CHAPTER THIRTY

VALERIE

They didn’t let me in.

Kelly had security posted at the door, waiting for me. With sympathetic eyes, they made it clear I couldn’t go further. I liked my boss. I respected her and in the back of my head, I logically understood where she was coming from.

But it still pissed me off.

No. That wasn’t true. I wasn’t pissed; I was scared. The image of Bryan on that Godforsaken gurney, bleeding, people frantically working on him, was imprinted on my mind.

I was terrified I had just found my little bit of beauty in life and like grains of sand through my fingers, it was slipping away. Is he slipping away as I stand here?

I tried to shake the negative thoughts away. I stopped trying to persuade the guards and made my way to the waiting room. Just the thought of having to stand in a waiting room made my gut burn and my throat constrict.

Reaching the stark room, I shouldn’t have been surprised at his partner standing there, but I was. I wasn’t used to having people who cared. I was used to dealing and facing things alone.

His face was serious and set like stone; at a first glance, he didn’t give anything away. But as I got closer, stopping a foot away from him, my knees threatened to buckle. His eyes gave away the gravity of what had happened. They were filled with everything that was swirling inside of me. Panic and worry.

An ice-cold shiver ran though me and I wrapped my arms around my waist in an attempt to somehow protect myself from whatever Tyler was going to share. How the hell did Courtney stab Bryan? Tyler’s hand reached out, probably to comfort me, but I shook my head.

“Don’t,” I snapped harshly. I was afraid if anyone touched me, I would lose it, but that was no reason from me to be a bitch. “I can’t hold things together if you touch me,” I tried to clarify, and his hand dropped.

“Val.“ Tyler’s voice was like gravel, and I took a step back, needing space from him, from reality.

“If you get close to me right now, I’m going to lose it and cry.”

“Okay.” He nodded, his hands out in front of him. “I’ll stay right here.”

“Good.” I looked around the small waiting room. I needed a plan. I needed to do something. “Did you call his family? His brothers? Someone should contact them.” I patted my front pocket and shut my eyes, remembering how I couldn’t find my phone earlier. “I have no idea what happened to my phone, or else I would—“

“I did. They’re on their way,” he shared somberly.

“Right. Good. Good.” Silence filled the waiting room. I couldn’t get myself to move from where I stood. Breaking the silence, I didn’t want to ask, but I needed to know. “What happened?”

“Valerie, honey, maybe right now isn’t—“ he started to say, but I shook my head.

“I need to know,” I blurted out softly, and our eyes met. “I need to know before everyone shows up.” I looked at him and could see he was trying to figure out whether he should or shouldn’t.

“I see these kinds of things every day I come to work. I know what goes on in the big bad world. I need to know what happened to him. Please?” I pleaded with him and watched his eyes fill with sadness as he swallowed hard.

“I’m so sorry.” His voice cracked and my eyes widened, my heart launched into super-sonic speed against my rib cage, but I stayed quiet, waiting him out. “We got here for lunch and he called you. He left a voicemail and then said he was going to go get you.”

“I didn’t have my phone,” I shared, wondering where the hell it could be.

“We know. Courtney had it.”

“What?” I whispered.

“I don’t know how she got it, but she did. Anyhow, he left. I was waiting in the car. A woman holding a kid ran up and banged on the window. She needed a phone, because there was a woman holding a guy up with a knife by the elevators.” A gasp escaped from deep inside me, and my eyes filled with unshed tears. The story Ty shared unfolded in front of me, and I pressed my lips together.

“Keep going,” I pleaded, morbidly needing to know as much as I could.

“I got closer, my gun drawn. I ordered her to put the knife down, Val. She stepped back as he stepped forward. She must have lost her footing just as he reached for the knife, and they both fell over. Fuck.” He shut his eyes tightly, and I knew he was reliving the moment in his mind. “The knife lodged into his side, dug in deep, Val.”

“He lost a lot of blood,” I pointed out the obvious. Tyler was wearing a lot of it.

My man’s blood was on his shirt.

On his hands.

“Yeah,” Ty grunted looking down at his own hands. I couldn’t look away from them myself. I tried to hush my mind. To ignore the list of possible things a stab wound like that could cause. And for the first time since becoming a nurse, I wished I wasn’t. I wished I didn’t know what things meant or could happen.

“Was he stable… awake, I mean?” I asked, looking away from his hands and back at his face.

“He was, but as the medics rolled him away, he…” Tyler’s voice drifted off, and I pressed my lips together again as tears rolled down my face.

“Did he code?” I asked, my voice cracking. My knees felt like they almost gave out beneath me. If he coded…

“No.” He stepped toward me, but before he reached me, a large arm turned me around and pulled me into a solid chest.

