“Hello?”
Thank fuck. She picked up. “Hey. It’s me. Listen, I’m driving to pick up Aria now, but then I’m going to swing back around and get you because I don’t want you walking. I’ll be at your house in twenty minutes.”
“Brecken, what the hell are you talking about? It’s three in the morning—”
“Margot was stabbed, Rina. Wes is taking her up to the OR now.”
She’s silent for several seconds. “I’m not waiting for you to pick me up. I have to go now.”
“Rina—”
“I can’t sit in my fucking house and wait!” she screams. “I told her to get a restraining order. What did he do to her? I’ll kill him. If she dies, I’ll kill him.”
I shake my head. I have no idea who she’s talking about. Then it hits me. I heard them discussing it one night weeks ago. Margot has an ex. A married ex, as it turns out, though she didn’t know that. But that married ex has been hanging around. Not wanting to give up on her.
“Baby…” I don’t know what to say. Rina was attacked by an obsessed ex. I can’t imagine how close this is hitting home with her. Only she made it out with her life and now Margot is fighting for hers. “Please wait for me to come get you.”
She’s already gone. The line is dead. Fuck. “Fuck!” Margot, you have to make it. For everyone. You have to make it.
31
Rina
I make the mistake of stopping in the ED first. I’m not even sure why. Maybe I needed to hear it. Hear what Dr. Jordie has to say. Hear from some of the nurses too. Police were everywhere when I arrived, and I had to show my badge for them to let me in this part of the building.
Margot was stabbed in a stairwell.
Stabbed. Can you imagine?
She was stabbed by her ex, Julien’s crazy wife. Julien was stabbed too, but he’s now recovering in the PACU (post-anesthesia care unit) and I don’t give a shit about him. All I could hear was Jordie say that Margot coded on the table. Now she’s upstairs in the OR. It’s where I’m headed, stepping off the elevator and walking down toward the ORs instead of the waiting room.
It’s where Drew will be waiting, if I know anything about the man. He’ll want to be as close to her as he can be and sure enough, as I round the corner, I spot Aria and Brecken sitting down on the ground beside Drew who looks absolutely wrecked in a way I’ve never seen a man wrecked before.
I reach the other side of him, unable to sit because for some reason, sitting feels like defeat. Standing feels like I’m doing something. Like I’m fighting right along with Margot. Margot needs strength. When all you see is darkness, strength can feel like a fallacy. Until something comes along and reminds you that you’re not alone. That fighting is an instinct not to be ignored.
Brecken glances up at me, blazing intensity into the side of my face, begging me to acknowledge him. I know that look in his eyes. He wants to make sure I’m okay when I’m anything but.
None of us are okay right now.
I want to go to him. Speaking of instinct, I want him to wrap those big, strong arms around me and hold me. I want him to tell me everything will be okay even if it might not be. He’s my red, juicy apple. Poisonously delicious. Impossibly irresistible. Dangerously loveable.
I give in, I can’t stop it really, and in finding his blue eyes filled with heartache and strength for me, I wonder what the hell I’ve been doing this last week without him.
It’s been miserable, I can tell you that much.
I’ve never cried over a guy before but this week I cried a lot over letting Brecken Davenport go. Even if I felt like it was the right decision then.
Aria is sitting beside him and she’s his sister. My friend. Honoring that friendship felt so important. Still does, but being with Brecken feels like something I should have pushed back on her for.
I should have told her the type of man her brother is.
A tear drips down my cheek, quickly followed by another and I look away from him, finding the doors of the OR across the corridor and through the scrub room. Margot. “I haven’t asked,” I say, breaking the tense silence, my voice hoarse like I haven’t used it for anything other than crying in years. “I can’t.” I swallow down the threatening sob.
“They managed to get her in there, but it was touch and go,” Drew whispers, his head heavy against the wall. “It’s my fault. We had a fight. I walked in on Julien professing his love before he kissed her, and I lost it. I said…” He swallows, his voice cracking with anguish. “I said awful things I didn’t mean, and then I left her in the stairwell. That’s where it happened.”
“Julien is in the PACU,” I announce. “He made it through surgery, but he’s going to be in rough shape for a while. They had to remove his spleen.”
“His wife is also in custody,” Jonah states, his voice soft, soothing as him and Halle arrive, sitting on the floor against the wall across from us, littering the hall, too scared for much else. Halle is openly weeping, clinging tightly to Jonah’s side. “The police caught up to her at Logan Airport.”
“I spoke to a cop friend of mine downtown,” Josh says as he approaches us, sitting beside Halle. He takes her hand, giving it a squeeze and kissing the side of her head. “The bitch who did this isn’t going anywhere ever.” He glances around before shuddering. “I hate this place. I hate it so goddamn much.”
Josh was attacked not even a year ago and spent quite a while in this hospital. In that same OR with Wes working his magic. I wasn’t his nurse. I was mostly working in the MICU then, but I remember it all too well.
“I’m glad you came, though,” Aria whispers. “It will mean so much to Margot.” Her voice cracks and I hear her puffing out a few deep breaths while trying to hold it together and doing a shitty job of it. Same as the rest of us.
Why Margot? Margot is the light of us. The wild burst of fresh air. The silly, quirky girl who has finally found love and happiness.
“I don’t care if she’s in custody,” Drew snarls. “I don’t care that Julien made it through.”
In the next breath, he stands up, marching with determined strides toward the OR when Jonah hops to his feet, getting in his face, blocking his path. “You can’t do it, mate. You can’t go in there.”
“Jonah,” Drew growls his name. A warning.
Not even a half second and Brecken shifts in beside Jonah, Josh falling to the other side. Aria, Halle, and I all exchange nervous glances. Drew is fractured with guilt and helplessness. That much is obvious. He’s a doctor and the woman he loves is fighting for her life not even twenty feet from him and he can’t do anything but sit here and wait.
I get it. We’re all there.
But he can’t go in that OR and he can’t pick a fight just to lose it either.
“Clearly, I am not a medical person,” Brecken starts, his tone strong and arrogant as he tries to cut the tension, “but you look like hell, and I imagine feel a million times worse. Do you think that would be helpful to her right now? To have you in there while they’re trying to save her and you’re nothing but a miserable sack of regretful shit? Tell her you’re sorry after she wakes up.” Drew steps forward, his fists balled up and Brecken grins like he has zero fucks to give right now. “I can take it, motherfucker. If that’s what you think you need, I can take it. The question is, do you really want to dole it out?”