Page 42

42

JACK

WAITING GAME

“ S ir.” Standing over me with a shrewd expression, in blue scrubs and a sissy little hat, the doctor’s salt and pepper sprinkled hair peeks out from beneath the thin material. “We need to take you in for surgery.”

He needs to get the fuck out of my space before I slam his face against the dirty tile floor.

He can go to surgery as much as he wants, but I’m not going with him.

“Not yet.”

He watches me with disappointment. Every few seconds, his eyes drop to my limp arm. “Mr. Reilly. I have a duty of care–”

“And I have a duty of care to my girlfriend!” I point toward the hall. “Until I see her and know for a damn fact she’s okay, I’m not going with you. You’re fuckin’ insane if you think I’m letting you knock me unconscious just to fix my damn arm.”

“But–”

“I’ve seen this show before, motherfucker. I won’t be going to sleep while assholes in white coats lay a sheet over my girlfriend’s face. If you want me to come with you, take your stupid ass into whatever the fuck room they’ve got her, and find out what’s going on. Now!”

“Sir.” The nurse steps between me and the squirrelly doctor. Her balls are bigger than his, that’s for sure. “You need to calm down. This is a waiting room, where sick people and their families sit. ”

“So go and find my girlfriend,” I grind out between clenched teeth, “and make sure she’s okay!”

“The chief is with her!” she snaps. “You’re not family, so we can’t give you updates, anyway. It’s really best if you go with Dr. Steinb–”

“I’m not going!”

“Sir!” Glancing toward a terrified Evie and Bean, she flicks the mom eyes back to me – that look that says she’s a mom, and she knows how to get an insubordinate asshole to conform.

With puffy faces, red eyes, and trembling hands, they hold each other in a bear hug and watch me throw a tantrum in the hospital emergency waiting room.

The two girls who are so often at each other’s throats, now console each other because I’m too fucking distracted to help them. Short of tossing them in my car and driving them here while we followed the police escorted ambulance, I’ve done nothing to make sure they’re okay.

Uncle and boyfriend; I suck at both jobs.

“Shit.” Scrubbing my good hand over my face, I count down from five in my head in an attempt to cool my anger.

It doesn’t work.

“Shit!” Turning toward them, I sit down in the crappy hospital chairs and pull them into my lap. They aren’t babies anymore, and yet, they curl against my chest the way they used to. “It’s okay.” I press a kiss to Bean’s forehead. “I’ve got you guys. I’ll protect you, I promise.”

Evie hiccups against my chest. “Is Miss T gonna be okay?”

Fuck.

My throat closes up with terror. Images of a broken Britt join those of a broken Steph, a broken Kit.

All the women in my life get hurt.

“Yeah, Bug, she’ll be okay.”

“I called her a bitch,” she sobs. “I called her a mean, mean name, but she still protected me.”

“She’ll be okay, Smalls.” She has to be okay.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Uncle Jack.”

Tears I can’t stop stream along my cheeks and dribble into her hair. I look at the watermarked ceiling and work to blink them away. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” I can’t breathe through my nose. I can’t breathe at all. “The doctors will help her. They’ll make her all better.”

“I take it back. I take what I said back.”

“I know you do.” I kiss her hair. “I know.”

Aiden skids into the waiting room and stops. “Evie!” With an angry vein almost bursting in his forehead, he clutches at Tina’s hand and drags her across the tiled floor at a sprint.

Jimmy and Iz follow barely two seconds behind, and when the girls see their parents sprinting across the room, they dissolve into breathless sobbing.

Tall for her age, Evie’s only a couple inches shorter than her mom, but Tina whips her daughter from my arms and hugs her like she’s still three. Jim does the same with Bean, and I’m left empty handed and all alone.

Sitting forward as my siblings are reunited with their daughters, I rest my head in my hand and count my breaths.

Bambie will be okay. She has to be okay.

“Hey.” A familiar voice comes closer, then a gentle hand takes mine and squeezes gently. “What happened, Jack?”

Like a fly swimming through jelly, my movements are slow. Lethargically, I look up into my sister’s blazing eyes.

When did she get here?

Who called her?

Who called Tina and Iz?

Swallowing around the painful lump in my throat as it threatens to choke me, a dark haze washes over my eyes. “She got hurt.”

Sitting in the chair to my right, she links her fingers with mine. My left arm lies limp in my lap, lifeless and useless. I can’t pinch my fingers together.

I can’t do anything with it.

“Who? Who hurt her, Jack?”

“Brad.”

Sitting forward in the chair on my left, Bobby’s intense eyes wait for me to focus.

Am I stoned? Did she already die?

“Brad the Bore?”

Nodding, I study the dirty grout between each tile. “Brad the Bore. Yep.”

“What happened to your hand?”

I allow my gaze to slowly drift from the off-white tile, to my sister, to my arm. My fist is shredded. There are actual teeth marks broken through the surface.

“I killed him.”

Like I hit her, she rears back. “You killed him?”

“Dunno.” Don’t care. I hope so.

The motion-activated front doors slide open, and several more familiar faces rush through. Laine’s already here, already somewhere else in this hospital with Bambie.

Alex, too.

