“What the fuck happened?” he shouted, kneeling down beside Spike to see.
“Some guy who worked at Teasers dropped him off,” I cried, running back to the kitchen area to grab some towels. I used those to try and stop the bleeding.
“Fuck. Spike? Stay awake!” Ghost growled, shaking his friend by his shoulders. “How bad is it? Will he make it?”
I was crouched beside Spike, checking his wound carefully now and holding a bottle of water to his lips. “I think so. I don’t think he needs surgery. I think I can manage the stitches.”
Spike groaned and gulped the water, but he was in and out of consciousness.
“Ghost, what is happening? What are we going to do?” I cried, looking up at him while he pulled his phone out.
“I’m going to call a meeting. We are going to go out there and find the motherfucker. He has to be out here somewhere. Close by. I’m going to find him and make him pay for everything he’s done.”
I could see the pure rage and hatred in Ghost’s eyes as he spoke. I nodded. Just a few minutes ago, I’d been thinking about how I couldn’t wait to dive into his world—and now here I was, jumping in with both feet. I was going to rise to the occasion. This was my job now.
“And I don’t want you to worry about Spike. I’ll take care of him,” I said.
Sneak Peak at Spike
I think I woke up because I was suddenly freezing. It was as if the cold had sunk somewhere deep inside me, into my bones and deep in my organs. I sat up in bed with a start, looking around the dark room and realized I wasn’t in my own room. This wasn’t my bed.
I should have been perfectly warm. There was a thick blanket tucked neatly around me. The windows in the room were shut tight, and in fact, I was sweating. I was damp with sweat.
I pushed the covers off me. Where the fuck was I? I couldn’t remember what happened. Why I was here. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand up. That was when I felt the sharp pain that threw me back. It was as if someone’s cold hands had grabbed me by the shoulders and thrust me backward.
I growled in anger and pain. I was angry because I was in pain. I couldn’t even decipher what the source of the pain was. It was as if my brain was swimming. I couldn’t focus on one spot. I tried to sit up again but my body spasmed.
“Spike, no!” I heard a voice but I couldn’t see anything. It was a female voice I didn’t recognize. Then a dull light filled the room as though someone had switched on a lamp somewhere. “You need to stay in bed. Don’t try to get up.”
The voice came closer and through the haze of my vision, I could see a face hovering over me now. I flinched when she put her hands on my shoulders. I couldn’t place her. I didn’t know who she was.
“Please, lie back down. Here, have these pillows.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog, but it wouldn’t go away. She was fluffing up pillows and then trying to pull me back so I was straight on the bed again.
“What the fuck is going on?” I growled and realized I was parched. My lips felt chapped and stuck together. I could barely get the words out.
“I know it’s going to be very confusing for you, but you please need to stay calm. Ghost will be back any minute now.”
Ghost? I looked around the room, peering to see. Now it was beginning to look familiar. Had I been in here before? Was this Ghost’s bedroom? His cabin in the woods? What was I doing here?
She gently pushed and pulled me, helping me recline against the back of the bed.
“Spike, come on, look at me,” she urged. I turned to focus on her again. By now, I was beginning to see more clearly. Yes, I knew this face. I knew who she was. Mercy. Ghost’s new woman.
“What the fuck is going on?” I asked again. They were the only words I could fathom right now.
“You’ve been stabbed, but you’re going to be alright,” she said and picked up a glass of water with a straw and held it out to me.
* * *
“Do you remember what happened?” Mercy asked, pulling up a chair to sit beside me on the bed.
There was a lump in my throat. It felt as if it was dry and chafing. It hurt to gulp but I drank more of that water anyway. No, I couldn’t remember anything and it was fucking with my head. Mercy was studying me closely.
She used to be a stripper at the Silver Knights’ strip club, Teasers, but now it was coming back to me—she was also a nurse. She had to get into stripping because she couldn’t afford to finish nursing school and look after her sick grandmother.
“It’s okay, it happens sometimes when you’ve experienced trauma. I’m sure it will all come back to you,” she said, cutting through my thoughts.
I took more thirsty sips of the water, even though it hurt to swallow.
“Where is Ghost?” I choked out the words. I slipped a hand under the covers when I remembered I actually didn’t know where my wound was. Mercy said I was stabbed but how badly? Where?
She saw my movements under the covers and knew what I was trying to do.
“He called Church at the clubhouse. He’s going over the plans with the others, but he will be back soon.”
My hand fumbled on my torso. It was as if I was numb all over, even though there was a searing pain inside me. I couldn’t
