I twisted the cap off and drained about half of it before I leaned my head back against the seat again.
The only sound in the car was the hum of the wheels on the road and the music playing. Pretty sure I drifted back off to sleep. The next time I woke up, we were pulling off into one of those rest areas. Liam was back behind the wheel and he’d barely gotten the SUV stopped before Emersyn was out. She didn’t even make it to one of the trash cans before she threw up into the grass.
Fuck.
I pressed a hand to my mouth and Liam slapped some peppermints in my hand. “Suck on those.”
Yeah, good plan.
We all took a break. I had to take a leak and the twins had Emersyn. When I got back, Liam was there by himself and he’d cleaned out the backseat again. I didn’t ask. He didn’t tell. I just sucked on another peppermint. They helped.
Maybe it was a placebo, I didn’t care.
“Should we take her to a hospital?” It wasn’t a question I wanted to ask and I knew how long it could take to come down. That was when I had some idea of what I’d been taking. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to be high right now. Then I wouldn’t have to think about all this shit.
At the same time, if I were high I couldn’t help her, so that wasn’t going to work.
“No,” Liam said. “She’s keeping down more fluids, we just have to be careful about what she eats. We’ll be back in the harbor in a few hours.”
“Where the fuck are we, anyway?”
“Copper Town City is about thirty-five miles up this road. Then we’ll have six, maybe seven hours before we’re back in the harbor.”
Holy shit. “How fucking fast have you guys been driving?”
“Do you care?”
No, except… “Boo-Boo is in the car.”
“Exactly,” he said, giving me a level look before he reached into the back and cracked open the cooler. There were sodas, water, and what looked like more of the lemon-lime stuff. I wanted one but I wasn’t taking anything from her. So, I settled for one of the others. The first sip wasn’t bad, even if I had been sucking on a peppermint. It was getting dark again.
We’d been on the road all day and all night the night before. Weren’t they tired? I was fucking dead.
“I’m surprised the guys aren’t blowing up the phones.” I swore what few brain cells I had left seemed to be sparking. Pretty sure my phone was dead. I hadn’t even looked at it since the twins showed up. Probably dumb on my part, but both Liam and Rome had their phones.
“They don’t know we’re on the way back.”
I blinked. “What the fuck?” Was he insane? Jasper would kill him. “They need to know we found her.”
“They know we found her,” Liam reminded me. “They don’t know we got her out, and before you decide to blow your stack, think. She’s having a lot of trouble right now and that’s with the three of us hovering. She does not need to answer their questions or try to make them feel better right now.”
“They wouldn’t—”
“They would.” He cut me off with a wave of his hand. “They would because I want to. A part of me wants to paddle her ass for taking off like that, and then I look at her.” When his gaze went past me, I twisted around. Unsurprisingly, there she was, walking back to the SUV with Rome. He wasn’t holding her hand or touching her, but he was right there.
“She looks like hell.”
“Yeah, so, no, I haven’t told them. We’re not telling them until Doc has a look at her. I’m worried about dehydration at this point.”
That made sense. “I didn’t think she’d be this sick.”
“We don’t know what they gave her.”
And we didn’t know what to give her to stop it either. If it was just the matter of scoring her something, I could do that.
But Liam didn’t ask and I didn’t offer. Probably a terrible idea. She was back, we had her. That was the important part.
Liam and Rome swapped out again, with Liam climbing in back with her.
“You okay, Freddie?” she asked and I twisted in the passenger seat to grin at her. For her, I could smile.
“I’m great. Still not naked, though.” When Liam snapped his gaze to me, I ignored him because Boo-Boo laughed.
“Go back to sleep,” she suggested. “Though, I kind of feel like crap so I don’t even think naked would be good.”
“I’ll let you know,” I promised and she smiled again. As I started to face forward, I got Liam’s dirty look and couldn’t help myself. The guy was just asking for it. “I get to dream of her naked and she gets to dream of me naked. It’s our thing.”
Probably any other time, Liam would grouse at me, but Boo-Boo laughed again and yeah, that point was mine. Go me.
It was way too fucking early in the morning when we got to the clinic. There was a relief in being there though. Being somewhere familiar. Course, the last time I was here someone had been watching the place. The guys must have had the same thought, because we went around the block a couple of times.
Checking.
Smart.
When we pulled into the lot behind the place, Doc straightened up from where he leaned against his truck. Fuck, it was good to see him.
It’d be better when we had the rest of the guys and she was safely tucked back into the clubhouse, but Doc would do.
Doc was at the passenger door of the backseat, but Rome beat him to the punch by lifting Boo-Boo out himself.
“She’s asleep,” Rome said. “Keep it down. Don’t scare her.”
Doc’s gaze fixed on her and I understood that look. The need to make sure she was real. That she was there. I’d felt the same way when I first got a look at her in the community room—especially when she’d been so checked out.
“Bring her in.” Doc said, pivoting sharply and stalking toward the door. That was when I noticed the gun tucked into the back of his jeans. The holster was in no way hidden.
Yeah, Doc wasn’t playing.
Good.
My back cracked as I climbed out, and Liam waited for me at the door. Fuck it was good to be home.
CHAPTER 35
EMERSYN
The barest touch of fingers against my cheek roused me. The hum and motion of the car was gone. Whatever I was lying on was stable. A part of me just wanted to go back to sleep, but the medicinal scent combined with heavy cleaner tickled my nostrils.
Awareness flooded through me along with panic, and I jerked my eyes open. Heart hammering, I sat up and stared around the room. It was a—clinic. The clinic. I’d been in this room before. Disjointed fragments broke apart like the puzzle pieces we’d had in the community room. Panting, I paused at a calm pair of blue-green eyes.
Rome.
He stood right next to the bed, within touching distance, but he hadn’t moved until I saw him. Then he only raised a hand slowly, as if asking. The pounding force of my heart seemed to echo in my ears. The nausea was still there, but not as bad as it had been. Rome’s presence helped and bit by bit, I got my breathing under control.
When I would have reached out to take his hand, I froze. There was an IV in the back of my hand.