by E B Brooks
“Hello?” he said hesitantly into the receiver.
A gentle voice answers him. “Is this Jace Shields?”
Jace knew instantly who it was. “Yes, Mrs. Jones, this is Jace.”
“Oh, good. I figured out of everyone, you’d be the one who could still think calmly. At least, from what Maddy told me.”
Jace smiled that Maddy knew them so well. “How did you find out she was in the hospital?”
“She woke up enough to tell them her name. Maddy has me down as her next of kin. I can’t get there right now.” She sniffed. “I would like to put you in charge of her care, Jace. Can I trust you to make the right decisions for her?”
Jace ran his fingers through his hair. Oh, wow, that put a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but it was for Maddy, and he’d do anything for her. He stood up taller. “Definitely, Mrs. Jones. If there are any major decisions, I promise to call you.”
“Good, I knew I made the right choice. I’ve already discussed this with the doctor in charge of her care. He should come to find you soon. I expect regular calls, Mr. Shields.” Her voice had a tired tone to it.
“I promise I will. Talk to you soon.” He returned the phone to the nurse.
The nurse gave him a sympathetic look. “The doctor will see you soon. You should head back to the waiting room for now.”
He hadn’t even reached the waiting room before Cody and Ryder swarmed him.
Ryder grabbed his shoulders. “Did you see her?”
Cody pulled him away from Ryder. “Were you able to talk to the doctor?”
“Guys, shut up, and I will tell you! No, I didn’t see her or talk to her doctor, yet. I just got off the phone with Mrs. Jones. Maddy woke up and told them her name, so they called Mrs. Jones, who’s Maddy’s emergency contact. Since she can’t be here, she asked me to make decisions for her. The doctor will come talk to me soon.”
Cody let out a mumble that sounded like, “Fine,” and stormed over to a corner.
He kept rubbing his stomach, and he looked a little green. Jace was worried that, if Cody got any more pissed off, he would either turn into the hulk or puke on them.
“Madeline Walsh family,” a guy not much older than them said.
If he wasn’t wearing a white coat, Jace would have questioned who the hell he was.
He raised his hand. “Here.”
The doctor walked over to him and offered his hand. “Hello, I’m Dr. Mallenger. I’ve been taking care of Madeline since they brought in her. I’ve already talked to Mrs. Jones, and she told me one of you will be temporarily taking over on the decision-making side of things.”
When he eyed all three of them, Jace tried to muster as much confidence as he could. “I will be.”
“How is she doing?” Ryder asked.
“Well, for the most part, fine, she has cuts and bruises all over her body and two bruised ribs. But what I’m concerned about is her head. It looked like she fell and hit it hard. There’s a nice sized lump on the back of her skull. We did an x-ray, though, and found no swelling. When she woke up, she started fighting the nurses, and we were afraid she’d end up hurting herself more, so I’ve sedated her. Until she wakes up, which should be soon, we don’t have any information about how she got hurt. I’m hoping, when she hears your voice, she’ll calm down enough that we can get a better idea of what hurts. I have a few other things to do first, but I’ll see you back in her room.” He nodded, then walked over to the nurse’s station and grabbed another chart.
A nurse with Mickey Mouse all over her scrubs stepped up. “I’m only supposed to let one person, but Mrs. Jones already approved all of you. Please, follow me, and I’ll take you to her room.”
They followed the nurse down a hallway to the end, where she opened the door.
A figure was leaning over Maddy, and the nurse snapped into high alert.
“Excuse me! You’re not allowed in here!” she yelled at the intruder.
31
Maddy
It felt like Maddy swimming in the mud. Why couldn’t she wake up?
From a distance, she felt a kiss on her head and heard a whispered apology. “I didn’t know this would happen. I’m trying to get out of the shit hole I dug. I’m so sorry.”
She knew that voice… “Skylar?”
“Maddy, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me?”
She recognized that voice, too, but it wasn’t Skylar.
A warm hand ran down the side of her face, and she felt instantly safe. Fighting her eyes open as the voice asked her to, she blinked up at an unfamiliar room.
“She’s waking up. I’ll go get the doctor.” A blurry figure left.
Turning her head to the right, her eyes widened as pain like she’d never felt before hit her body. “Argh… Ow!” she moaned.
She blinked through tears, and the blurry figures around her solidified into her guys. Cody stood at the bottom of the bed by her feet, while Ryder was up near her thigh, and Jace was the one running his hand through her hair.
She moaned again, her entire body filled with pain.
“I know, baby, you’re hurt,” Jace murmured. “The nurse went to get the doctor.”
The word doctor triggered something in her. She had a phobia of hospitals, and panic ripped through her. The heart monitor started beeping off the charts as she searched the room for a way to escape. She needed to get out of here, and the pain no longer mattered as she thrashed around.
Jace tried to calm her down. “It’s okay, Maddy. You need to calm down, or you’ll hurt yourself more.”
“No, I need to go!” she desperately yelled, yanking out the tube in her arm.
Blood sprayed everywhere, and she started pulling out her heart monitor wire.
“Move out of my way,” a gruff voice said.
