Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 248

Storm POV

Dad was still awake as I started texting him to let him know Cloe was awake and alert. That didn’t surprise me. When he was in investigation mode, he would take short naps, rather than a proper night’s sleep. Uncle Simon was the same, and sometimes when it was really deep, Tandy would join in. I am unsure whether Tandy would be deeply involved. This time, he might do the money background checks, but then Great-gramps has most of that covered. Got to see Great-gramps, get busy. something I had never seen before. It was an eye-opener, watching them all on their phones barking out orders. Observing power being dished out. Dad told me we had power, but with different areas of strength that even I have, but I couldn’t see it, not yet anyway.

Cloe was asleep now; it was one o’clock in the morning. I was glad that Cloe ate something, showed me a lot, and my girl loves her food. I saw her longing for the leftovers rather than Jelly and Ice cream. We both tend to gravitate to spicy and savoury foods.

Nurse Dotty arrived; I didn’t expect her to come in the middle of the night.

“Morning, how are you managing? You should be sleeping.” Dotty said softly as she took a look at Cloe’s notes.

“Too wired up, what’s got you out here so early?” I shrugged, not the first time I’ve been sitting here all night and not sleeping.

“Doctor Jaqueline asked me to come in, check on Cloe, and we might take her home today. I need to check a few things, make sure I have the right medical kit with me. She will need a lot of monitoring for a few days, and no lifting for weeks. Better home than lying here bored.” Dotty was right, she can do at home what she does here. So, win-win for Cloe.

“Try and sleep, I will be back in about four hours, after I have talked to Jaqueline, and make a plan for home.” Dotty gave me a hug and left. I stared at Cloe for a while. She looked like she was at peace, no worry lines, so that means no nightmares or bad dreams. I wonder what she was thinking about my admission. Cloe avoided talking about it, and that’s fine. I am sure it’s a lot to take in. I am ready to take our relationship to the next level. I want more kisses and cuddles, and I need her to understand that I was carrying her around for more than just because she has no legs. Pulled the chair closer to the bed, took Cloe’s hand in mine, rested my head on it, and closed my eyes, thinking of how lucky I am that my girl is still here with

The next thing I know, a hand was shaking me awake. I looked up groggily and saw Mum holding out a cup of coffee and a big smile.

“Morning, Dotty said we can take our girl home; she’s getting the paperwork done now.” Mum started packing away our things and pulling out some clothes to change Cloe into.

“Thanks, Mum.” I look over and see that Cloe was still asleep.

“How has Cloe’s night been?” Mum moves to the bedside and pushes some hair from her eyes, the look of love and concern etched on Mum’s face.

“Other than waking around midnight, been sleeping soundly.”

“Good, she will be happy to be in her own bed tonight.” Dotty arrived and pulled the curtains around the bed.

“Give us a few minutes to get her dressed.” What? I moved, and didn’t argue, but was shocked that they wanted me out of the way. I have helped dress Cloe loads of times.

“We need to change the dressing, and I need space.” Dotty must have picked up on my expression, and bless her, she explained why.

Mum, and Dotty worked behind the curtain, Mum hissed a few times, and Cloe groaned, I wanted to pull the curtain back and see the injury, that were causing my woman pain, and I didn’t like it, the protective side of my, roared to life, and it took all of my strength to walk over to the window and look out, sipping my coffee, at first glance no one would pick up that I was tense, and stressed out, listening to my girl whimper. At long last, the curtain was pulled back, and Cloe, dressed in track pants and a shirt, sat, looking rather sad, her eyes sparkling from unshed tears.

“We can go home now.” That put a small smile on Cloe’s face as she raised her arms to me, calling me to pick her up and get her out of here. Quickly, I grab the wheelchair and pick up Cloe, ever so carefully, under the watchful eyes of Mum and Dotty. A blanket over her lap, and we were ready to get out of here. We were ahead of schedule purely because Dotty was with the doctor and we were on call, if needed. Nurses waved goodbye as we walked down the hallway and out of the hospital. Mum had brought the SUV, making it easier to lift Cloe into it and secure her in the seat. I wheeled the wheelchair back into the hospital, since it was one of ours, and climbed into the back seat next to Cloe. I moved to the centre seat an pulled Cloe’s head to my shoulder, my arm over the back of the seat. I would have her on lap if the law allowed it.

Mum parked close to the back door. I leapt out and moved to collect Cloe into my arms.

“Where to, milady?” I smirked at her, as she tapped her chin as if she was thinking, then gave a great big yawn.

I took the dirty bowl back out to Martha.

“Wow, she likes the soup, good, will put that on the list to keep some aside in the freezer for her.” Martha turned back to her cooking, humming a tune, only she made sense of, because it wasn’t a tune I had ever heard before.

I found Dad in his office.

“Find anything?” I asked as I closed the door and took a seat before him.

“That man, Henry, was a dirty piece of work. Even in his youth, he gained a reputation as a bully, tried to join many different gun clubs, but didn’t last long in any of them. He had a reasonable amount of money in his bank account, traced to dirty jobs he had undertaken. The IT team are busy on his computer as we speak, but so far they are having trouble getting past some of the passwords and blocks. He might have been an idiot in many ways, but someone set up that computer with skill.”

“Get Cloe to have a crack at it, that’s her area of study, you should see her fingers fly over the keyboard.” I proudly stated, because my girl knows her computers.

“That sounds great, but do you want her involved in this investigation?”

“Why not? Cloe might find some closure if she helps find the culprit.”

“When Cloe wakes, we can ask if she wants to do it. I won’t force her.” Dad never pushed any of us into an area we didn’t show interest in, like his business. I took an interest because I like to see how things worked, never thought I would end up doing a business course. But then, what kid actually knows what they want to do in their teenage years? Few do. I remember our teacher asking that in the first year at high school, I was still getting used to the huge school, which now looks small. To worry about my future, that seemed so far away.