“Shh…” a deep rumbled tone hushed at the top of my head. “What the fuck, man?” Garrett growled, holding me close. I tried to pull away, but he wasn’t about to let me go. I did the only thing I could. I gave in and cried.

“Hey, he’s going to be okay. It’s just a small little cut,” Garrett muttered into my hair, and I nodded. What the hell am I doing? I don’t lean on anyone!

His embrace lightened and I pulled away slightly. While I wiped away the tears from my face, Garrett kindly shielded me from letting anyone see me. Protecting me, because he somehow knew I wouldn’t like anyone seeing me like that.

His kind, brown eyes met mine, and I wished I had an older brother like him.

“Bryan’s lucky to have you as an older brother,” I blurted, and he grinned and winked, pulling me to his side before asking Tyler what happened.

Hearing the story again and again as his family filtered in was hard. Though, what was more difficult was the fact no one had come out to tell us anything. I was anxious, waiting for news about his condition after surgery. I felt like I was about to come out of my skin. I knew every minute that ticked by could mean bad news, and all I wanted to do was beg someone for an update.

Instead, I sat and held his mom’s hand. Between the two matriarchs of the Wright family, I glanced at Jenn. Her eyes were pinned to the television that played at a hushed volume, and she turned her head as if sensing I was staring. Being caught, I blinked once and then twice, fighting not to ask, but I couldn’t help myself.

“How are you so calm?” I blurted out. I could feel my face and the back of my neck turn red in embarrassment, but she simply squeezed my hand, giving me a kind smile.

“Did you know that I talk to all my boys every day?” she asked instead of answering my question, and I shook my head.

“No.” I knew they were close, but not having grown up with a family like theirs, I didn’t know the dynamics of how a loving one worked.

“I do. In some way or another, I do. Every day. Texts, emails, phone calls. It probably drives my boys insane,” she shared, tilting her head toward me.

“I think they like it,” Grace mumbled next to her, but I didn’t look away from Jen.

“The careers my boys chose are not easy. They’re not safe.” Her eyes wandered toward Garrett and then met mine. “But they are like their father. Men who know what they want from life and work towards getting it.” I nodded. I knew Bryan’s job was dangerous. But just like me, he enjoyed what he did. He had a passion for helping people and cracking cases, his own attempt to make the world a better place. It was how I felt working in an emergency room.

“I spoke to him today,” she continued. “I called him about having you two come over to our place. Maybe about getting a trip out to the ranch on the calendar. I told him how much I liked you. How I wanted to get to know you, make sure you were okay after everything Courtney’s been up to.” Her eyes shimmered and she smiled brighter. “Do you want to know what he said to me?”

“What?”

“Stop trying to steal my girl, Mom.” She mocked a deep voice, and I giggled, because it sounded like something he would say. “Then he said he was keeping an eye on you. That nothing would happen to you on his watch.” She squeezed my hand.

“But something happened to him,” I pointed out, my voice hoarse, thick with emotion. I tried to blink away the stinging at my eyes.

“Hey, look at me,” Jen ordered in a mom voice, and I did. Her brown eyes like Garrett’s, warm and highly intelligent. “This wasn’t your fault.” My eye twitched.

Courtney had lifted my phone from me at some point in the morning. With her new hair and the hectic, short-staffed morning, for the life of me, I couldn’t place a moment that would have given her the opportunity, but she had. She’d used it to get Bryan’s attention.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the guys all turned, and there stood Kelly with a surgeon at her side. My heart froze.

BRYAN

His eyes were heavy, but he had to open them.

“Open your eyes, baby… Please, for me. I know you can do it, handsome. Let me see those grey eyes, please,” a soft whisper pleaded with him. The soft touch of warm breath at his hand felt good. He fought against the need to fall back asleep.

Opening his eyes, he tried to focus and made out what looked to be a ceiling. White walls and the smell of antibacterial shit and hospital. Beeping machines played steadily. Then he heard it again.

A soft voice mumbled against his hand. Looking to his side, he saw her. He tried to remember why the hell he was in a hospital bed, but only recalled bits and pieces. He’d been there to have lunch with Valerie, then Courtney had shown up. The rest was a haze, but it didn’t matter. His little beautiful girl sat at his bedside, her face on his hand. Her eyes were closed as she kept pleading.

“Come back to me, handsome,” she whispered. He was entranced by her. He watched her green eyes come to life as they opened, noticing how his were open.

“Bryan,” she whispered in a broken sob, then her body launched over his, making him lose his breath, but it didn’t matter.

Just like that, he knew no matter what had happened, everything was going to be just fine from now on.