Chapter 6

Napping together is my kind of date.

-Hannah’s secret thoughts

Hannah

Present day

The turning point in mine and Travis’ relationship was the day that his sister was in the accident that killed her brother’s wife and children.

It was hard to believe that it’d already been a year.

In all honesty, I was glad that it passed as fast as it did.

They say that time healed all wounds. And my hope that was one day, time would heal Dante’s wounds.

Seeing him that day, so broken and so obviously hurting, had been something that made me realize two things.

One, that life was not guaranteed. Two, that I needed to get my head out of my ass when it came to Travis. If I wanted him, I needed to do something about it. I needed to cross that line I’d drawn in the sand.

The one that he’d been toeing since the moment I put it there.

What had started the beginning of the end for us was me hearing about the tragedy.

***

366 days ago

“Did you see that the firefighters blocked off the entrance to the street?”

I nodded. “Yeah, what happened?”

Wednesday looked like she was going to be sick.

“There was a wreck. A woman was in an accident. She ended up killing every single person in the car but herself.”

My belly tightened. “Oh, no. What happened?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. What I was able to find out came from Gallagher. He was behind the woman before she wrecked. Since he was so close to work, they let him through instead of holding him at the scene since they blocked off two blocks. They think the woman was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. She was life-flighted out of here.”

“How many people were in the car?”

While we spoke, I pulled the med cart over and started to count the pills, double-checking that number with the number we had in the system.

The system that Hostel’s small clinic had was outdated at best and desperately needed to be updated. However, with little to no funds, it was very hard to accomplish much of anything. We were lucky that the government paid us what they did at this point.

I’d never set out to come to a place like this. I loved my job at the hospital in Kilgore. What I didn’t like, however, was being so near to my ex—which prompted the move in the first place.

“Two kids, two adults,” Wednesday answered. “The kids and the mother died. The driver is fine.”

A sense of foreboding went through me.

All accidents, small and big, were terrible. Losing anyone in an accident sucked. What was worse, though, than losing a life? Losing a child whose life had barely started.

Hell, it could’ve had a mass casualty, and as long as the people’s lives that were lost weren’t children, it would be okay. Not right off the bat, but it would be okay.

Losing a child, though? The memories of those deaths had a way of staying with you for a long time, lingering, waiting to pounce when you least expected them to.

“Did they release the names?”

Wednesday shook her head. “There was no reason to. Everyone knew who it was. The father lost it in the middle of the freakin’ road earlier. Took three of his brothers to hold him back from going to help.”

I closed my eyes and looked down at my feet.

I knew who it was.

There was only one family in the entire town that everyone knew…that everyone would talk about.

“It’s the Hails?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I heard that they’re having to put Dante in a cell at the police station to keep him under control.”

I wouldn’t doubt it.

I’d have lost it too had my children been killed…by my own sister at that.

“I gotta go.” I looked around. “I’ll be right back.”

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but something told me that I needed to find Travis and make sure that he was okay.

Leaving the clinic with only one thing on my mind, I forwent getting into my truck, and instead decided to hurry down the sidewalk to Hail Auto Recovery—which was about two blocks away.

Since our town was set up for downtown traffic, I had no problem getting there, even though I hadn’t been there before.

Since I’d met Travis, I’d asked around about him.

I’d found out that the towing company was directly next to the club that I’d met him in—which Travis and his brother also owned—though he’d never said.

Sure enough, two blocks later, I was in front of the towing company.

There were trucks parked every which way all over the huge parking lot. Men were standing around, talking in close-knit circles.

There were a few women as well, but I bypassed them all in search of someone I knew.

I didn’t know what I was doing, but something inside my heart was telling me that I needed to be here.

That I needed to offer Travis the chance to talk if he needed it.

So, I did.

I walked straight through all the trucks and milling people, cut straight into what looked like an office, and immediately came to a stop.

The minute I was inside, I could hear the yelling.

“Let me out of here!”

My eyes widened.

“I’m not letting you out.”

That was Travis. His voice was calm, but he looked anything but calm.

He had his head pressed against a clearly broken wooden door, his hand splayed on the cool wood like he was offering the man behind it support through sheer force of will.

He was in coveralls that were tied around the waist, and the knees had stains that looked suspiciously like something brown and gooey.

“Let me out.”

Those three words, coming from a clearly broken adult man, were enough to send heartache through me. It was like someone had coated those words with steel, and shoved them straight through my heart.

I could literally feel my heart breaking for the poor man.

“Trav.”

The first tear left my eye.

“Please, Trav. I need to see them.”

“I don’t have that authority,” Travis choked. “If I did, I would let you out of there right now. I’d take you to the hospital, and I’d give you that, but I don’t have the authority. They already told me on the phone that they wouldn’t let you back.”

“I do.”

Travis’ face turned from the door toward me.

“Please, Trav.”

The man’s devastated voice continued, unable to hear my words.

Travis, though…well, he heard. He was looking at me with such an intense light that I nearly took a step back.

“You do?”

I nodded, then paused. “They’re at the morgue?”

Travis’ eyes were so intense that I had to take a deep breath.

He nodded.

“I have access to it. Let me make a few calls.”

And that was how, twenty minutes later, I led two very distraught men into the morgue.

“Don’t touch anything, y’all,” I whispered to the two men.

Dead eyes locked on mine.

He didn’t have to tell me what he thought of my words. I could read every single emotion that was filing through his brain.

Rage. Devastation. Anger. Hurt.

He was literally broken and looked nothing like the man I’d heard about from the townspeople.

We walked into the morgue, and I gave Dave, the night security officer that I’d helped at the clinic with a very personal problem a few weeks ago, a nod. He waved me through, and I stopped just inside the door.

“They’re in lockers four, five, and six,” I told them. “Remember, don’t touch.”

Travis walked forward, stopped in front of locker six, and pulled it open.

The sound that left his throat at seeing the tiny child, blue and so still, was a sound that would forever stay with me as long as I lived.

But the sound from the man who was frozen at my side?

I didn’t breathe for an entire minute.

And I only took a breath when the sound quit, and Dante fell to his knees.