How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

“I’ll be back. I’m going to call them,” Wade murmured.

He disappeared out of the room, and I took a shaky breath.

“You might want to give me some valium,” I offered up. “If you don’t, I’m going to throw up, and you’re going to have to put a new IV in because I’m going to freak out.”

“Nervous?” she asked.

I swallowed so hard that I felt my throat burn. “Yes, sort of.”

Not nervous, per se, at least not about the procedure anyway.

I was, as always, nervous about the pain.

The last time I’d felt the pain of this operation was seven years ago. Seven years to try to put the past behind me.

But I should’ve known better. The past never stayed in the past.

And I was born to endure the pain.

Pain that only got worse each and every time this procedure happened.

So, no, I wasn’t nervous about the procedure itself. I just wasn’t looking forward to the rest of it.

Or what I was going to do after—or where I was going to go.

All I knew was that I wasn’t going home, or anywhere with Wade.

“Would you mind giving this to that man after the procedure has started?” I asked, handing her a thick envelope.

The nice nurse took it and grinned. “Sure thing, ma’am. I’m only a student nurse, though. I won’t even be able to give you the meds you asked for without talking to the nurse supervising me today. But I’ll let her know about your medication request and give the envelope to that man when you’re taken back.”

I looked at the student nurse’s nametag. “Phoebe. That’s a pretty name.”

Phoebe smiled. “My sisters and I were named after the witches off of the old TV show, Charmed.”

I grinned. “Did they use all the names?”

I loved Charmed.

“No, just three. Pru, Piper, and Phoebe. My mom wanted four, but life got in the way. In other words, no Paige for them.”

I found myself smiling despite the turmoil of emotions churning in my gut over my impending procedure and what I knew would follow.

“Too bad.”

Phoebe tapped my shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”

I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, hoping that by the time Wade got back, I would have had my dose of medication that would make me no longer care about what I was about to do.

***

Wade

“What is this?” I frowned at the thick envelope that the little nurse had just handed me.

“This is something your wife gave me to give to you once she was taken back.” She paused. “I don’t know any more than that, sir.”

I opened the envelope, still pissed off that her family wasn’t here. They didn’t even answer the phone when I called and weren’t here to see their daughter before her surgery. Hands shaking at how angry I was, I unfolded the papers.

The first thing I read stole the breath straight from my lungs.

FINAL DECREE FOR PETITION FOR DIVORCE FOR CAMP COUNTY JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.Chapter 2Of all my mistakes, you were the mistakiest.

-Text from Landry to Wade

Wade

6 months ago

“Do you know why I pulled you over?” I asked carefully.

I mean, other than the fact that you moved in with my ex-wife the moment that I moved out.

The man offered up his license and registration but didn’t respond, and I was actually kind of thankful for that.

Had I known it was him, I might very well have just let him go without pulling him over, because who wanted to talk to the man that was sleeping in his bed with his wife—ex-wife?

Not me, that was for sure.

I was an upstanding officer of the law. I was a biker. I was a good man.

Until it came to this guy.

And when I just so happened to observe the man that my ex-wife was sleeping with speeding like a motherfucker, I pulled him over because it was my duty to keep the citizens of this town safe.

“Here,” Kourt Chamberlain said politely.

I took them and walked back to the SUV that I used and slid back inside of it.

The cool air conditioning hit my face like a soft caress, and I blew out a few quick breaths to try to regain my control.

After running the good doctor’s information through the computer, I wrote him out a warning and walked it back to the car.

All the while I wondered if I was going to be able to control myself long enough to hand the warning ticket over.

I did.

Barely.

“Keep your speed down,” I ordered.

Kourt nodded his head at me and offered me a slight head tilt before rolling up his window and driving away.

I stayed there long enough to wish that someone would T-bone his car and kill the bastard, then got back into my patrol car and drove back to the station.

The five-minute drive there, I tried to distract myself with thoughts of what I was going to do that day.