Her lip quivers, but her voice comes out strong. "Yeah."

"Come sit next to me. Let me hold you."

She hesitates. "That hospital bed's barely big enough for you."

"Eh, we've slept in smaller beds together and survived." Her cheeks flush at the memory.

She finally climbs into the bed, carefully tucking herself against my side. Throwing her arm around me, she lets out a sigh. I brush my fingers through her hair, checking to make sure she's okay.

"Rock said you went home. Get any rest?"

"A little."

"Z take care of you?" The words stick in my throat, but I push 'em out.

She laughs softly. "Yeah. Kept waking me up."

Don't like the sound of that. "Why?" I ask trying to keep my voice neutral.

She tips her head up. "Doctors said I had a mild concussion. Not enough to keep me here, but said I shouldn't sleep too long unchecked."

Oh. Well, now I feel like shit.

"I'm so sorry, angel."

"You think I should leave?" she whispers.

"No fucking way. I dare anyone to say a word to me."

She chuckles against my shoulder.

"Close your eyes."

She shifts in my arms. "Am I hurting you?"

"No, babe. Close your eyes."

"Okay," she mumbles before falling asleep.

Overly friendly nurse returns and I prepare to fight her if she tries to wake Trin up. But she smiles, checks on a few things, then leaves.

Next time I wake up, Teller's sitting in the chair next to me and Murphy's pacing at the foot of the bed.

My mouth's so dry, it takes two tries to get any words out. "How long you guys been here?"

"Haven't left yet, brother. Gotta make sure you're protected," Murphy answers as he hands me a bottle of water from a small refrigerator in the corner.

"Thanks."

Teller jerks his chin at Trinity. "She okay?"

"Yeah."

He shakes his head. "You guys scared the fuck outta me. That took some skill, laying your bike down a mountain."

I snort even though I know he's being sincere. He shrugs. "Coulda been a lot worse, bro."

I'm well aware and the thought has been nagging at me, even in my sleep.

Trinity stirs and blinks up at me. "You okay?" she asks.

First thing outta her mouth is asking if I'm okay. Takes me a second to answer her. "Yeah."

Teller stands. "How you feel, Trin?"

She shakes herself awake and sits up, finally noticing Murphy and Teller. "Hey, guys. Yeah, I'm fine." She flashes a weak smile at Teller.

"Need a ride home?" he asks. My arm tightens on Trin and the corner of her mouth twitches.

"No. I'm staying."

It's awkward for a second or two before the guys hold their fists out. We tap knuckles and they leave.

Trinity struggles to sit up and I panic. "Where you goin'?"

"I need to pee."

"Oh, okay. You can do that."

She smirks and wriggles out of the bed.

While she's gone, a bored-looking girl drops off a tray of what looks like warmed over shit for breakfast.

"What the hell is that?" I ask her.

"Oatmeal. Healthy stuff," she answers with a smirk, like she thinks I sit around drinking beer and eating Pringles all day.

"My girlfriend cooks lots of healthy stuff-it never looks like that."

She shrugs and leaves. I poke at the brown slop with a spoon.

Trinity's laughing when she returns. "I caught that whole exchange, you know."

Good. I said it loud enough.

She stretches and glances at the tray. "It can't be that bad."

"By all means." I push the tray toward her. She snags the apple and takes a chunk out of it.

I had planned to have a talk with her last night. After what happened, I can't wait another second.

"Come here, babe."

She hesitates. "You don't want me crowding you again."

"Yeah, I do. Get over here."

She sets the apple down, takes a swig of orange juice, then climbs up and settles against me. My mouth finds her forehead and I press a kiss there. "No more bullshit, babe. You and me. I mean it," I murmur against her cheek.

"Okay."

Although she agreed, I don't think what I said sunk in. I sift my fingers through her hair. "These last few weeks made me real happy." She picks her head up and stares at me. Now she's getting it. "No more going to war with each other, Trinity. You're mad at me, you tell me. If I'm an asshole, just say it. You're feeling bad, take it out my cock. No one else's. No more of this dysfunctional tit-for-tat thing we've been doin' for years."

A deep, ragged sob tears from her throat. Yeah, I finally admitted what we've been doing for way too long. Big fat tears slide down her cheeks. "Wyatt, what are you asking of me?"

