Page 88

RIOT

The drive to the hospital passed in near silence. Maria sat beside me while Spider drove the van, and behind us a convoy of bikes and trucks stretched through the early morning darkness. Every traffic light felt like an obstacle, like something was trying to keep us away.

I kept checking my phone, but there were no new messages or updates. Ripper had been patched up and Shadow was still in surgery. That was all anyone knew.

Beside me, Maria sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap. I took one and held it in mine.

The hospital parking lot was already full by the time we got out of the van. Bikes lined the curbs. Brothers stood smoking near the entrance while prospects paced the pavement with nervous energy. The sight alone told me everything I needed to know. People were preparing for the worst.

As soon as I stepped through the doors, I found Reaper. He was sitting forward in one of the plastic waiting-room chairs, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together so tightly his knuckles had turned white. Ghost sat beside him. Neither of them looked up when I approached.

“Any news?”

Reaper shook his head.

I lowered myself into the chair beside him, pulled Maria down with me and stared at the opposite wall.

Hospitals were strange places. Lives ended in them every day, yet everything remained quiet. Nurses walked calmly through corridors. Receptionists answered phones. Visitors bought coffee from vending machines. The world carried on regardless.

I hated it, but Maria sitting next to me helped to ease the rage flowing through me.

Time blurred, people came and went, coffee appeared from somewhere. I drank it without tasting it. Every so often, Reaper stood and paced. But nobody left, because they didn’t want to miss it when news came. We took over the majority of the waiting room, but nobody said anything to us.

Hours passed before the doctor finally appeared and the room fell silent almost instantly. Maria squeezed my hand as my heart pounded.

Every eye was fixed on the man walking toward us. I knew before he spoke, because it was written all over his face. I gripped Maria’s hand tighter, needing to pull strength from her before my legs gave out.

Reaper was already on his feet. “How is he?”

The doctor’s expression tightened.

The color drained from Reaper’s face. “No.”

The doctor started talking, but I barely heard it. Something about blood loss and the extent of the injuries. Then the inevitable . . . they’d done everything they could.

Ghost stepped closer to Reaper and put his hand on his shoulder. He didn’t say anything, just offered support, waiting, because he’d known Reaper a long time, they were as close as two friends could get. Brothers. Family.

My gaze drifted to the floor. All I could see was Shadow laughing at something I’d said years ago, handing me a beer after our first real fight, telling me to stop acting like an idiot after Maria walked into my life.

The man had been my best friend and there for every important moment I could remember and now he was gone. The reality settled heavily in my chest. It was a strange feeling that didn’t seem real. I felt numb.

Beside me, Maria’s fingers tightened around mine, and I squeezed back automatically.

The doctor was still talking as he updated us on the others. Most of it passed straight through me until I heard another name. Brandi.

The waiting room seemed to exhale all at once, but the grief that followed was different. Shadow’s death had hit the club like a hammer. Brandi’s death hit like another crack in already broken ground.

A young woman who should have gone home that night. A woman who’d been laughing with Ripper only hours earlier. Gone.

The silence that followed felt endless. Eventually the doctor left.

Reaper sat back down heavily and stared at the floor and Ghost lowered himself into the chair beside him, saying nothing, because there wasn’t anything to say. Some losses were simply too big for words.

I looked around the waiting room at the family Shadow had spent decades building. Brothers and prospects looking solemn, club girls sniffling. Shock and grief colliding.

Then my gaze settled on Reaper. He hadn’t moved, spoken or even looked up since the doctor left. For the first time in his life, he was sitting in a room without his father somewhere nearby.

My heart broke again, but this time, determination ran alongside the fury, because I knew exactly what Shadow would have wanted.