Strong arms wrapped around her, holding her in place, and leather and musk filled her nose. “Little one, you need to calm down. No one will hurt you; I won’t let them. But you need to calm down, or they’ll sedate you again. I don’t want that to happen.”
Her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. When she peeked around Cody’s massive arms, she saw a doctor standing a few feet away. He held a syringe in his hand, but Ryder blocked him from coming near them.
While in Cody’s strong arms, she felt protected, safe, and she calmed down.
“Don’t let them put me out, Cody,” she whispered to him. “I’m okay. I’ll calm down as long as you’re beside me.”
“Everyone, calm down, and for God’s sake, shut off that damn beeping!” Jace yelled.
Over Cody’s shoulder, a nurse was desperately trying to turn off the screaming heart monitor.
She cracked a smile. She’d never seen Jace lose it before. He was usually the calm one.
The beeping stopped, and Jace politely asked the doctor and nurse to give them a few minutes before he tapped Cody’s arm. “Can you let her go?”
Even though she felt safe in Cody’s arms, her ribs were screaming at her. He slowly released her but stayed right by her side.
“Silk, baby, are you okay?” Ryder sat at her feet, running a hand up and down her leg.
“Yeah, Player, I hurt like all hell, but I’m okay. Sorry about freaking out. I don’t like hospitals. Too many people coming in and out, putting stuff in my body that I don’t know what it is.” Her eyes filled with tears. “When can I leave?”
Jace pulled up a chair beside her. “Sweetheart, you know no one here would hurt you.”
She moved her head back and forth. “I guess, but it doesn’t stop the fear. I’ve been through worse and survived. I want to go home.”
Jace pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mrs. Jones put me in charge of your health. I would never force you to stay, but I need to be honest, I’m worried about your head. You passed out; that’s not a good thing.”
“Shit, I was worried about that. Not that she put you in charge, but that she found out about this. Please, tell me she’s not on her way?”
The corner of
Jace’s mouth turned up. “I got the impression that she was.”
She pushed the sheet off her and tried to get up, but strong hands kept her in place.
“Whoa, little one, where do you think you’re going?” Cody demanded.
She stared up at Cody. “I need to stop her from coming.”
“I’ll call her, but I want the doctor to look you over now that you’re awake,” Jace said. “Ryder and Cody will stay right beside you the whole time.”
Seeing she wasn’t getting out of this, she agreed so she could get home faster.
Jace stepped out into the hall to tell the doctor he could come back in before going to make that call to Mrs. Jones.
As the doctor entered, Maddy’s body started shaking, and Cody put his arm around her.
“Ms. Walsh, I’m Doctor Mallenger. I’m the one who treated you when you first came in.” He gave her a smile.
He would be good-looking if he wasn’t a doctor.
“When can I go home?” She crossed her arms then let out a loud groan. Uncrossing her arms, she put a hand on her ribs and sucked in a shallow breath.
“I can give you something for the pain,” he offered.
She was shaking her head before he could finish the sentence. She’d dealt with pain before and made it through; this time would be no different.
Worry filled Ryder’s dark eyes. “Silk, I can see from your face and body language how much pain you’re in. Why won’t you take something?”
“I don’t want to be knocked out, and they make me loopy.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she bit her check as a wave of pain rolled through her body.
The doctor observed her. “I can give you something that won’t knock you out. As for the loopy part, every person is different.”
“Little one, I agree with Ryder. You need something. We’ll be here.”
“Fine.” She breathed out. “Now, when can I leave?”
Jace walked back in and stood to the left of the doctor.
The doctor referenced her chart. “With you losing consciousness, I want to monitor you for twenty-four hours.”
She shot daggers at him. “Hell, no. I want out of here now. I’ll sign an AMA if I have to.”
He let out a calm breath. “We already scanned you, and there’s no brain swelling, but you have to promise to not be active for twenty-four-hours, and someone needs to stay with you.”
She chewed her bottom lip for a moment, but it made sense, so she nodded. “One of the guys will stay with me.”
After a few more tests, they wrapped Maddy’s ribs, and she painfully got dressed in her torn and dirty clothes from the night before. The medicine they gave she muted her pain, but she still hurt. Before she left, the nurse gave her a piece of paper with outpatient instructions, which Maddy stuffed into her pocket.
This wasn’t the first time she’d had bruised ribs.
Finally, with Maddy’s nerves completely shot, they released her from the hospital.
The guys wanted her to stay at their house, but she put her foot down. “No, I want to stay at my apartment.”
When they argued, she reminded them of all the steps at their house, and they easily agreed to her place.
All she wanted was a shower and some food.
Ryder helped her with the shower while the other two got food ready.
Once she ate until she was full, she sat on the sectional and called Mrs. Jones, reassuring her she was fine and the guys were taking excellent care of her.
The next call she didn’t want to make, but if Crusher found out about her injuries from anyone other than her or the guys, all hell would break loose.
It took an hour to calm him down.
“Yes, I’ll take it easy,” she promised for the twentieth time.
“Are you planning on attending school?” he asked.
“It depends on how I feel in the morning,” she told him.
“I’ll stop by to see you, if I can,” he promised. “There’s an important game coming up on Friday, and I can’t miss any school or practice.”
