Page 29 of Avalanche (Endless Winter #3)

Lily

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” Matty asks as he climbs into the front passenger seat of my car. “I can drive if you want.”

I shoot him a tight smile and shake my head. “I’ve got it.” My hands are trembling where I grip the wheel, but Matty’s are shaking too, so much that he can hardly clip his seatbelt. “Where’s Liam?”

The ambulance left just moments before we arrived—I saw it blaring past on the road, sirens screaming, lights flashing. Heading to Salt Lake City hospital.

“In the ambulance.” Matty rubs his palms over the snow-damp fabric of his jeans, then looks behind to where Eddie and Antoine are sitting in tense silence in the back seat. “He said he was Seth’s brother.”

Eddie snorts out a mirthless laugh. “Of course he fucking did.”

“Good,” Antoine says, his voice thick with emotion. “At least Seth’s got someone with him.”

I nod in agreement but find myself unable to speak. It’s too much to think about, too overwhelming, the idea of Seth in the back of an ambulance. Of how Liam and Matty found him, bloody and unconscious at the side of the road.

A hit and run , they had said. Liam’s voice had been so steady at the other end of the line. Calming, almost. Someone who knew him less would have doubted he was affected at all.

But I knew. I could tell.

The guys are silent as we turn onto the freeway, the canyon snaking down below us towards a valley thick with fog. They’re silent as we weave our way down, slowly making our way out of the sharp mountain air through the haze, into the inversion layer that sits over the city like a blanket.

“You’ll want to take the next exit,” Eddie announces from the back seat. He’s leaning forward, his face fixed on the screen of his phone, his brow dipped in concentration. “That’s the quickest way.”

I do as he says, my pulse picking up as the concrete pillars of the freeway flick past in my periphery, spitting me out into the carefully ordered streets of Salt Lake City.

Rows of box shaped buildings stretch along in a grid, grey as the sky above them as I make my way down streets marked with numbers instead of names.

“That way.” Eddie reaches through the middle of the car to point out the hospital sign hanging above an intersection. “It’s that way.”

I change lanes, grimacing at the annoyed honking of the driver behind me as I cross two lanes at once to make my turn.

“There it is,” Eddie announces, but I don’t need him to tell me where to go. There’s no missing the giant hospital complex, the stacked parking lot, the cluttered sprawl of modern architecture. I draw in a steadying breath and will my heart rate to calm as I look for a park.

The hospital is all bright lights and clean lines, bustling with tired faces in scrubs and a jarringly strange mixture of humanity. Old and young, joy-filled and grey-faced sorrow, threadbare clothes and worn winter coats mixed with crisp bright colours and manicured hair.

It’s a different world here.

Real in a way that the mountain could never be. There’s something about it that feels like a splinter caught under skin, or maybe like stepping out of a movie and into broad daylight. Or waking from a dream.

Antoine slips his hand into mine. I feel the steadiness of that touch like a lifeline thrown out in a storm.

Eddie strides out ahead of us, Matty close behind him, heading to reception as if he’s done this a hundred times before.

“Hi,” he says, leaning against the counter. I can hear the smile in his voice, the warmth. The woman at the desk narrows her eyes at him momentarily, as if annoyed by the interruption, then softens into an answering smile.

“I’m looking for Seth Baker,” Eddie continues. “He would have just been admitted, maybe ten minutes ago or so. Do you know where we can find him?”

The woman pushes up her glasses as she squints at her computer screen, lacquered nails clacking as she taps something out on her keyboard.

“Seth Baker, you said?” She echoes. A few more taps of the keyboard followed by pursed lips and a wary look up at Eddie.

At the group of us now clustered around him, holding our breath.

“He’s in ICU, level 1. The trauma center.

” A pause, a slow blink. “The reception for the trauma center is that way, but I doubt they’ll let you see him. Only close family.”

“He’s our brother,” Eddie tells her without missing a beat.

The receptionist lifts an eyebrow, her gaze drifting pointedly to Antoine.

“Antoine’s Matty’s brother-in-law,” Eddie clarifies, waving to me and Antoine’s clasped hands. The receptionist’s eyes catch on the ring peeking out from between me and Antoine’s clasped fingers and she gives an approving nod.

“Well, head on over that way,” she says, tilting her chin to a corridor to the left, her tone heavy with sympathy. “The team at the trauma center will let you know when you can see him.”

“Brother,” Matty whispers when we’re out of earshot. “Really?”

Eddie shrugs. “What? It’s not that unbelievable, right? This is Utah. Don’t people have big families here? So what’s a couple of brothers and a sister?”

