“The man’s name that hurt me. Travis Haynes,” I whispered. “That’s his name. He’s the dude you punched in the parking lot of the courthouse the day we found out my brother was being declared mentally insane.”
Then, with that last task taken care of, I passed out and didn’t wake back up.
CHAPTER 25
I won’t cry over you. Mascara is way too expensive.
-Dory to Bram
BRAM
Her body was twisted awkwardly. As in, she lay where she was thrown, not able to realign her limbs. Her leg was folded underneath of her and I couldn’t be sure of her neck’s status, so I wasn’t taking any chances moving her.
And her head. The only thing holding her scalp in place on her head was a few twisted strands of skin. She’d been scalped.
That wasn’t including her arms. They looked like they were sacks of marbles.
Her eyes had been completely bloodshot, and she’d been crying tears of blood.
But the worst? The worst was the fact that she could feel the baby moving, when I damn well hadn’t been able to. Not a single movement had come since she’d said she wanted to feel it.
I hadn’t been sure what she’d been feeling, but it definitely wasn’t Harker’s movement.
Then her words had come to me.
How she’d wanted me to tell the baby about her—maybe.
As if I would ever let a day go by that Harker wouldn’t know his mother.
What a beautiful person she was, inside and out.
If he made it, that was.
I was sitting alone in the emergency room.
They’d taken her upstairs hours ago, yet I hadn’t heard a single word in all that time.
Hell, I didn’t even know where to go.
The door to my right banged open so hard it hit the wall, drawing my attention.
I blinked when I saw Wake.
Followed by my brother, Haggard.
Which didn’t seem right, because I’d had no time to call him to tell him about Dory, let alone give him time to ride here.
Yet, after Haggard burst through the door behind Wake, Shine, Price, Easton, and Tide were on his heels. My dad and Jeremiah followed immediately behind.
Something in my broken heart shivered at the sight of them.
They all looked fierce.
Pissed.
So blazing mad that I knew they knew what had happened to Dory.
The moment they made it up to me, I spoke.
“What are y’all doing here?” I asked quietly.
Was that my voice? Damn, it sounded like some wounded animal’s.
“Dory called us last night and asked if we could help y’all move back home,” Price answered, walking right up to me and throwing his arms around my head, squeezing hard. “How is she?”
How was she?
I swallowed hard.
She wasn’t great.
In fact, I didn’t know if she’d even make it off of the operating table they’d taken her to.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I haven’t been able to move since I got here.”
That was the truth.
Each time I tried to stand, my goddamn legs wouldn’t hold me.
“I’ll go check.” Tide moved past me to the nurses’ station he could see beyond the swinging doors.
We were in a hospital right outside of Tampa.
It was, supposedly, one of the best in the nation.
I was thankful that they’d airlifted her here.
She had a fighting chance, at least, if she was with a doctor that knew what he was doing.
“The baby?” I heard someone ask.
My heart sank.
That was another thing I had been trying very hard not to think about.
The baby.
Our son.
Our son that was likely dead.
“Don’t know,” I admitted.
Didn’t want to know.
I didn’t want to hear that he might be gone before he’d even taken a breath of air outside of Dory’s womb.
If I closed my eyes, I could pretend that this day hadn’t happened.
That I was still sleeping with her at my side.
But she wouldn’t do that ever again if she was dead.
She wouldn’t laugh. She wouldn’t smile at me. She wouldn’t look at a piece of food and I wouldn’t have to coax her to eat it. I wouldn’t get to bring her home a cupcake anymore, or watch her wash her hair. I wouldn’t be able to see her holding our son in her arms.
I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything.
What was the point of living…
“How much more can she take before she can’t take anymore?” I asked aloud.
But I hadn’t aimed that question at anyone in particular.
It’d been more rhetorical than anything.
“Eventually, she won’t be able to get up anymore when life knocks her down.”
Jeremiah.
The one man in my family that’d always had Dory’s back.
I looked over at him and felt a sick sort of understanding with him.
One that acknowledged how much of a piece of shit I’d been in the beginning but had turned around to be the exact opposite.
Now, the thought of not having Dory was breaking me. Then? What would’ve happened before? Before I’d realized that she meant the world to me. Before, when I couldn’t see her standing in front of me when my head was buried in my own fucked up thoughts?
“She’s going to make it,” Shine declared.
Shine, one of the most vocal in the beginning of his dislike for Dory.
He’d changed.
In the last six months, as he’d gotten to know Dory for who she really was, and not for who he saw her as when she didn’t engage, had come to know and love her just like the rest of us.
That had a lot to do with his wife, Iris, though.
Would he have made that gesture if it’d been only him?
“I don’t think that she can,” I admitted. “Not after everything…”
I couldn’t tell them what happened to her. Couldn’t explain.
A shuffle had me glancing up to see Davis, or KD as Dory had dubbed him, limping toward us.
He looked at me like he wanted to rip his heart out and hand it to me.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry I didn’t protect her.”
Wake caught KD and directed him toward an empty waiting room chair across the room, while I watched him go.
KD had tried. I could tell that he’d tried to protect her. Had protected her as best as he could with what he’d been given.
But still, it hadn’t been enough.
I should’ve done more…
Tide came back with a grim look on his face.
“As of right now, she’s still in surgery. She suffered a lot of damage from the bomb, but she’s hanging on,” he promised. “They had to deliver the baby and he’s fine.”
The baby is fine.
Four words that rocked my world.
“Is he?” I asked, feeling numb.
“Yeah,” Tide confirmed. “They have him in the NICU right now because he’s having a little trouble breathing on his own since he’s just a bit early. But they believe that they’ll get him straightened out and you can see him soon. Okay?”
I nodded.
At least, I thought I nodded.
Tide pulled Haggard over toward the side of the room, and the rest of them joined them.