Death Ride (Blue Bandits MC Book 5) (18 page)

“Take me to her. I’ll clean up when we get there but I will see her and I won’t be leaving until she wakes up and comes with me. Do we understand each other or do I have to move her?” Death asked, his voice heavy with the weariness that suddenly filled him as he waited on the other man’s answer.

“You aren’t moving my sister, asshole,” Blade growled, his chest puffing out as he stood tall a few feet from him. Death didn’t care about the other man’s posturing or what he thought was going to happen. Jamie belonged to him and Blade would learn to deal with that or he would lose his sister because Death wasn’t giving her up.

“Then it looks like you have house guests,” Reaper stated, his voice hard as he tried to defuse the situation without a fight between Death and Blade. Death just moved toward Sheba, ready to get to Jamie and tell her how sorry he was that he’d left her with her incompetent brother and she’d lost their babies.

“Don’t you think you should ask before you assume I’m going to allow you to just move in?” Blade asked Reaper snidely.

“Nope, you’re the one who wanted a truce. House guests come with the territory rights,” Reaper muttered as the four of them climbed on their bikes and headed back to the compound. With every mile that passed, Death became more and more uneasy about Jamie not waking up yet. He didn’t want to lose her when he’d just found her.

It had been ten days since he’d sat down at Jamie’s bedside to wait on her to open her eyes and still she lay there silent and still. He was unwilling to leave her for even a minute because he was afraid if he did Blade, who’d been urging him to allow them to unhook her from the breathing machine for days, would unplug it to see if she’d die. He wasn’t about to allow that because she was coming back to him.

Death leaned over to brush her hair off her forehead, gently kissing the cool skin on her brow, wishing more than anything that she’d open her eyes. He’d been begging her to wake up for days and his heart ached with the need to see her smile or just for her to open her eyes; even if she hated him for the loss of their babies, he just wanted her back. He held her hand in his, holding it tightly and whispering the words he’d uttered to her almost every day he’d sat with her in one way or another.

“Baby, you have to come back now because I can’t live without you. You’re all I have left and if you leave me I’ll be nothing but a shell. I was never leaving you forever and you should have known that. I told you I would see you soon and I meant it. Three hours, baby, that’s all it would have been—
three more fucking hours
—and I would have been here to get you, to take you where you belong, so you have to come back.” Death rested his head on her hand trying not to lose his mind. Jamie was lying here in this bed because he hadn’t told her he loved her. “Please come back, I need you,” he whispered, his voice cracking a little on the words as tears stung his eyes.

He heard the man standing behind him shift and a loud sigh was released as Blade stood up behind him, likely tired of hearing Death beg her to come back but he didn’t fucking care.

“Death, she can’t hear you. I’m not sure she’s still here anymore and you have to let her go, man,” Blade said softly, his voice breaking a little as he laid a hand on Death’s shoulder trying to pull him away. Death jerked away from him and roared.

“Fuck you. She can hear me and she isn’t fucking gone.” Death wouldn’t accept any other outcome because losing her wasn’t an option and if he had to sit here and talk to her for a year, he would because nothing was going to prevent him from being here when she needed him. He’d left her and she’d nearly died. This was his fucking fault because if he’d taken her with him then this never would have happened. He wouldn’t have let her out of his sight, unlike her brother. What the fuck had Blade been thinking, letting her go to a doctor two towns over because she didn’t want to see the perfectly good one who lived in the compound.

“I know you want that to be true but you’ve been here for ten days and you haven’t left her side once. You need to rest and you need to eat, man. You aren’t going to bring her back.” Blade’s voice broke and his next words sent hot rage curling through Death. “I think it’s time we took her off all this shit and just let her go.”

“Fuck you. If you don’t want to wait on her to wake up that’s on you, motherfucker, but we’re not taking her off the life support. The doctor said she was in a coma and could come out of it at any time because she’s not brain dead so fuck off,” Death growled.

“Yes but is this any life for her? What if she’s like this for years, Death? Are you going to ignore the fact that this isn’t something she would want? She’s my fucking sister, asshole. Don’t you think I want her to live but not—not like this,” Blade said, sadness evident in the way his voice seemed to fade in and out like he almost couldn’t speak.

“I will fucking kill anyone who tries to take her off the ventilator so you’d better not even try it. Her brain is fine and she will wake up when she’s ready,” Death roared into Blade’s face having stood to shove him back from the bed. “Get the fuck out. I don’t want you here if you’re not going to help me get her back.”

Blade stumbled back, holding his hands up in surrender as he almost fell. “Fine, but just think about what she would want. I don’t want to lose her any more than you do but if she isn’t coming back then we have to let her go, man,” Blade said before he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Death sat back down in the chair by the bed and leaned over, his face resting on the hand he was holding. He didn’t know how to let her go and he wouldn’t give up on her, he refused. Jamie was coming back because she had to; otherwise he was going to lose the only piece of his heart that still beat.

It was several hours later when he felt the air shift and a body sat down in the chair next to him. He glanced over to see Sarah sitting beside him.

“Hi,” she said softly. “You okay?”