Antoine’s hand tightens around mine, making Matty’s ring press against my skin.

That woman hadn’t doubted that me and Antoine were married, either.

Back home, someone my age saying they were married would get a few raised eyebrows, at least. No one I know is married. None of my friends have even talked about it.

And yet, it’s almost the truth, isn’t it? Antoine has booked in a date at the court for it and everything.

When we get to the trauma center, it turns out all Eddie’s sweet-talking was for nothing.

“I’m sorry,” a nurse tells us shortly. His eyes are ringed with lack of sleep, the faintest hint of stubble darkening his rounded cheeks. “Only one family member permitted while they’re operating. But you can wait here and someone will come and update you once he’s stable.”

My breath catches on the nurse’s words and I find myself stumbling back, my legs nearly tangling beneath me as I sink into one of the waiting room chairs.

In surgery? He’s in surgery?

I squeeze my eyes shut, throat tight as I think about Seth just down the hall. Unconscious. In pain. Alone.

“But Liam is with him, right?” Antoine asks the nurse, the seat creaking as he sits beside me. “He’s not by himself?”

“That’s his brother? The one who rode in the ambulance with him?” the nurse asks, checking something on his clipboard. “Then yes, he’s with him.”

Antoine lets out a sigh of relief and I find my own chest relax, just a little. Enough that I can loosen my hold on Antoine’s fingers and pull his hand onto my lap instead.

“It might be a few hours,” the nurse informs us, glancing brusquely at the small digital clock pinned to the front of his scrubs.

“But there’s a cafeteria that way if you need anything.

” He waves one hand in the direction of the main lobby, then gives the group of us a look of mild curiosity and one tired but reassuring smile before excusing himself and leaving us alone.

Matty drops into the seat beside me but Eddie stays standing, one foot tapping against the clean linoleum with a frenzied staccato.

“You alright?” Matty asks him.

Eddie turns to look at him in surprise, his eyes a little too wide, his answering grin a little too forced.

“I’m fine.”

“You wanna sit down?” Matty pats the seat on his other side. “It sounds like it’s gonna be a while.”

Eddie stares blankly at the empty seat. The tapping of his foot intensifies, setting an almost frantic rhythm.

“Yeah. Nah. I’m good.”

“What is this ‘yeah nah’ thing, anyway?” Antoine asks teasingly, but his voice reminds me of a stretched rubber band. “Is it a yes or a no?”

Eddie huffs and his foot goes momentarily still. “It means ‘yeah nah’,” he explains unhelpfully. “No, I guess?” He cocks his head, considering. “Suppose I never really thought about it.”

The tapping starts up again, slower than before, but just as persistent. Somewhere down the corridor a machine beeps, the sound faint but jarring. Eddie’s hands clench into fists at his side, then unclench, then clench again.

Matty gives a light jolt beside me, his large hand landing on my knee, his eyes widening in recognition before turning to give me a meaningful look. It takes me a full heartbeat to understand Matty’s concern, what he’s trying to say.

I turn back to look at Eddie with his pinched expression, looking like a wild animal ready to bolt. Eddie, who spent years in hospital as a child fighting for his life. These sounds, these smells, they must be torture for him. They must be dragging him right back to those moments.

“Why don’t you go and get us some food?” I suggest, my throat thick. I dig through my coat pocket for my car keys and wallet. “You can use my card…”

Eddie snaps the keys from my hand without a second’s hesitation, but wrinkles his nose at the offered card.

“Fuck that, missy.” A wry smile curves the corners of his lips. “You’re broke as. I’m not using your money.” Then a more mischievous grin in Antoine’s direction as he adds: “Moneybags here can pay me back once you make him his millions.”

Antoine chuckles, but it’s a hollow sound. “Assuming that all happens. Sure.” He shrugs, offering Eddie a faint smile before slumping into his seat.

I tighten my hold on his hand, give it a reassuring squeeze. It’s going to work out , I want to tell him. It will .

But of course, I don’t know that.

Matty clears his throat. “I’ll come with you.” He rises, then shoots me a questioning glance. “If you’re okay with that, guys? You don’t need me?”

I stare up at him, longing a persistent ache behind my ribs. I do need him. I need all of them. Don’t they know that? Can’t they see that?

“That’s a good idea,” I rasp, even as I want to reach out, pull him back down beside me. “Eddie isn’t used to driving on the right side of the road.”

“The wrong side of the road,” Eddie counters.

“It’s literally the right side,” Antoine points out. “You drive on the left.”

Matty bites back a smile.