How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

“That is the one,” Debbie confirmed.

Castiel looked at me. “Why did we allow her to continue visiting with her children?”

It was more than obvious that he thought Debbie was an imbecile.

I happened to agree with him.

But, since it was giving us what we wanted, I couldn’t fault Debbie for being a dumbass.

Debbie shot me a smug look, and I balled my fist up tightly to keep myself from doing or saying anything that might get me sent to jail right along with them.

Luckily, before I could act on the urges and desires that were running through my veins, my phone rang, interrupting the tense silence now happening around us.

The moment I placed it to my ear, I could hear the caution in the volunteer’s voice that was on the other end of the line. “Um, Mr. Johnson? This is the volunteer that works in surgery? The doctor just called and gave me an update. They finished.”

She didn’t give me anything more, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like the reason why.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I told the girl. “Thank you.”

The girl didn’t wait for a reply. I didn’t give her the time of day.

My mind was now completely on Landry.

“You’re okay here?” I asked Castiel.

I trusted the man with my life.

Castiel nodded once. “Yes. I’ll keep you updated.”

With that, I took him at his word and walked quickly to the elevator, not sparing those two obviously stupid women even a backward glance.

I didn’t turn around until I was in the elevator and all of the men traipsed on with me.

“Your wife,” Rome said softly. “She’s a tough cookie. She’ll be just fine.”

Unfortunately, his words couldn’t be further from the truth.Chapter 19Whatever sprinkles your donut.

-Coffee Cup

Wade

“The bullet entered here,” the doctor said, going over an x-ray that was taken sometime yesterday when she’d been brought in. “When we did surgery, we found that the liver lost blood supply for quite a while. Unfortunately, parts of the liver were already dead, and we had to do a resection. We’re also not sure if what we were able to save will, in fact, survive. The first forty-eight hours is going to be the deciding factor. If she makes it through then, she’ll likely have a very good chance of making it. Though, I think we should still get her on the donor registry…just in case.”

“What does that mean?” my mother asked softly.

My mother and father had arrived in the middle of the night and had come straight here the moment they’d heard the news.

My mom and dad were sitting on the small loveseat in the corner of the room while I stood beside Landry’s bedside, holding her hand.

Landry had been asleep on and off since she’d woken from surgery a little over seven hours ago. This was actually the first time the doctor had been back since I’d spoken with him briefly after the surgery.

“It means,” Dr. Tibil said quietly. “That we need to get her on the transplant list in case the part of the liver we were able to save fails.”

Those words hung in the air.

“Livers can be split in half, right? If one of us were matches, we could donate to her, correct?” my mother asked, sitting forward in her seat.

“Yes,” he agreed. “But with all the damage that her body has gone through after losing her right kidney as well, her body is very weak. If she doesn’t have a perfect match, then it’s likely that her body will just reject it.”

I closed my eyes and felt that there was only one thing that I could do.

It was Landry who stopped me. “Don’t you dare.”

I looked down at my wife, who was watching me with knowing eyes.

“Don’t I dare what?” I asked, knowing she knew me better than I sometimes knew myself.

“Ask her,” she whispered. “Don’t. Please don’t.”

I smiled. “We’re going to get tested first. Then, we’ll explore other options if there’s not a match. But baby, we may not even need it. You may be just fine.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t want to ask her for anything.”

“Now, I’ve put in a request to have more blood, AB negative, delivered to the hospital. Have you all been tested to make sure you’re not a match?” the doctor asked.

“Yes. We did that one by one just a few hours ago. None of us are matches. Castiel was O negative and was able to donate two pints. I believe that’s what you got while you were in surgery.”

The doctor nodded at my words. “Put the word out.” He looked at Landry. “She could use some more.”

With that he left, leaving my heart in my throat.

***

I felt no such compunction.

Walking up the front walk to Landry’s parents’ home, I knew that this meeting wasn’t going to go well.