Page 92 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)

Selene

It all happened so fast.

Logan took Alyssa out for her birthday. He’d gotten her a gift and planned a romantic dinner, but after he took her home, something had gone awry.

We still didn’t know exactly what happened, because Logan couldn’t talk to us. Logan couldn’t hear us. Logan wasn’t conscious.

At that particular moment, Mia was sobbing in my father’s arms as he tried to support her. Her blond hair tumbled gently around her shoulders, and mascara streaked down her cheeks. I, meanwhile, was still so shocked by the news of his accident that I wasn’t even completely sure where I was.

“What happened?”

For a second, I thought I’d imagined that baritone. But then I realized he was actually there, in the hospital, because I could see him running toward us, his beautiful face a portrait of fear. Mia turned to her son and kept sobbing, trying in vain to speak.

“Logan lost control of his car,” Matt explained, moving closer to Neil as though preparing to handle him if he had another huge reaction.

“He lost control of the car?” he repeated, his golden eyes intent. “How is he? Where is he? He’s okay, right?” he demanded, panting. He was out of breath and clearly shaken up, so Matt rested his hands on Neil’s shoulders, trying to calm him down.

“Neil,” he said, giving him a gentle squeeze. “They had to rush him into the operating room. He had internal bleeding and—”

“I need to see him!” he shouted, shooting agitated glances all around.

“Neil, calm down, you need to understand that—” Matt tried again, but his words were useless in the face of Neil’s anger.

“I need to see him! Christ’s sake!” he continued shouting, attracting the attention of a few nurses who turned to watch him. His voice was so loud, so full of rage that it made me flinch.

“Neil, calm down.” Matt reached out for him again, but he dodged out of the way. Neil hated being touched; my father should have known that. Mia, meanwhile, looked like she was going to faint, so I rushed over and took her arm.

“Mia!” I exclaimed fearfully, my hands trembling as I helped her into a chair.

“Neil, don’t be this way,” she whispered to her son, and I could see how anxious she was. I realized that, in that moment, Neil’s reaction was what Mia feared the most.

“No, goddammit! Let me see him!” He began stalking around in an agitated fashion and a couple of nurses approached him, which only made the situation worse.

My father attempted again to calm him down, but Neil wasn’t listening to anyone.

“Neil, please!” Mia burst into tears again, but he just raged harder. It was a disturbing scene.

“What is going on here?” a doctor with an arrogant air asked disdainfully as he approached, regarding Neil warily.

“Let me see my brother!” he shouted again. His golden eyes, shiny with pain, darted to the doctor who maintained his cold-blooded expression.

“Son, try to calm down,” he told Neil. “Do you know how many people I see in this place every single day, crying their eyes out while their loved ones fight for their lives?”

“Calm down?! It’s not your brother lying in a hospital bed! Let me fucking see him! Now!” Neil screamed, grabbing the doctor by the lapels of his white coat.

My father and the nurses stopped him, wrapping their arms around him, but Neil was more than six feet of beast, powerful and impossible to control. He threw off their grasps roughly, and still holding on to the doctor’s coat, he shouted again, “Don’t touch me!”

He was completely out of his mind. His forehead was covered in sweat, the veins in his neck were standing out sharply. His black sweatshirt pulled tight over his tensed biceps, and his sweatpants similarly strained against his quads and calves.

“Call security!” the doctor instructed the nurses.

“I’m not some maniac! I just want to see him!” Neil screamed again. “And don’t get any closer, or I’ll tear you a new asshole, motherfucker!” he shouted at a security guard who had rushed over to stop him.

“Neil, listen to me.” My father took him by the shoulder and dragged him over to a distant corner.

“No, Matt! Let me go!” His screams were heartrending; they were so full of fear and pain, and I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to make him feel better.

Seeing him this way hurt me: His chest heaved frenetically, his disheveled hair was plastered to his forehead, and his eyes were full of anger but also fear.

“Neil, listen carefully to me.” My father grabbed his face in both hands and stared deep into his eyes. “Logan’s in surgery right now. They cannot let you in. You’ll see him as soon as they are done. I give you my word,” he said kindly, trying to comfort him.

Neil swallowed and stared at him, breath still coming in pants.

“He has a head injury and internal bleeding,” Matt went on. “He has a compound fracture to the femur and one of his lungs was at risk of collapsing. That’s why they have to operate on him,” he finished wretchedly while Neil seemed to be in total shock.

