Thunder (Hell's Handlers MC 10)

“Babe, I’ve got it covered. Copper is on his way. He’s less than five minutes out. He’ll take the kids back to his house.”

“Good. That’s good. They’ll be safe there, right?”

Tex looked at her like she had ten heads. “Of course.”

“Okay, let’s go.” She looked over her shoulder to find her friend standing there with a look of sympathy.

“Go!” Kristy said, waving her hands toward the door. “I’ll stay here until Copper arrives. We’ll be fine. It’s a few minutes. I’ll text you as soon as he leaves with them.”

It was like being torn straight down the middle. If only she could clone herself so one Makenna could be at the hospital and the other could prepare the children for their next move. Iowa. That’s where they’d be going next. A small town she’d been researching since they arrived in Townsend. “You sure that they won’t—”

“Makenna,” Kristy said. “I promise you the kids will be safe. They will not be back anytime soon. Go to the hospital.” It came out as a command.

“Okay.” She gave Kristy a quick and gentle hug, then hurried toward the door.

“Who won’t be coming back?” Tex asked as he rushed after her.

“No one.”

“Christ,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m driving. You’re too worked up.”

She opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it. He was right, she was far too distraught to operate a car safely. As she jogged to his truck, she stopped next to her vehicle and peered in the window. Sure enough, there sat her entire purse on the passenger’s seat.

How had she been so careless? With the threat of her father discovering them always looming overhead, she made it the number one priority to have her phone charged and on hand.

Always.

The breakup with Thunder had screwed with her head to the point of making dangerous mistakes.

She grabbed the purse then ran after Tex, who’d reached the truck. “Guess that explains the radio silence,” he said, pointing to her bad.

“Mmm.” Would it be rude to ask him to shut up and drive? Probably, but she was seconds from the request. Talking took more energy than she had right now. Not when all her strength was going toward not losing her shit completely. When they reached the hospital, she’d need to be calm and collected, so Kara didn’t feed off her anxiety.

Thankfully, Tex seemed to pick up on her need for silence and didn’t try to make small talk. She stared out the window for the entire drive, bouncing her knee and drumming her fingers on the window frame.

Couldn’t he drive any faster?

It felt like hours had passed when they arrived at the hospital.

Tex rolled to a stop outside the Emergency Department entrance. “I’ll be—”

“Thank you!” she yelled as she threw open the door and jumped to the ground. A quick sprint had her bursting into the lobby of the ED. The only thing that kept her from screaming out, “Where is my sister?” was the immediate sight of Thunder striding her way.

A sob broke free as she charged toward him. He caught her as she practically flew into him. Two strong arms wrapped around her in a fierce hug, and for the first time in hours, she felt she could breathe, even with the threat from her family and her worry over Kara’s health. One second of being back in Thunder’s arms had her realizing it was where she belonged.

Forever.

“She’s okay,” he whispered in her ear, causing a choked sound to erupt from her and a torrent of tears to soak into his shirt. “Shhh, baby, she’s okay. She was conscious and talking when we got here. They’ve taken her for tests. Lee is with her. He’s been amazing.”

“I forgot my phone in my car,” she practically wailed against his chest. At least it better be in the car. She couldn’t afford yet another phone, cheap as hers was.

“Huh,” he said, pressing a kiss to the shell of her ear. “So, you are human, after all.”

“God, Thunder, I was so scared. Are you sure she’s going to be okay?”

“I know you were terrified. And yes, baby, she’s all right.”

“Why did it happen now? Did they say anything?”

Without breaking his tight hold, he rubbed an arm up and down her back. “They won’t let me in since I’m not family.”

God, she wanted to change that. She’d been through some hard experiences in her life but leaving him would be the toughest by far.

“But they said they think it’s just the medication adjustment the doctor made last week. He lowered it because she’d been doing so well for so long. Remember, he told you if this happened, they’d just go back up on the dose.”

She sagged in his arms as the conversation with the neurologist from a week ago came to the forefront of her mind. “I completely forgot.”