"To be my girl and I'll be your man. That's it. Nothing complicated, Angel Face."

"Wy-"

"Hello, kids!" Rock announces as he flings the door open.

Motherfucker has the worst goddamn timing. Asshole.

Trinity, of course, jumps up like a scalded cat, cursing a blue streak. She whacks my bad leg in the process.

"Ow, fuck, Trin," I growl at her. I'm so pissed she's leaving.

"Sorry, sorry," she mumbles. "Uh, I'm gonna go." She runs out of the room and I want to choke the living fuck out of Rock.

I also want to tell him what he interrupted. Thought I was about to get somewhere with her. But he's got that smug fucking smile on his face that I just want to punch.

"Knock it off, dick," I grumble as I settle back into the bed.

"Sorry I interrupted cuddle time."

I return his glare. "Fuck you."

My stomach rumbles and I glare at the hospital tray. "You come here to tell me anything useful? Maybe bring me something?" I ask.

"What the hell do you want, balloons and flowers?"

"A fucking magazine would be nice. I'm bored as fuck."

He gestures at the door. "Didn't look bored a minute ago."

Not sure if it's the accident that rattled him or something else, but brother is seriously testing my patience today. More than normal. When I say Rock's like my brother, I mean it in every way-especially the pissing me off until I want to knock him out way. I notice he's by himself and wonder if that's what crawled up his ass.

"Did Hope come with you?"

His jaw clenches. Yup, that's what's bugging him.

"No," he spits out.

"She okay?"

He comes closer and I take notice of his torn up hands. Brother fought someone recently. "I dunno. She's. . .You don't realize, but she lost her dad when she was a teenager. Lost her husband young. I think this rattled her."

Poor girl. I knew about her husband, obviously. "Oh, fuck. I didn't know about her dad. That's rough."

"Yeah, and her mom went to shit after, so she basically got abandoned there."

"Okay. Got it." Maybe Hope fits in better with us than I thought.

He rubs the back of his neck like I know he does when he's stressed. "I'm afraid this brought up bad shit for her. I'm worried she's not dealing with it well."

Probably not. "Not surprising. After getting through that other shit, sounds like she lived a pretty normal life 'til you barged in."

"Thanks," he grumbles back.

Of course he thinks the worst. "I'm not trying to be a dick. I just don't know how you think it's going to work out between the two of you."

"This wasn't exactly normal."

Is he kidding? This kind of shit happens all the time in our world. We've lived through much worse and I can't understand why he'd wanna drag someone as soft as Hope into something so foreign to her. "You know what I mean. Look, I get it, she's a total sweetheart. Treats everyone with respect. She's not stuck up. I like how nice she is to Trinity. Hell, I like her. But I think soon she's going to start dividing your focus. You can't be half in, half out as our President."

Of course he's not ready to listen to reason where his woman's concerned. "You want the gavel?" he snaps.

"Fuck, no, that's not what I'm trying to say. But she doesn't get what we're about-at all. She's too clean for our life. I've tried explaining shit to her, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Don't drag her into it anymore. It's not fair to her."

His eyes narrow and he cocks his head to the side. "What exactly did you try to explain to her?"

"We are outlaws. She acts like it's a bedtime story that has nothing to do with you two."

"How many times have I told you to leave that shit to me? I'll tell her things when I think she's ready to hear them."

Which if Rock has his way will be never. "Yeah, but by then she'll be so deep in our shit, she'll blow the MC to hell trying to escape."

His eyes close for the briefest second and I know I'm not the smartest fucker in the world, but it hits me in the gut what he's doing. "Rock, you think she's going to fall so far in love with you, she's going to overlook the fact that we're up to our balls in illegal shit?"

I don't need him to answer. The guilt's spelled out all over his face. I shake my head.

"Jesus Christ." Maybe we irritate the shit out of each other, but Rock's a damn good person. The best. Picked my ass up off the street and gave me a home when I was a teenager. Gave me work and brought me into the MC. Saved my life more than once. I know he ain't reeling her in on purpose to be cruel. Doubt he even realized until right this second what he's been doing.

"I love her," he says simply.

"Yeah, got that, brother." After the misery his ex-wife put him through, he deserves to be happy. "We need to do a better job making her understand and keepin' her safe."

The corners of his mouth lift. "Thanks."