In Dark Woods (Signal Bend Series #4.5) Read Online Free PDF

want to lose her.
    “Isaac?”
    “Morning, Sport.” He smiled. It felt like his first smile in a very long time.
     
    ~oOo~
     
    He still failed all the tests on his legs and his torso, nearly up to his pecs, but his arms were coming back. They weren’t all the way back—he couldn’t lift them, and so far he only had any real control over one hand, but he could move that at will now—and he could feel, really feel, both arms and both hands, one more acutely than the other.
    The doctors were pleased, but not effusive. There had always been a decent chance that he would get his arms back, since he ’d had some sensation. A month after he’d been shot, though, Isaac had given up that hope.
    They were no more encouraging that this progress might mean he would walk again , and he was still mostly flat on his back. But Isaac was holding his woman’s hand again, and in this moment, that almost felt like enough.
    “I want to bring Gia now,” she said, as soon as they were alone again.
    “Not until I can hold her. Please, Lilli. Wait until I can hold her.” She nodded, and he breathed a little easier.
    He hadn’t seen his daughter in a month. She couldn’t be in the ICU—and, anyway, he hadn’t wanted to see her when he couldn’t touch her. He’d known he would have to eventually, even if he’d not regained his arms, but he was not ready to face that pain. It was hard enough not to touch Lilli. But his little girl, who would reach for him and not understand why he didn’t reach back? No.
    He hadn’t wanted to see anyone, actually. He’d forbidden anyone but Lilli and Show to see him in the ICU. His brothers didn’t need to see him in his fucking diaper and his fucking oxygen and his fucking immobilizer.
    A throat cleared, and Lilli looked over her shoulder. Isaac could see the smile in her profile.
    “Hey, bud. Come in.”
    Isaac knew who it must be. He hadn’t wanted his brothers to see him like this, but there was one exception. He did not want Bart to go, to leave town, to give up the Horde to save the Horde, without saying goodbye. And now it was time to do so.
    Lilli went to Bart, disappearing from Isaac’s sight. She said something to Bart that he didn’t catch, and then to him said, “I’ll be back in five, love.” He nodded.
    For several seconds, the room was quiet. Isaac waited. He knew it had to be a shock to see him like this. Then Bart came into his field of vision.
    “Bartholomew.”
    “Hey, boss.”
    But he wasn’t ‘boss.’ He couldn’t be ‘boss.’
     
    ~oOo~
     
    “Never say die.” With those words, Bart left.
    Isaac lay in silence and grappled with his head. He had done this. He had sent that kid into fuck knew what. The decisions he’d made as President had gotten the Horde to this point. Lilli kept telling him those decisions were club decisions, that they’d all gone in together. But he was the one at the head of the table. He was the one with the gavel in his hand.
    Or he had been.
    Because Isaac had discounted C.J. as an impotent old blowhard, the Scorpions had turned on the Horde. He had seen the man who had been like a father to him. Even when C.J. was balking and pushing back, Isaac had not seen the threat, only the old man past his prime. His blindness—his arrogance—had cost the Horde dearly. Again.
    He hoped it would not cost Bart more. He could only hope. The definition of impotence, he could only lie where he was and hope.
    Suffused with a rage too big to tamp down, he roared. Except he did not have the power to roar. He grunted, as loud and long as he could.
    Lilli ran into the room, up to his bed, and grabbed his face. “What is it? Isaac—are you hurting? What?”
    He could only take another stilted breath and make that impotent, bestial sound.
    He saw it in her eyes when she understood what was happening. Then she grabbed his hand and held it to her face, where he could see. He watched his hand wrap around hers and held on as tightly as his traitorous