"Are you family?" the woman at the desk asked, when Winter made her request.

"Yes, I'm her niece."

"Go inside the side door. A nurse will escort you."

"Thank you." She followed the woman's directions, and a nurse immediately took her to her aunt's room.

Seeing her lying there, so frail and helpless on the hospital bed, Winter wanted to break into tears. However, she forced herself to keep her composure, going to her aunt's side and taking her thin hand in hers.

"Did you watch another scary movie without me?" Winter teased, trying to keep herself in control.

Aunt Shay gave her a trembling smile. "No, it was my game show."

"If you weren't feeling well, why didn't you ask me to stay?"

"I didn't want to be a nuisance."

"From now on, I'm the one who's going to be a nuisance," Winter warned. The days of her aunt living alone were over. She should have put her foot down before, but she hadn't wanted to take her aunt's independence from her.

"If there is a next time." Her weak reply had Winter gripping her hand more tightly.

"Please don't talk like that, Aunt Shay. You'll get better. You have to. Who will I watch scary movies with?"

"Winter, that's what old people do. They die so they can make way for the new."

Winter hated that saying. Her mother had said it often to her. When her mother had found out her breast cancer was terminal, she had said the old leaves fell off the tree so new could grow.

"Don't be silly; you're not old," Winter scolded teasingly, as the doctor walked into the room, his tall, muscular frame making the room feel even smaller. She had thought she knew everyone in town, but the doctor was new to her.

"h.e.l.lo, I'm Dr. Price," he introduced himself, as Winter nervously waited to hear what he had to say. "Good news! It wasn't a heart attack. Mrs. Langley's pota.s.sium level is low. We'll simply give her some medication overnight, and you'll be as good as new tomorrow. Well, almost as good. I want you to put some weight on."

Winter gave a small chuckle. "See? I told you that you're going to be fine. Thank you, Dr. Price."

"You're certainly welcome. I'm glad I was on duty tonight. Mrs. Langley is a very charming lady."

"Yes, she is." Winter was rea.s.sured by the doctor's confident words.

"I'll find a room for Mrs. Langley. You're welcome to stay with her, Miss...?"

"Winter James," she introduced herself.

"Any relation to Loker James?"

"He's my husband." Winter wondered how the doctor knew Viper.

"He's Dr. Matthews' grandson," Aunt Shay explained.

Dr. Matthews not only worked at the hospital, but he was the town's primary doctor. When you saw him around town, he always had a cigar clamped between his teeth. His grandson didn't look like his grandfather, who was short and stocky.

"I'm sure he's happy you decided to move to Treepoint."

"No, he wants me to move back to Minnesota. I made him give up his cigars."

"That must have been hard work." Winter grinned.

Dr. Price shrugged. "I'm still working on it. I found one hidden in a box of cereal the other day."

Winter smiled. "My mother used to hide her cigarettes in a box of oatmeal when I made her give up smoking."

"Your mother sounds as stubborn as my grandfather." The doctor signed a form a nurse gave him.

"She was," Winter said sadly.

The doctor gave her a sympathetic glance. "I'll leave you two alone. The nurse will take you to your room, Mrs. Langley. If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thank you, Dr. Price."

"It was nice meeting you, Winter. Mrs. Langley, I'll see you in the morning." He waved as he walked out of the room.

"I think he likes you." Her aunt turned her head toward her after he left.

"Shh... He'll hear you." Winter shook her head.

As the orderly arrived to take her aunt to her room, Winter asked the nurse to give Beth Aunt Shay's room number. It took an hour for her to get settled in. Finally, the nurse allowed Beth to come inside.

Winter stepped aside, letting the two women talk. When Viper and Razer came in, Winter slipped out of the room, unable to stay in the room with her husband.

She wandered to the end of the floor, dismally staring out the window. The choices she tried to put off when she'd found Sasha's text messages would have to be dealt with now that she had seen Viper with Sasha in the gazebo, confirming the suspicions that had been hammering at her.

"Winter?"

She didn't turn around as Viper came up behind her. She stared at his reflection in the window.

"We need to talk."

"Yes, we do. Just not tonight. I can't make any decisions on our marriage when I'm so worried about Aunt Shay."

"There are no decisions to make." Viper reached a hand over her shoulder, resting it on her breast. "You didn't see what you thought you did."

"Maybe not, but I did see the text messages she sent you. I'm not imagining those. I'm not imagining she wants you. All those are things that you should have put a stop to, and you didn't!" she hissed, blushing from being caught going through his phone.

"Which text messages are you talking about?" Viper moved to her side.

Unable to hide her hurt, she tried to keep her voice low, so the hospital workers walking past couldn't overhear their conservation. "The one where she was giving Moon a b.l.o.w.j.o.b and told you she will keep you company when you get rid of me. What did she mean getting rid of me?"

"I had told Moon that I wanted to take you on a vacation, and Sasha overheard. She was only joking, that she could come back to Kentucky while we're gone."

"It wasn't very d.a.m.n funny to me."

Viper's somber att.i.tude had her trying to get her anger under control.

"She didn't text the picture to you; she texted it to me."

"She shouldn't have texted that picture to you!"

"She has a warped sense of humor. I saw it when I got out of the shower, and I deleted it as soon as I saw it. Pretty girl, watching a woman give a b.l.o.w.j.o.b is nothing new to me. It only gets me hot when you're sucking my d.i.c.k."

"Then you're going to be taking a lot of cold showers. I'm staying at Aunt Shay's until she feels better."

