“Am I dead?” she whispered.
“No,” Erik said. “We’re all alive.”
“What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“How long has it been?”
“Two days, babe,” Erik said. “You’re okay though. Stitched up. Patched up. None of the cuts were deep enough to really hurt you. Looked worse than it was.”
Cuts?
Kaity closed her eyes and it all rushed back to her. She shuddered and started to panic. She hurried to open her eyes and looked at Erik.
“What is it?”
“I remember,” Kaity said. “The man with the it, and a few seconds later there was a gathering in Kaity’s room.
Miller, Gaige, Nate, Landon, Griffin, Shay, and Jace.
“Hey,” Kaity whispered.
“Look at you,” Miller said. He touched Kaity’s leg. “I’m sorry. This one is on me."
“No,” Erik said.
“No,” Kaity said. “I wanted to do it. I wanted to fight. I really hurt that bitch.”
Everyone laughed.
The door opened again. “Fuck, man, my balls are sore. My left one is like… tender or something…”
Kaity didn’t need to look to know it was Blaine. He walked to the side of the bed, one hand down his pants. He smiled and said, “Hey, beautiful.”
“Blaine,” Erik growled. “Not with your hand down your goddamn pants.”
“Listen,” Miller said, “I’m sorry this happened.”
“We all are,” Blaine said. “That was brutal.”
“But you got what you wanted?” Kaity asked.
“We did,” Gaige said. “We got one of them.”
“The other one did this to her,” Erik said. “He wanted to scar her.”
Scar her.
“Can I see?” Kaity asked.
The crew looked to Erik. He motioned to the door and they all left. Each one patted the end of Kaity’s bed as they left.
Once it was just her and Erik, he sat back down. “I wanted you to see that the club is behind you, Kaity. We care about you. What you did means a lot to the club.”
“You trust me?” Kaity asked.
Erik swallowed. “I trust you, babe. I trust you.”
“Then let me see my face.”
Erik went into the bathroom and Kaity heard the sound of something breaking. He walked from the bathroom carrying the damn mirror. Kaity laughed and Erik smiled. This guy didn’t give a shit and it was sexy. She loved him. She really did love him.
Erik put the bathroom mirror in front of Kaity. She saw her face and gasped. There were stitches almost everywhere. Different angles and patterns. Red blotches of cuts and scars. It was bad. It was really bad.
“I’m sorry this happened,” Erik said.
Kaity pushed the mirror away and looked at Erik. “I don’t care. We can wear our scars together.”
Erik slowly and gently touched Kaity’s face. He nodded. “You make me want to stay alive, babe. For so long I wanted to end it all. But you make me want to keep going. If I ever have to wake up alone or with some other woman, I’d rather be dead. With you, I feel incredible.”
“I love you, Erik,” Kaity said. “I want to be here. Just like this. Well, not in a hospital…” Kaity smiled. “But with you. I'll be whatever you want and need.”
“Right now I want you to know something,” Erik said. “I want you to know that I love you too.”
“Kiss me.”
“Fucking right,” Erik said.
He moved toward Kaity and the taste of his lips was better than any drug the doctors could hook up to an IV for Kaity. She put her hand to his face and felt the ridges of his scars. She would have scars of her own now, because of Erik. Because of the club. But wearing her scars on the outside for the world to see only meant she was strong enough to do so.
Strong like Erik.
And strong like Back Down Devil MC.
twenty-seven.
Shay sat alone in his room. An old box next to him. A gun and bottle of whiskey rested on the nightstand. His body felt weak and tired. The weight of the world pressed on his shoulders.
He couldn't believe that all the bullshit was coming back to haunt him after all these years.
He thought about Erik. He thought about Kaity. He thought about the bombings, the fights, the war. Shay touched the box and opened it. It had been a long time since he looked inside. The memories were hidden in that box.
The first thing Shay touched was a knife. A small blade with a slight curve to it. He remembered the day he stole that knife off a man he killed. It felt like a lifetime ago though. That was the knife. The killing knife. Shay had done a lot of damage with that knife. The last time it was used, however, Shay swore he would never use it again for the rest of his life.