No, he wasn’t okay and he wouldn’t be until Jamie opened her eyes and spoke to him. He looked back down at her silent figure in the bed seeing the rise and fall of her chest, which assured him that she was still with him. He turned back to Sarah.

“I’m not great,” he finally answered.

“Yeah, I heard you and Blade fought again. He’s not completely wrong, you know,” Sarah said quietly and the words almost broke his heart. “It’s been ten days and she isn’t responding to anything at all. Not saying I agree with him that it’s the time to give up but eventually it could come to that. You have to start preparing for that, you know.”

Death wanted to protest, to roar at her that it wasn’t even an option, but his heart twisted inside him because he knew she was right. There would come a time when he might have to let her go if she refused to wake up. He couldn’t focus on that now though because it wasn’t something he was anywhere near ready to accept.

“Not going to happen. I won’t give up on her. She’s coming back to me because she knows she needs to. I—I can’t live without her, Sarah,” Death found himself revealing as his voice broke and the thoughts filling his head made his eyes sting again. He wouldn’t be able to live if she left him because everything good inside him would go with her.

“I know. You love her, don’t you?” she asked and he nodded. “I see. Well then, we shall just keep talking to her but she would want you to take care of yourself. I can sit with her for a while and make sure no one touches the ventilator.”

“No, I’m not leaving—”

“Death, you need to eat and shower at least. I can keep her safe while you’re gone. I have my gun and we both know nobody is going to get by me while I’m wearing it. I will shoot first and ask questions later if anyone tries anything. Take care of yourself so when she wakes up you can take care of her,” Sarah said firmly.

Death didn’t want to leave Jamie but he couldn’t say he didn’t need to shower because even he’d noticed he still smelled like he’d been riding for days without stopping. When he’d arrived here, he’d taken a quick shower before coming in here but he hadn’t showered or left her side since then.

He relented because he trusted Sarah to be sure no one would come in and try anything. It was funny how much she’d become an integral part of his club since she’d become Reaper’s old lady four years ago. He almost trusted her as much as he did Reaper and that was saying something because he usually didn’t trust people easily. Reaper was one of about ten people he would trust with his life and adding Sarah to that group after only a few years was surprising. There was something about her no-bullshit way of doing things that made you understand she would always have your back if you let her.

“Don’t leave her.”

“I won’t. Promise,” Sarah replied.

“Jamie, baby, I’ll be right back and Sarah’s going to keep you company, okay?” Death leaned down after he stood up and kissed her forehead, then her nose and finally her lips, almost breaking when there was no response from her before he turned and headed to the door at a quick clip. He needed to shower and get back to her.

Jamie was fading in and out but she couldn’t seem to break free of the hazy fog that kept jerking her down into the depths of cold darkness. She could hear her brother talking and then Death. She could sometimes make out what they were saying but it was like a radio that kept fading in and out with static in between.

Her heart twisted when she heard Death begging her to come back and that he loved her. She wanted to scream at him that she was trying. She didn’t understand why it was so hard to wake up but she couldn’t seem to find a way out of the haze. The harder she fought, the more it seemed to pull her under. She could hear them fighting and Death yelling about not giving up on her and she wanted to tell him it was okay. She wanted him to stop worrying about her. He seemed so upset and she wanted to comfort him but she couldn’t open her eyes and she couldn’t seem to speak either.

She was pulled under again and she didn’t know how long it was before she heard an unfamiliar feminine voice speaking to her. She could feel the woman’s hand on hers and she wondered who she was and why she was here. Where was Death? Had he given up on her? She didn’t like that thought at all and she wished she could ask this woman where he was because she already missed him. Not once could she remember him not being around when she became aware of the world again.

“I don’t know if you can hear me or not but if you can, you need to fight. Fight for him please because I think if you die we’re going to lose him. Reaper needs him and so does the club. Hell, even your brother’s club needs him. Jamie, I know you don’t know me and have no reason to trust me but I can promise you he isn’t lying. He wasn’t going to leave you here with your brother. He just wanted you to be safe and he thought leaving you here would mean you were safer than if he took you with him. Death’s in love with you and he needs you to come back. Please, we need you to come back too because we can’t afford to lose him.”

Jamie wanted to scream at the woman that she was trying but she couldn’t. She was fighting for Death because she loved him and she refused to leave him. She didn’t understand why this was so damned hard or why she was slipping in and out like she was. She didn’t doubt Death had been telling the truth when he’d begged her to come back to him and said he was always planning to come back for her. Death had no reason to lie about that. Her frustration was making mind slip back into the hazy darkness again and she couldn’t seem to stop it from happening no matter how hard she tried.

Sarah looked up when Death walked back into Jamie’s room an hour later and she smiled at him. He didn’t really feel like smiling back so he just moved to take his seat near the head of the bed. Death had showered and washed his hair before eating the sandwiches that Lissa had made for him.

He stared down at Jamie’s silent figure searching for any change, disappointed not to see any. He wanted to rage at the world for the lack of response Jamie displayed. It didn’t matter that the men who’d done this to her were dead or that they’d suffered for hours before they had died because she wasn’t waking up and it had been days.
Too many fucking days
.