"I think that's a good idea. Aunt Shay will feel better with you there. Dr. Price talked to us while she was being taken to her room. He thinks the reason she's losing weight isn't only because of a medical reason. He's worried she may be depressed."

She had expected him to at least put up a token fight about her not coming back to the clubhouse, yet he didn't. In the text message, Sasha had mentioned getting rid of her not going with Viper. Something wasn't ringing true about his explanation. Each of their marriage vows was being shredded. She was afraid none would be left to hold on to.

"I do, too. I'll ask Beth to pack me a suitcase. She can drop it off at Aunt Shay's house. I know she'll want to see her after she's released from the hospital."

The thought of having to see Sasha so soon after seeing Viper and her together was more than she could deal with right now. With the way she was feeling, she was likely to rip out her hair.

Winter wondered if Viper would find the s.k.a.n.k attractive with a bald head.

"Afraid I'll pack the wrong clothes?" His dark eyes studied her with a glint of humor.

"No, I'm afraid you'll pack them all."

7.

Winter slept on a chair beside her aunt's bedside, waking intermittently whenever she heard Aunt Shay call out her name.

"I'm here. I told you I'm staying. Go back to sleep." Dragging the uncomfortable chair closer to the bed, she sat quietly until her aunt fell back to sleep. Then Winter fell asleep with her head resting on the bedrail.

Waking when the morning sun began filtering through the blinds, Winter straightened her aching back.

A nurse came into the room, throwing a sympathetic glance her way. "We gave her the pota.s.sium last night, so she will be much better today. If her blood work comes back normal, she can go home."

Winter yawned. "She was restless last night. She couldn't remember I was with her." Lovingly, she brushed her aunt's gray hair away from her face.

"When they get low on pota.s.sium, they can have hallucinations and heart palpitations. That's why they thought Mrs. Langley was having a heart attack," the nurse explained, as she checked her aunt's vital signs. "Let her rest. The doctor will be in to see her before she's released."

"Thank you."

The nurse left them alone. It was another hour before her aunt woke up, seeming more alert than the night before.

Winter stepped out into the hall to find coffee when an aid came in and offered to help Aunt Shay shower. The hallways were a bustle of activity as new patients were admitted and breakfast trays were pa.s.sed out.

Winter went to the cafeteria, finding a small table, where she drank her coffee, giving the aid enough time to shower and dress her aunt.

"Mind if I join you?"

Winter looked up, startled at the male voice.

"Of course not." She smiled in greeting at Dr. Price as he took a chair across from her.

"You look like you didn't get much sleep last night." He speared his fork into a mound of eggs. His tray was filled with a delicious-looking breakfast that had her stomach churning at the sight, her face going pale.

Giving her an anxious look, he handed her a piece of toast. "Eat that. You look like you're about to pa.s.s out."

"I'm fine." She shook her head, but took the piece of toast when he refused to put it back on his plate. Nibbling on it, she began feeling better. "Thank you. My aunt isn't the only one not eating well."

The doctor studied her as he ate. "Have you been sick?"

"No. I'm healthy as a horse."

"Could you be pregnant?" His curious gaze caught her surprised one.

Winter's lips tightened unhappily as she raised the coffee cup to her lips. "No. I'm afraid there's no chance of that."

Dr. Price swallowed a bite, then said, "Don't sound so shocked. I see more patients surprised by their pregnancy than those who planned them."

"You have your own practice?"

"Yes, or I did before I moved to Treepoint. I'm an obstetrician. I took over my grandfather's shift this weekend, because he wanted to go to the gambling boat in Ohio for his birthday."

Winter smiled. "Your grandfather is a good doctor. He saved my life a few years ago."

Dr. Price paused from eating, giving her his full attention. "That sounds interesting. What happened?"

"A deranged deputy decided I shouldn't be breathing anymore. He nearly beat me to death." Winter didn't like to talk about the darkest moments of her life. Her body had healed despite the multiple injuries she had endured. That was all that mattered.

"You seem healthy now. I wish some of my patients looked as healthy as you do."

"Tell my husband that." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she changed the conservation, asking how he liked Treepoint. Despite how hard she had worked to regain her health after the beating, Viper was vigilant over anything that concerned her welfare, to the point he believed if she fell down a step it would put her back in a wheelchair. She repeatedly told him she had grown stronger, but she saw him watching her with an eagle eye every time she went down the stairs. If he wasn't there, then it was another member who watched out for her. She loved him, and she had grown to love the Last Riders, but their constant diligence was becoming suffocating.

He gave her a speculative glance. "There's not much to it, is there?"

"We used to have a movie theater, but most of the town went to Jamestown, so it went out of business." Winter mourned the busy town she had grown up in. Bit by bit, it was dying. If Viper hadn't built the factory there, the town would probably be gone already. Its population was growing older as most of the younger generation were moving away, to nearby cities. "The town's main economy was built on the coal industry. When it died, so did most of the town. Some of the residents are still hoping something will bring back their coal jobs."

"I take you don't believe it will happen?"

"No. There's a saying in the mountains that the old leaves fall off the tree to make way for the new. Where Treepoint is concerned, the town needs to search for new opportunities that will replace the jobs at the coal mine. I don't believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. If more businesses could be brought to Treepoint, it would give the townspeople better job opportunities, and if one went under, it wouldn't place such a strain on the whole town. The factory is doing good, but sometimes I see the strain on Viper that so many people depend on him." Winter stood up, tossing her paper cup away. "It was nice talking to you."

Dr. Price smiled as he placed his finished tray alongside others on a nearby cart. "I'll walk with you. I'm on my way to see your aunt, anyway."