“I understand. Don’t worry about me,” she told him. “I have the guys here with me.”
In a surprise move, Crusher asked to speak to Cody.
Cody took the phone and put it to his ear. Crusher did all the talking, with Cody throwing in an “Uh-huh,” every now and then.
At the end, he said, “I promise not to leave her side.”
Cody handed the phone back to Maddy and returned his attention to the TV.
Men. Unbelievable.
Her head rested on Ryder’s lap, his hand running through her hair. Her feet were in Cody’s lap, and he massaged them. Jace sat on the floor beside her, and every once in a while, she ran her fingers through his silky hair.
They watched a zombie TV series that the guys swore she would love. It was a series she could get into, but her mind kept going back to the black figures who attacked her. Something about them bugged her, but she couldn’t figure it out.
Then, her thoughts jumped to when she first woke up. Before she was fully conscious, she remembered hearing a voice.
She sat up, but pain pushed her back down.
Jace turned to face her. “What’s wrong?”
She met his concerned gaze. “Skylar. He was at the hospital.”
Cody gripped her foot tighter, and Ryder’s body stiffened.
Jace let out a deep breath as he paused the show. He rubbed the back of his neck. “When we walked in, he was leaning over you. When the nurse yelled at him, he bolted, but Cody caught him.”
“I let him go once you started waking up. He didn’t say anything, but I got a good look at him.” Cody took in a deep breath and glanced away. “He’s torn up about something.”
“I was the first in the room, right behind the nurse. Skylar was talking to you. Do you remember anything?” Jace questioned, touching her arm.
Maddy repeated back what she remembered. “What would he have to be sorry for? What scares me is what he’s involved in.”
She caught a glance between Cody and Ryder.
A horrible thought came to her. “Do you think Skylar knows who attacked me?”
Jace adamantly shook his head. “Something’s going on with Skylar, but he’d never hurt a woman. From what you said, I think he found out after the fact and is pissed.”
32
Skylar
Skylar parked his bike in the driveway beside Amber’s convertible as he tried to control the rage that had been boiling through him since he found out Maddy was beaten and in the hospital. When he saw her lying in that hospital bed, her face all black and blue, he broke down.
For the last week, all he wanted to do was go home and beg his brother for forgiveness. He had done some stupid shit before, but this had been, by far, the worst.
He’d been racking his brain, trying to figure a way out of this hell.
Lisa had him fighting people he should never have entered the ring with, and he was lucky to escape most nights with only bad bruises all over his body.
These people were thugs from the streets who wanted to fight. The other night, he fought a biker, and after he won, the biker had threatened to find him later and take the money he lost out of Skylar’s ass.
He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but they scared him.
After that fight, he told Lisa he wanted out, and she’d thrown her head back and cackled as her thugs dragged him to her office. They’d pushed him into a seat and shown him recent photos of Maddy, Cody, Jace, and Ryder. She’d explained that, if she could get a picture of them, she could easily take them out.
“Don’t forget, Skylar, that Cody has a big fight coming up, and one minor accident could end your brother’s fighting career.” She’d snapped a pencil in half to illustrate her point.
Cody’s life was fighting. He wanted to go professional, and Skylar wouldn’t be the reason his brother couldn’t do that. But his friends also wouldn’t want him in the situation he was in.
Lisa m
ust have seen the indecision on his face because she dropped a document in front of him.
He leafed through it, but didn’t understand what it had to do with him.
The more Lisa explained, the more Skylar felt sick.
What he found out would change Maddy’s life forever. This couldn’t get out, and Skylar would do everything he could to keep it quiet.
Now, he walked into Gary and Lisa’s basement, which had been converted into a sizeable game room that Amber and her cronies hung out in.
Amber stood and put her hands on her hips. “Where have you been?”
She was driving him insane with needing to know where he was every second of the day. She even had her cheerleading crew watching him when she couldn’t.
“Out,” he said, strolling across the room to where a pool table sat.
“You better not have been at the hospital visiting that slut,” Amber seethed.
Skylar had found out about Maddy by pure luck when he ran into Todd and he told Skylar. So, how did Amber find out? Unless she had a hand in Maddy’s attack.
He slammed his hands on the pool table, gripping the sides. “What did you do, Amber?”
Amber sat back on the couch and crossed her legs. “Who said I did anything?”
He spun around. “Then, how did you know Maddy was in the hospital?”
“How did you find out?” the girl next to Amber asked.
He didn’t recognize her, and Amber only let a select few into her uncle’s house.
Skylar crossed his arms. “Who the hell are you?”
“Oh, this is my new friend, Nikki.” Amber tossed her blond hair. “She just started school, and she’ll be on the cheer squad.”
Oh, goody, another girl to follow him. But why did that name sound familiar to him?
Amber got back up and walked to the bar behind the couch and poured herself a glass of wine.
Skylar stalked over there. “Amber, answer me, dammit. How did you know Maddy was in the hospital?” He ground his teeth together. “Did you have something to do with it?”
Turning toward Skylar, she twirled a blond lock on her finger. “Oh, I don’t know.”
