How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

I moaned, causing the weight that was resting on my forearm to jerk up in surprise.

That was when I realized that my eyes weren’t quite as open as I’d thought they were. I could barely even see a tiny sliver of Wade’s horrified face.

“Landry,” he breathed, standing up. “Are you hurting? Do you know where you are?”

No.

I had no idea what was going on, or where I was.

Hell, I couldn’t even get my eyes to open up all the way!

Whatever was over my mouth was making it difficult to speak, and I absently tried to reach for whatever it was and pull it off.

“Sir, I’m not going to ask you again to stay out of our way. If I have to repeat myself, you’ll be removed from the ER,” someone, a highly pissed off woman, said.

“Listen, girl,” I heard said. Hoax. “I know that you’re thinking you’re helping, but you’re not. You know how she was acting when she was brought in. The only way she calmed down was when he had her hand. Trust me when I say you need him.”

“I agree that he helped her calm down,” the woman sounded young. Not old. “But I can also achieve those same desired effects by using drugs. And, since y’all for some reason think it’s better that she be awake so she can tell you what you think you need to know right now, I’m allowing that to happen. But I’m trying to work here. She’s losing blood. I cannot have her getting harmed even worse because y’all won’t stay out of my way.”

I turned and tried to see the woman, which caused the mask that was covering my nose and mouth to dislodge slightly, allowing me to get a breath without having it forced straight down my throat.

The woman speaking to Hoax was a nurse.

She had a headful of blonde, curly hair. She was staring at Hoax like he was a pain in her ass, and I realized that I’d seen her somewhere before, but I couldn’t place where.

“We’ll behave, Pru,” I heard Bayou say. “But don’t make him leave.”

My lips twitched.

That was where I knew her. She was Bayou’s neighbor. The one who sat out on her porch a lot and watched the things happening around her without saying a word.

I liked her.

“Is she awake?”

That shrieked question came from someone on the other side of the curtain, beyond Bayou’s neighbor.

Then the blue curtain was yanked back and Linc stood there, holding onto Conleigh’s wheelchair like his life depended on it.

Conleigh had a cut above her eye, and her face was a mask of fatigue and horror.

“Yes,” Wade said, retaking his seat. “She is. Baby, are you in pain?”

My eyes flicked back to those perfect ones that had always made me feel like my world was okay, and I smiled. “I’m okay.”

That was a lie, of course.

There was something wrong with my stomach that felt like white-hot fire was roaring through it. That, and I couldn’t feel my legs.

“You’re such a bad liar, Landry.” Wade smiled. “Ma’am,” he turned to Pru. “She’s in pain.”

The nurse, who was doing something on the big computer by my feet, instantly went into action.

“I’ll go tell the doctor,” she said, turning on her heels.

I frowned. “Why?”

He didn’t pretend not to understand me.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

I nodded, and pushed the mask farther away from my face, causing him to frown. “You need that on.”

I shook my head and slapped feebly at his hand. “No. It makes my nose hurt.”

The nurse was back, pulling the mask up to cover my mouth but not my nose. It didn’t feel right, but it was better than having it where it had been. “It dries your nasal passages out. The doctor said I could get you started on a morphine pump.”

I frowned.

Morphine?

I didn’t know much about morphine, but what I did know was that it was used when a person was hurt and in a lot of pain.

“Why?” I repeated, turning my head back to Wade.

“You were shot,” he said without preamble, shocking the absolute hell out of me. “Do you remember?”

Did I remember being shot? No.

Should that be something someone forgot about? I didn’t think so.

“No.” I shook my head at the same time as I said it. The mask that was covering my mouth made it hard for me to be heard, but Wade obviously understood it no problem.

“You were shot by a woman—she was outside the mall in a car with another woman. They sped away afterward,” he continued.

My mouth fell open. “Someone shot me?”

He nodded, his face going hard. “The lady that shot you was apparently waiting for you to come out of the mall. She got you once in the stomach.”

I blinked, completely dumbfounded that I would forget something so important as being shot.