But the rest of them storm in. Scotch first, with a face as white as a ghost, then the rest of his band, the other blonde sister. Even seeing the brown-haired mouse does nothing to me.

She’s… whatever.

She’s nobody to me except my girlfriend’s friend.

My ex-girlfriend’s friend.

Luc runs in and stops as soon as our eyes meet. Angry face and balled hands, he storms forward and stops only a foot in front of me.

“What happened to her?”

Evie peeks up from her mom’s chest. “She got hurt at school.” Hiccupping, she wipes her tears with her forearm. “Mr. Maxwell beat her up.”

Scotch’s angry gaze snaps between me and Evie. “Mr. Maxwell?”

“School teacher,” Iz answers angrily. “Former one-time date.”

Sobbing, Bean buries her face between Jim and Iz. “My uncle, too.”

Finally, something other than grief and worry penetrates my brain.

My eyes come up to my niece. “What?”

“My dad’s brother.”

The band turns on Jim as one, but the Kincaids know better. Eyes go round, and faces drain whiter.

Brushing Bean’s long mahogany hair out of her eyes, Izzy cups her soft cheeks. “Who told you that, baby?”

Crying, she rubs a fist against her eyes and resembles the infant I remember from – what I swear was – only a month ago.

Certainly not eight years.

“Brad did,” she clarifies. “He said he was Ben’s brother.”

Stepping toward Bean and Iz menacingly, Scotch balls his hands. “Who the fuck is Ben?”

Slamming his open palm to Scotch’s chest, Jim pushes him back a step. “You wanna back the fuck up outta my daughter’s face. You got questions, they come through me.”

“Stop.” Taking Jim’s tense arm in her hand, Iz works to place herself between the men. “Jim, stop.” She turns to the band. “Ben’s a man I dated a very long time ago. He’s my daughter’s biological father.”

“And Brad?”

She shrugs. “I have no clue. We met him once last year. Britt came over to say hey, he was with her, but he didn’t say much.”

Scotch’s face contorts with disbelief… and a whole lot of rage. “So yo u’re saying you didn’t recognize your baby daddy’s brother? How many guys have you fu–”

Jim pushes him back until they slam against the wall and the people in waiting room gasp. “Get the fuck out of here,” Jim seethes. “Get out of this hospital before I put you into it. Don’t speak to my family again.”

“Stop!” Tink pushes through the crowd of band members and fighters. “Jim, stop. Scotch, stop being a dick, you’re better than that.” She slides her tiny body between the two feuding men and pushes Jim away. She points at Scotch. “His sister’s in here somewhere. She’s hurt and he’s scared. Be cool.” She turns on Scotch and points to Jim. “ His daughter’s been terrorized, and my brother’s girlfriend is in this hospital. She’s hurt, and he’s scared. Stop being a dick. We’re all on the same team.”

With a shove that surprises everyone that doesn’t already know the tiny woman, she pushes the guys further apart, then turns to me.

Everyone turns toward me. They want answers.

I shrug. “I don’t know about Brad and Ben. I just know what I saw when I got there today. Brad was on her.”

“ On her?” Luc steps forward on shaky legs. “He didn’t– she… Did he–”

With trembling hands, he hugs the second blonde woman to his side and chokes on worry.

I shake my head.

I fucking hate the prick, but I can’t let him think that happened to her.

“No.” Britt’s his girlfriend too, I guess, and if he knew stuff that I didn’t, I’d want him to return the favor. “Nothing like that. He was on her…” Every tiny detail races through my brain. “He was hitting her. He was holding her down and hitting her.”

“He wanted Benny and Livi,” Evie volunteers shakily. “He said he wanted Benny and Liv and he wanted to hurt their mom.”

“Did he hurt you?” Aiden asks. His voice is gentle, but the fire in his eyes screams violence. “Did he hurt you or Bean?”

“No. He pushed us over.” She pushes masses of curls from her eyes. “Miss T protected us and he pushed us over. She told us to run away.”

“Alright.” Unable to hold out any longer, he takes his daughter from Tina’s arms, tucks her face against his neck and wraps her legs around his waist.

“I called her a bitch,” she cries with devastation. “I called her a bitch and told her she wouldn’t get away with hurting our family.” She squeezes his neck tighter. “I didn’t mean it. I didn’t know she’d get hurt.”

“It’s okay.” Swaying the way I’ve seen him do for her and his two other daughters a million times over the years, he rubs his fight roughened hands in soothing circles on her back. “I promise she’ll forgive you.”

“She hates me!”

“She protected you, Smalls. She loves you.”

“I told her she wasn’t allowed to call me Smalls anymore,” she wails. “I said that was only for family.”

“So when she wakes up, we’ll tell her different.” His voice cracks. “We’ll make it all better. I promise.”

Kneeling in front of me, Luc’s icy blue eyes look into mine. “What don’t we know?” His voice is quiet, barely discernible.

I shrug as exhaustion and devastation threaten to swallow me up. “I don’t know. Laine was with her in the ambulance. Alex was in the cruiser escorting them. In the thirty seconds it took me to get the girls out of my car, she was already taken away. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I haven’t seen her since.”

