Page 12 of Filthy Secret

Without another word, I walk past him and straight for my bike. After loading my small, packed bag of clothes into the saddlebag, I put Harmony Springs Hospital into the GPS, and I’m a bit taken aback by the location.

Arkansas.

She’s in a whole ass other state. Although it’ll only take about two and a half hours to get there, I plan on making it in less than two. Climbing on my bike, I start the engine and get the fuck out of there.

CHAPTER

FIVE

ATOMIC

I make it to the hospital in the amount of time I wanted—even shaving off a few minutes more than I’d anticipated. I park my bike but don’t climb off immediately. Something causes me to hesitate in my spot. I’ve killed my engine, I’ve texted King to let him know what’s going on, but I just can’t seem to make myself move.

Cars drive behind me, moving throughout the parking lot as they do their own thing. But I can’t move. I can’t even breathe. I just straddle my bike and wait for something, anything, to make me move.

It doesn’t.

Not until I catch something out of the corner of my eye. It’s a man. He’s wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket. His description matches who King and Gnaw both said they saw at the pickup site warehouse.

Seeing him, I climb off my bike and walk straight toward him. He’s eyeballing me, his lips tipped up into a cocky smirk, and I want nothing more than to wipe it off his goddamn face. I don’t even know why, but I want to beat the absolute fuck out of him in every way possible.

His eyes flick down to my chest patch, then slide back up to meet my own.

“President,” he mutters.

I make like I’m going to walk past him into the front door, but I stop once he’s just in my peripheral. I don’t want him to think I’m really focused on him or worried about anything that he could possibly want with me, but I also need him to know I’ve seen him.

“You’re looking at me. You want to say something?” I ask, keeping my voice low.

He snorts. “I don’t give a fuck about you,” he grunts.

“No?” I ask.

“You can’t protect her forever. She knows what she needs to do now, and she’ll do it if she knows what’s good for her, for them.”

Without another word, he pushes off the wall and walks away. I am frozen in my spot, wondering what the fuck is going on. My adrenaline that made my hangover vanish has now dissipated, meaning my fucking hangover is back and I’m sluggish as shit.

Taking a step forward, then another, I walk into the hospital and freeze in the foyer. Holy fuck, that was the goddamn pimp.

I turn around and scan the parking lot for him. I have two guns resting firmly in my shoulder holster. I’m ready to kill that motherfucker, and I don’t even know what he did yet. I don’t care either.

But I don’t see him anywhere.

Fuck.

Rushing toward the front counter, I demand to know where Ryan is. The bitch asks me who I am and how I’m related. I’m ready to beat the absolute fuck out of her when she finds my name on whatever the fuck list she finds my name on and finally gives me the floor and room number.

My feet carry me toward the elevators, but everything is a goddamn blur. I just saw Ryan a few weeks ago. She was, in her own way, begging me for help, but it wasn’t enough for me. I was being a selfish fucking dick about it.

The elevator crawls floor by floor until it finally stops on the one I need it to. The doors slide open, and my senses are assaulted with ammonia and fluorescent lighting. I don’t know why, but it all seems so much more intense here than down in the lobby.

Stepping out into the hall, I shift my gaze to the side and look for the room number directory on the wall. Turning right, I make my way toward her room. There are three more hallways until I find myself standing in front of her closed door.

Someone is talking behind me, but I can’t hear anything anyone around me is saying. My focus is on this door and only this door. Reaching for the handle, I inhale a breath, holding it as I push it open.

I instantly hear beeping. When I walk farther into the room, I see her on the bed. But I can’t really make her features out right away. I move closer and closer, then stop at her side, and my gut sinks at the sight of her.

I don’t even recognize her. Her face is swollen. Black and blue bruises are marring every inch of her gorgeous face.