Page 79 of Snake (Road Rebels MC 3)
“I recommend that you take it,” I told him, trying to be as polite as I possibly could.
“And I recommend that you don’t give it to me,” he said, through suddenly gritted teeth and a look of warning flashed across his face. I could see that this guy was accustomed to getting what he wanted.
I dropped the cotton ball in the waste bin and stepped closer to him with the needle in my hand.
I got a whiff of tobacco and whiskey from him, as I stood over him. Mark was looking up at me, presenting his forehead to be stitched. In the three years that I had been a nurse and the thousands of times that I had stitched wounds, never before had I felt a shake in my hands.
Something about this man scared me. It wasn’t just that he was undressing me with his eyes, there was a threat to him, and my body was on high alert. I was trying to tell myself that I shouldn’t be quick to judge him, the way I had misjudged Tank and his friends; but I couldn’t help it. Something about this man told me that he was capable of violence and harm.
***
Mark Kaz had been clenching his jaw, while I counted twelve stitches on his forehead. He was determined not to demonstrate any pain while I pierced his skin with the needle.
It would have taken me five minutes under normal circumstances, but it took me eight instead because I was starkly aware of the fact that this man was making me stitch him up without any local anesthesia. I was also afraid of him.
As I snipped the self-dissolving thread from the stitches, and stepped back, I noticed that he was glaring at me with a different sort of expression on his face now.
“I recognize you,” he hissed and then his gaze fell on the name-tag on my breast. “Nurse Peters…” he added, and for a few moments, I felt my body freeze.
I had no idea what he could possibly mean by that. I had definitely never met or seen him before in my life; and if I had, I would have remembered him.
“Excuse me?” I said, in a soft, weak tone as I stepped away from him.
“I said, that I recognize you from somewhere,” Mark said, and he stood up from the gurney and took a step towards me, while I slowly backed away from him.
“I can’t think of why. I’m pretty sure we have never met before,” I said, trying to sound casual. The only explanation for his behavior, could be that he was looking for more reasons and conversations to keep me there with him. It was obvious what he wanted. This had to be some sick twisted way for him to make a pass at me.
“You’re saying that I’m imagining this?” he asked, and now he wasn’t grinning anymore. Instead, his blue eyes were dark and narrowed and he was squinting at me threateningly. How was this man not in pain?
“Maybe you’ve been to the hospital before and seen me around?” I asked, and threw him a weak smile. He had taken a few more steps towards me, and again, I tried to back away from him.
“I have never been to this hospital before,” he declared and now, my back was grazing the curtains. I was very close to getting out of there, but he was only a few inches away from me.
“Well, I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Kaz. Have a nice day,” I said, and I turned around to step out through the curtains, but he had caught my wrist, and he yanked me back.
I gasped and nearly cried out, I could feel his hands digging into my flesh as he held me close to himself.
“You know Tank, from the Bad Disciples,” he stated, rather than asked. I could hear my heart thumping in my chest. I hadn’t expected to hear Tank’s name again, and especially not from a source like this.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about!” I cried, and tried to wriggle myself free. That vicious grin on his face had started to make an appearance again. He knew I was lying.
“You’re that chick from the restaurant,” he hissed, and I could feel my mind swimming. I felt like I was going to be sick. I had no idea what he was talking about…which restaurant? All I knew was that I needed to get away from him. I tried to pull my wrist free from him again, but he held me tightly in position.
His eyes roamed over my face, he stared down at my breasts and then his gaze landed on my stomach. I watched in horror as his eyes widened and the smile on his face spread even more. He looked up at me with a jerk.
“You’re pregnant,” he said, and I gulped, trying to hide the horror that was washing over me in waves.
“Please let me go. Mr. Kaz. This is a hospital, and you’re hurting me,” I cried and tried to pull myself away from him again. He didn’t seem to even be struggling to hold me there. He was still smiling, looking at my face and then at my belly again.
“Are you carrying that asshole’s baby? Did he manage to knock you up?” he said, and then a laugh escaped his lips. A horrible, high pitched laugh, and he finally released my wrist.
I stepped away from him, backing away through the curtains, and even though I shouldn’t have been running, I ran straight out of the room and through the doors.
My sneakers squeaked in the hallway as I ran towards the staff break room. I shut the door behind me and locked it, feeling out of breath and terribly sick.
I crashed down on one of the chairs, panting. None of this had made any sense. If Mark Kaz belonged to a different Motorcycle Club, how did he know about Tank and me? We had been out once…was that the restaurant he was talking about?
And now he knew that I was pregnant. Would word spread? Would Tank find out that I was pregnant and carrying his child?
I didn’t even want to imagine what his reaction to that would be. I couldn’t claim to know Tank well, but the one thing I had managed to figure out about him; was that he wasn’t exactly the type of man who looked forward to anything involving commitment.
Would that make him madder than realizing that I had kept the pregnancy a secret from him for nearly three months? Would he even care?
I wanted to scream, I wanted all of this to go away. Mark Kaz from the Dragon Knights had scared me. He clearly h
ad a beef with Tank and was trying to take it out on me. I was afraid of what would happen if Mark returned to the hospital with his gang. Was this the result of the shootout and retaliation that Tank was telling me about?
I reached for my belly and stroked it, trying to connect with the baby that was growing inside me. Everything had changed so suddenly. All my plans had come tumbling down around me.
It would be foolish of me to not let Tank know what had happened today. But how would I even contact him?
CHAPTER17
Tank
Axel had just dismissed Church at the Rusty Pelican when I felt my cell phone vibrate in the pocket of my pants. As the others started finding chairs to sit down on so that the beers could start flowing for the night, I slipped out my phone and stared at the unknown number on my screen.
“Yeah,” I said when I answered the call, and for a few seconds, the person on the other end said nothing.
“Who the fuck is this?” I growled, immediately assuming it was one of the Dragon Knights trying to call and spook me.
I ducked away from the group, walking towards the doors of the bar so that I could step outside into some silence.
“Tank?” it was Noelle’s voice, and I would have recognized it anywhere. I stopped in my tracks at the door. My feet had simply stopped moving. My grip on the cell phone at my ear grew tighter.
“Tank?” she said my name again, and I felt like I was going to explode. This was not a part of the plan. She wasn’t supposed to reach out to me. I thought I had taken care of it.
“How did you get my number?” I growled into the phone, trying to hide the weakness in my voice with rage. I had been dreaming about Noelle for the past three months. She had filled every waking thought I’d had since I last saw her, but I didn’t want to let her know. I needed her to keep hating me.
Noelle faltered as she spoke into the phone, she sounded nervous.
“Hospital records,” she replied, in a low, squeaky voice and I pushed through the doors of the bar and stepped out into the cool night.