“I’ll see if I can get answers.” Tying her long hair up with a hair tie that rests around her wrist the way Bambie’s sits on mine, the mouse turns away from our group and moves through a security locked door. “I’ll be back soon. Hang tight.”

Sluggishly, I watch the doors close behind her, then I turn back to Luc in confusion.

“She’s a nurse.”

“Oh.” I let my head droop with exhaustion. “Okay.”

“I’ll try and call Alex.” Scotch takes his phone from his pocket and dials.

In silence – even the other patients hold their breath – we watch and wait to see if Alex will answer, or worse, if he’s too busy and can’t.

Scotch slumps and lets out a noisy breath when the line connects. “X. What’s happening?” They’re on the phone for no more than two minutes, but Scotch’s answers are all yes and no and frustrate the fuck out of me.

Hanging up, he drops his head back and stares at the ceiling.

“What?” Jess asks with a shaking voice. “What’s happening?”

Bringing his gaze back to me, it’s almost as though he pities me.

He’s going to hurt me.

“She’s in surgery.” He clears the emotion from his throat. “My baby sister’s in surgery. Broken bones. Concussion. A… few other things.”

A few other things.

Bobby jerks his chin. “What about everything else? What about Brad? What about–”

“Who gives a fuck about Brad?” Standing with renewed energy, my left arm hangs limp like boiled spaghetti attached to my shoulder. “I don’t give a shit about him!”

“I wanna know if he’s alive,” Bobby snaps. “If he’s not, then we get good fucking lawyers, because you won’t be getting in trouble over this. If he is alive, then we find more lawyers and we make sure he lives long enough for prison.”

“He’s alive,” Scotch answers wearily. “Alex said Oz is on him. He’s in surgery, too.”

“Why?” Stepping forward on wobbling legs, I stop in Scotch’s face. “Let him die!”

“He’s not going to die from his injuries,” he argues. “So unless we go in there and get the job done properly, he’s staying alive.”

“So let’s go get the job done properly!”

Kit steps in front of me and drags my wild eyes down to hers. She nods toward my still crying nieces. “Stop.” She speaks in an almost whisper. “You need to be strong for them. You’re scaring them.”

“I’m scared, too!” Fresh tears fall and splash onto my cheeks. “I’m so fucking scared.”

“I know.” She steps forward and rests her cheek above my heart. “I know you’re scared, Jack.” She rubs my back exactly the way Aiden rubs Evie’s. “I know you’re scared.”

“She’s gonna be okay,” Scotch says. “X promised.”

“Is he lying?” I swipe my nose with my good arm. “Is he saying that to make you feel better?”

“No,” he declares quickly. “He doesn’t lie. Not ever.”

It would be more than six hours before Alex and Kari reemerge to talk to us in person. With his sister’s blood smeared on his shirt, and his hair standing in a hundred directions, Alex watches me closest of all.

“She has a broken arm.” He points to his forearm. “Here and here. Radius and ulna. Clean breaks, snapped right through.” He swallows down the nausea that sentence puts in his belly. “They pinned it. She’ll have a shitty time in airports from now on.” He points to his face and takes a shaky breath. “She also has a fractured cheekbone, but it’s not so bad. Just gotta wait for it to heal. She’s pretty fucking bruised up, but overall, she’s not doing too bad. Brad’s a hundred times worse.”

“Good.”

The words come from my mouth, but everyone nods in agreement .

“Shattered cheekbone, shattered eye socket, missing teeth, shattered jaw. Basically, his entire skull is broken. He’ll be in here for a long while.”

“Is Jack in trouble?” Stepping forward, Tink wraps her small hand around Alex’s wrist. “It was self-defense, right?”

“He’s not in trouble,” Alex declares. “That school had security monitors installed in every classroom, ever since that thing a few years ago. I’ve already watched the footage, it’s already been sealed for evidence and secured for prosecution. Maxwell will be formally charged as soon as he’s up and able, and in the meantime, he’ll have twenty-four-seven surveillance by either me or Oz personally. I’ll not be arresting you, Jack, and no one else will, either. You have my word.”

Kit squeezes my arm in comfort. “What’s Britt’s prognosis?”

“She’s out of surgery.” He blows out a noisy breath. “She’s sore, she’s bruised, but she’ll be out of here in a few days. Then she’s just gotta rest up and heal. She’ll be okay.”

Nodding, dizzy with relief, I flop into the plastic seat and pray I don’t eat the floor again. Bobby takes my arm to make sure I don’t slide straight out of my chair, then pushes my head between my knees when the buzzing rushes through my ears.

The mouse kneels in front of me.

She doesn’t look like Steph at all. With her face barely two inches from mine, not even the pen light she flashes in my eyes can blind me; she’s not like Steph at all.

“It’s time to take care of yourself now, Jack.” She sounds nothing like Steph. Her eyes are a different shade. Her curls aren’t even the same. “Your Bambie’s okay,” she murmurs kindly. “Now you gotta take care of yourself.”

Nodding, mesmerized by the stars that float across my vision, I smile, then I fall forward and let Bobby catch me.

Maybe if Britt’s sleeping, we can visit in our dreams.