Just then, a different doctor approached us, peeling off his mask and gloves as he did so. Mia leaped to her feet while the man just looked at us in silence.

Neil bypassed everyone else and approached him.

“How is he?” he demanded, alarmed, as the doctor continued to look at the group of us, probably searching for the right words to explain everything to us.

“The boy is in critical condition,” the doctor said gravely. We all rushed over to him, and I instinctively positioned myself next to Neil, squeezing his arm. I didn’t even know why I did it, I just knew that, in that moment, I needed him.

“What does that mean? Explain in detail,” my father said. The doctor scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed.

“He’s in a coma for the moment. We’ve stopped the internal bleeding, but unfortunately, he is experiencing pulmonary collapse,” he answered with a polite, albeit saddened look on his face.

“Pulmonary collapse?” my father echoed.

“What does that mean?” Mia sobbed, lifting her hands to her face.

“Pneumothorax or lung collapse occurs when air escapes from the lung—in this case due to major trauma—and gets trapped between the chest wall and the lung itself. The increased pressure causes part or all of the lung to collapse and the patient cannot breathe properly,” the doctor explained in a professional tone.

“Did you perform a needle aspiration to get the air out of his chest?” Matt interjected, demonstrating his expertise in this field. The doctor’s face clearly showed his surprise.

“Yes, of course. We’ve also surgically inserted a fiber-optic camera and searched for the air leak so we could seal it…but… Are you a doctor?” the man asked, frowning slightly.

“Yes, I’m a surgeon. Could I take a look at his chart?” Matt proposed, hastily shedding his jacket.

“Of course. If you scrub up, I’ll take you into the OR,” Logan’s doctor answered before turning back to the rest of us. “Wait here; we’ll have more information for you later,” he said, turning to leave.

“Matt!” Neil reached out and caught my father’s arm, pulling away from me.

“I have never begged anyone for anything, and I never thought I’d need to, but please save him,” Neil pleaded, looking into Matt’s eyes.

Matt touched the side of Neil’s face and smiled at him, like a father would do with his actual son.

“I’m going to go,” he murmured and said nothing further.

He departed in a hurry while Mia remained in the waiting room, head in her hands. She was devastated, and there was nothing I could do except try to give her some moral support.

Overcome, I turned to look at Neil and found him staring off into space, lost in his inner torment.

“Neil,” I moved toward him, intending to be with him, but he just fixed me with a cold stare and brushed past me with a shoulder check that made me stumble.

He headed for the exit, and though it was my instinct to follow him, I didn’t. Sighing, I glanced back at Mia. I walked over to her and took a seat beside her.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” I said softly, swallowing hard. She lifted her blue eyes to me, so full of suffering. Then, suddenly, she embraced me. I stiffened at the unexpected show of affection but returned the gesture.

“My baby, my son…he could die, Selene,” she sobbed into my shoulder, as though transmitting all her misery to me.

“He’s strong, Mia. He’s going to recover.” I was surprised, as I wept with her in that moment, at how close I’d gotten to my father’s family in such a short amount of time.

“Selene, please go after Neil.” My father’s girlfriend put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “He cares so deeply about Logan, and I’m afraid he’s going to do something foolish. Please, don’t let him out of your sight,” she begged me.

I reassured her that I would and left to figure out whether Neil had calmed down.

Cold air stung my face as I exited the hospital, making me pull my coat more tightly around me. I looked around, searching for Neil’s golden eyes and then I spotted them, staring off into space. He was sitting on a wall by the primary parking structure, smoking a cigarette.

He looked as good as ever and just as imposing.

He sat in the only pool of soft light provided by a streetlamp, surrounded on all sides by gloomy semi-darkness.

He’d pulled up the black hood on his sweatshirt to protect himself from the cold, as all he was wearing was basic sweatpants and a T-shirt with a black hoodie over it.

He’d probably rushed here without bothering to find something more appropriate for the weather.

“Did you come out here to check up on me?” He shot me a fleeting glance before returning his gaze to the cigarette he was smoking.

“I just wanted to keep you company,” I answered, debating whether or not to sit down next to him. With Neil, I had to strategize my every move because his mood fluctuated like a seesaw.

“I don’t need company,” he answered seriously and took a drag from his cigarette.