Page 77 of Taste of Surrender

“It sounds like his coke was laced with fentanyl. He’s stable now, so they’re going to release him in a couple of hours.”

“That soon?” Malachi balked.

Rina shrugged. “I was surprised too, but the doctor assured me it was standard procedure.”

“He can’t go home by himself,” Jesse said, worry etched all over his face.

“He agreed to let one of you stay with him tonight,” Rina explained.

“I’ll do it,” Elliott offered immediately.

“Okay, great.” Rina gave a small smile.

“Can we go back and see him?” Jesse looked hopeful.

“No.” Rina shook her head. “They said they would only let a family member in, but the doctor made an exception when he heard me at the nurses’ station. You guys should go home and get some rest. He seems receptive to getting some help, and I want us all to meet tomorrow to figure out where to go from here.”

“What about San Diego?” Malachi asked. “We’re going to need to cancel, right?”

Rina nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to take care of that right now. As far as the other shows, that’s part of what we need to discuss tomorrow.”

After confirming Elliott would call if anything changed, we begrudgingly got up to leave. The second we stepped outside, the paparazzi swarmed around us, and we were nearly blinded by flashes from the numerous cameras pointed in our direction. They started shouting questions about Silas, and our grouphurried across the parking lot to our various vehicles, ignoring the reporters’ demands for information.

Malachi unlocked his SUV, and I slid into the passenger seat. Once inside, he started the engine and reversed out of the parking space. “Those fucking vultures have no shame. Why can’t they give us a moment of peace?”

I placed my hand on his thigh. “They’re assholes looking for a story. The only thing we can do is ignore them.”

He blew out a breath. “So, are you staying with me tonight, or am I dropping you off at Jesse’s?”

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

He gave me a small smile. “I figured that was the plan when you hopped in the car with me, but I didn’t want to assume.”

I squeezed his leg. “I want to go home with you.”

“Good. Do you want to hit up somewhere to get a bite? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving, and I don’t have much at my place.”

Normally, I would have offered to make him some food, but after the night we had, I wasn’t feeling up to it.

I shrugged. “I could eat.”

We spotted a twenty-four-hour diner not far from the hospital, and Malachi turned into the parking lot. We were seated right away and placed our orders. Since it was two in the morning, there weren’t many other customers, and the few who were eating didn’t seem to recognize Malachi.

“When we’re done, can we stop at Jesse’s?” I asked, as I dug into the pancakes the server had brought over.

He took a sip of orange juice. “Why?”

“I didn’t really think about anything other than coming to see you tonight, so I didn’t grab any of my stuff when we headed to the theater.”

“You don’t need clothes to sleep in, and I’m sure I have something you can wear tomorrow.”

I arched an eyebrow. “I don’t have a toothbrush.”

“We can stop at a drugstore.”

I knew he was trying to avoid running into Jesse, but with any luck, he and Olivia would already be in bed, so I could sneak in and out quickly.

“It will only take a minute, and you can wait in the car.”