Page 104 of Lockout

“It’s been hours,” Hush said from beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Can we get some kind of update?”

Her eyes bounced from me to him. “What’s her name?”

“Keely Bradford,” I told her.

She nodded. “Give me a few minutes.”

Those few minutes might have been hours for all I knew. We all sat down in the waiting room once more, no one talking, as we waited.

When the doctor finally stepped out of those fucking double doors, I braced myself for what was about to come. He looked grim. Tired. For once I couldn’t read someone’s features and it was fucking killing me.

I surged to my feet. For some reason, I didn’t want to be sitting if he was about to give me world ending news. It was too much. So I stood, with my family surrounding me and braced for impact.

CHAPTER 40

Keely

“What the hell are you doing?”

I didn’t need to open my eyes to recognize Toxic’s voice. I smiled to myself as I heard Taylor’s answer.

“The heater says to place it on a rock, or something.”

“Mama always says your head is like a rock,” Caitlyn informed him.

“And you definitely qualify as a something,” Taylor added.

“You brought MRE’s and an MRE heater to the hospital?” Priest asked his girls. “Give me that. If you’re hungry I’ll go buy you something from the cafeteria.” There was a pause. “Gabby, Honey, are you hungry?”

“No,” the older girl whispered.

It sounded like she was crying. Why was she crying?

I tried to force my eyes open, but they refused. What was going on? I struggled to wake up for an unknown length of time as I heard my family talking around me.

Everything had gone quiet. Was I alone? Fear swept through me. I didn’t want to be alone.

“Come on, Baby Girl. Come on back to me.”

The fear was brushed away with those words. Of course Lock was here with me. Wherever here was. He was nothing if not dependable. I let go and let my body rest.

My eyes flutteredopen and I hissed at the bright lights overhead.

“Get those lights,” Lock said, then his gorgeous face filled my vision. “Hey there.”

“Hi,” I croaked, then frowned. Why did I sound like a donkey who smoked a pack a day?

“How’re you feeling? Any pain?”

I blinked at him. Should there be pain? I frowned.

“You remember what happened? The parking garage?”

Gasping as it all flooded back, I clutched at him. “Gabby-”

“She’s fine, Cables. She’s down in the cafeteria with the others right now. She’sfine.”

I was breathing hard, trying to remember everything. The blood. I looked down, but all I could see was bandages and a blanket. “What happened?”