Page 83 of Courting Danger

“Let’s go see what the damage is,” he muttered as he opened the door.

Ocean got out on the other side, having to hurry to keep up with his much longer strides as they headed for the door. Inside, the cluster of leather jackets with leering Joker faces on the back was easy to spot among the smattering of other people scattered around the waiting room. Roan sat beside Mark, but the moment he spotted them, he bolted over and right into Pope and Ocean’s arms.

Hugging him felt a whole hell of a lot better than the anxious wait to see what condition he was in. Time stopped as they clung to each other, Roan’s nose pressed against his neck, several tremors tearing through him, or maybe it was Ocean who was shaking again too. Eventually, they settled enough to inch away from one another so Ocean could finally look him up and down. Aside from a bit of dust in his hair, which was messier than when Ocean had seen him last, he looked just fine.

“I’m okay, seriously, my back doesn’t even hurt anymore,” Roan rushed to assure them. “I just got the wind knocked out of me when I hit the ground and Danger landed on me. He had this older guy in a fireman’s carry, so when the butcher and I grabbed him to yank them into the room, we weren’t really thinking about how hard we tugged.”

Pope nodded, cupped the back of Roan’s neck, and pulled him closer until their foreheads touched.

“So proud of you,” Pope murmured. “You watched his back, you helped protect members of our community, and you got back to me safe.”

“I was scared,” Roan stammered.

“I’d have been scared too,” Ocean admitted.

“Anyone in their right mind would have been in a situation like that,” Pope said. “Have they given you any news?”

“Just that they were taking him upstairs to get a head CT, and then they were going to stitch up the gash.”

“How bad was it?” Pope asked.

“I don’t know,” Roan replied. “One of the stock boys got a first aid kit and pressed gauze to it while I was still working out how to breathe again after getting squashed, so I never got a look at it.”

Pope nodded before firing off another question. “How long was he out for?”

“Ten minutes, maybe fifteen, but I don’t think it was longer than that,” Roan said. “He was able to explain how to open the rolling door within five minutes of coming around in the storage room.”

“Okay, that’s a good thing,” Pope said. “Not much else we can do now but sit and wait.”

Kat sat beside Mark, with Creature, Rascal, and Cody across from him. Pope sat beside Kat, with Roan between him and Ocean. The occasional jangle of a wallet chain jingling as Cody’s knee bounced up and down.

“They’re going to start charging us rent if you guys can’t keep your asses out of this place,” Mark said, chuckling.

“To be fair, the only one of us who has spent time in here recently is your kid,” Rascal pointed out, the words drawing a narrow-eyed glare from Mark.

“You just had to remind me, didn’t you?” Mark replied while Cody flushed, squirmed, and shrugged at Rascal’s words.

“Has everyone checked in?” Pope asked.

“Yeah,” Mark replied. “Teddy jumped on the landline as soon as the storm unleashed its fury, since no one expected it to hit that fast. Everyone’s good. Wrecks stuck up at assisted living, so Daltons covered too. Everything else was already shut down.”

“I’d have been stuck too, but I swapped shifts and went in last night instead, since one of our kitchen crew couldn’t make itin after her babysitter got sick. She offered to work the day shift for me since her husband would be home to take care of their kid,” Cody explained.

“You lucked out,” Ocean said.

“I did, didn’t I?” Cody replied, chuckling. “It didn’t feel that way last night, but it does now.”

“Glad I told Sinn and Scout not to head down to the shop today,” Creature said. “They were going to get in some extra hours on one of the bikes that’s been giving us fits. Soon as I caught a glimpse of the sky, I decided it could wait.”

“Been kicking myself for hours for letting Danger and Roan make the grocery store run, but they were supposed to have two hours before the storm hit, and with the new additions, we needed supplies.”

“New additions?” Kat asked. “Would have thought you had a full house by now.”

“We do,” Pope said. “The boys found a pair of dogs on the beach this morning. Sunshine and Kermit are keeping an eye on them for us.”

“Awe,” Kat replied. “Are you planning on keeping them?”

“Yes, as long as no one is looking for them,” Pope replied. “Judging from the shape they were in, I don’t expect anyone to claim them, but you never know, so we’ll have them checked for chips at the vet and go from there. We lost the net before I could search lost and found groups, but there was no sign of a collar ever having been on those boys.”