Page 38 of Road to Absolution

I smiled at my wife despite my inner agony. “I’ll be okay, Lilah.”

Covering her mouth while trying not to cry, she smiled, too. “I know you will. Anything for me, right?”

I wholeheartedly sighed, “Fucking love you.”

With joy, which I was so pleased I caused, her shoulders bounced as a sob escaped.

Gesturing to the to-go boxes, I said, “If that food isn’t old, I want you to sit your ass down and eat. Now.”

Comically, Tuck lifted a brow at her, silently saying, Told ya so.

As she went to the small couch, I teased, “Was that a smile, Mrs. Hutton?”

She grabbed a box. “Bite me, Mr. Hutton.”

“Don’t you tease. Apparently, I haven’t been laid in a month.”

Tuck-the-Fuck had to chime in. “And won’t be gettin’ none with that hose in your dick.”

“The fuck?” All heads swiveled to the door. Diesel was standing there, quickly reading the room. His eyes scanned Lilah, actually eating, Tucker smiling, and me awake, yet, instead of being a drama queen, he smirked. “I’ve been gone for only a few hours and you two boneheads are already fucking talking about each other’s ‘hoses’?”

So happy to see him, I asked, “Rather we talk about yours?”

His blue eyes squinted, showing some wrinkles. “Just because V is clearly right, you walk on water and wake from comas when you damn well please, don’t mean you can ever play with my Johnson.”

Laughing, Lilah started choking on her salad.

That sound, her laughter, captured Diesel’s attention so deeply, I knew he had been scared to death for my wife’s health. I tried to help ease some of his anguish, so fucking pleased he watched over her. “So, are you saying you want to play with my Johnson?”

“Uh.” He blinked before recovering and facing me to keep the needed lighter mood growing. After a jutting smirk of his own, he claimed, “You’re a tough bastard. Only been awake for minutes, yet already tangling with one of the big dogs.” He huffed, “Maybe I need to recruit you.”

“Nah, I’m a boxer. Not a biker—”

Tidal wave. Words I had thought before, caused a tidal wave of memories to blast me. Headlights… Rain… Gunshot… Shattering glass… Tree… Justice… Giver…

“Fuck!” I roared, my body on fire all over again. I wanted out of the truck—bed, trying to scurry backward.

Lilah had thrown her salad to the floor and was already running to me. “Maverick!”

As soon as she was to me, I grabbed her beautiful face. Fire was near her, too. The flames may have been different from the ones that scorched me but would burn just as deep. “Baby, I think you’re in danger.”

“No,” she promised. “A Ryder has been by the door this whole time.”

As if I were back on the wet ground, fighting for my life all over again, I told a Stallion, “H-He th-threatened wife.”

I jolted when realizing it wasn’t real. That I was in a hospital bed.

Lilah was safe…

That Stallion, Torque, had passed the message to Diesel. I knew it by the way he slowly dipped his chin at me, studying me. I didn’t realize he was trying to gauge what else I was remembering as I prepared to be the asshole that had to tell my wife—

Wait.

My stomach—one that hadn’t held food in weeks—soured. “You fucking know.”

Lilah’s eyes widened. “W-What? Baby, what do I know?”

Adoringly, I told her, “Not you.” Then my face hardened like stone, and I looked to the guilty one. “You.” Never had I ever felt hatred toward the man we all looked up to.