but not well. You have to be nice to her. Maybe have Indy be the one to talk to her.”
Frost furrowed his brow. “Did you think I was going to walk in there and bust her TV or something,” Frost asked. He shook his head and scoffed. “Besides, I was going to have Indy do most of the talking anyway.”
“Who is she?” King asked. He eyed me closely.
I didn’t want to tell him she was Malcom’s stepsister. Even if I told him that Malcom had treated Tess like shit, I wasn’t sure it would matter. “Malcom kidnapped her before he got me. She went through a lot of shit before I got there. I want to make sure she is okay. She has a really bad stutter, and she might not even talk.”
King nodded to Frost. “Don’t be an ass to her.”
Frost threw his hands up in the air. “When did I become known as the asshole of the club? Last I knew, that was Easy.”
King shook his head. “Nah, it’s you. Though it could also be Zig.”
“It’s Zig,” Snapper chimed in.
“You think we could talk about this after you go check on Tess?” I interrupted. I laid my head back on the pillow and sighed. All I had done was talk, and I was exhausted.
King nodded at Frost. “You go see about Tess, and I’m going to let the nurse know that Zag is finally awake.”
“You don’t need to get the nurse,” I insisted. “I just need to rest for a second.” Though the last time I had said that, I wound up being blasted with a shit ton of explosives.
“You’ve rested for three days,” King laughed. “I think you can give the doctor a second to look at you when you’re not snoring.”
“I’ll check in with what I find out.” Frost raised his hand over his head and walked out the door.
“I’ll be right back.” King followed Frost out the door.
Snapper plopped down in the chair next to my bed and kicked his feet up.
“Where’s my mom and dad?” I asked. “And Zig.”
“Demon and Paige finally went home for a couple of hours of sleep and a shower.” Snapper smiled wide. “I already texted them that you are awake. I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before they bust in here.”
“Zig?”
Snapper pursed his lips. “Uh, well, that one I can’t really answer.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded. “Did Malcom get to him?”
Snapper shook his head. “No, not at all.”