Anger flares inside me when I step next to Liam and look into the room. Doctors and nurses rush around, trying to stabilise him. Max and Lake are inside, refusing to leave when the nurse asks them to.
I’m too scared to ask what happened, to cut through the silence, knowing people are processing just as much as me.
Footsteps rushing down the hall have me turning. Dad’s face is a mask of thunder and pain. “Where is he?” he asks, and I don’t think he’s asking about Landon.
I’m right when Mum answers. “He won’t leave the room. Neither of them will.”
Dad nods before barging into Landon’s room. Uncle Max crumbles at the sight of him. The hallway suddenly stills, all of us watching as my uncle falls into Dad’s arms, his sobs breaking through the silence.
Dad pulls Lake against him when she crumbles too, her gaze never wavering from her son lying on the hospital bed.
I can see from here that it’s bad. His stomach is pooling with blood, and his face is deformed. His nose is broken in more than one place, and his jaw looks like it’s been knocked out of place. His ear is torn.
My view is obstructed when a nurse steps in front of him, but my attention goes back down the hall when I hear more footsteps.
Fuck!
Charlotte’s face is red with tears as she flies down the corridor.
“It’s not true, is it, Hayden?” she yells, her voice hitching.
Hayden looks up from Mum’s shoulders, her eyes swollen and red. She nods, not saying anything, then all of a sudden, both her and Liam gasp.
I watch as they share a look of horror, before she rushes over to her brother next the window.
“No!” she sobs, just as we hear machines blaring from the room.
“What’s happened?” Max yells, panic in his voice.
“He’s coding. We’re losing him,” a doctor yells.
“No!” Lake wails. I watch, glued to the spot as she collapses to the floor. It doesn’t feel real as I watch the medical staff move around in a blur of motion.
“We need you to leave the room,” a nurse tells them gently. Dad tries—really tries—but it’s like they’re all frozen in place.
My lungs freeze as I watch them attach pads to his chest, and I feel Bailey come up beside me. I take her hand and squeeze, feeling tears building in the back of my eyes and a lump forming in my throat.
Charlotte, seeming to come unglued, runs into the room screaming at Landon.
“You’d better wake up, Landon. Wake up!” she screams. Myles, with a tortured expression, clutches her around the stomach, pulling her back out of the room. But she cries and kicks and screams.
“Wake up, Landon. Wake up! Don’t leave me!”
“No,” a soft voice cries, and I turn my head at the new sound, surprised to find Paisley here. A nurse rushes up to her from behind, like she’s been looking for her, and my eyebrows draw together. “No!” she sobs one more time, before her eyes cross and she falls to the floor.
I take a step towards her when I notice a slash down her arm, but more nurses rush over to help. I look up and down the hospital corridor and feel my world implode.
My knees lock together when I hear them shout, “Clear.”
“Still no pulse,” a male voice booms.
We’re never going to recover from this.
As I look around, watching my family break apart and fall to pieces, I vow to make whoever did this pay.
Maddox meets my hard stare and nods, as if reading my mind, his jaw hard and his throat working—struggling not let his emotions take over.
Mark meets my gaze next, his chin lifting, telling me he’s in too.
Whoever the guys were that did this will wish they had never been born.
We want retribution—revenge—even if it means stepping over a line we’ve never crossed.
And a Carter never makes threats he doesn’t keep.
And we always get what we want.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I bet you’re wondering whose book is next, right? I bet you’re all cursing me for leaving you with such a traumatic cliff-hanger. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. LOL. I really do love torturing you all.
As for the next book in the series… I’ll never tell.
What I can reveal—and I’m happy to announce for the first time—is the Hayes brothers will be getting their own series!
Yes, you heard that right.
If you loved meeting Jaxon and the rest of his wild siblings, then please do let me know by leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Nook, or Kobo. I’ll enjoy reading what you guys think—as always.
The same goes for Aiden. If you loved his book as much as I loved writing it, please, please, please leave a review.
I want to thank every reader out there who reads my books and falls in love with the characters as much as I do.
Your support means more to me than you will ever know.
Please, keep reading and keep sharing.
You guys are awesome.
Stephanie Farrant, thank you so much for always being there when I need you, for guiding me when I’m a little lost.
As always, you rock.
You may be small, but you are mighty.
OTHER TITLES by Lisa Helen Gray
FORGIVEN SERIES
Better Left Forgotten
Obsession
Forgiven
CARTER BROTHERS SERIES
Malik
Mason
Myles
Evan
Max
Maverick
A NEXT GENERATION CARTER NOVEL SERIES
Faith
Aiden – Out Now
WHITHALL UNIVERSITY SERIES
Foul Play
Game Over - Out Now
Almost Free - Out now
I WISH SERIES
If I Could I’d Wish It All Away
Wishing For A Happily Ever After
Wishing For A Dream Come True - Coming Soon
About the Author
Lisa Helen Gray is Amazon's best-selling author of the Forgotten Series and the Carter Brothers series.
She loves hanging out, but most of all, curling up with a good book or watching movies. When she's not being a mum, she's a writer and a blogger.
She loves writing romance novels with a HEA and has a thing for alpha males.
I mean, who doesn't!
Just an ordinary girl surrounded by extraordinary books.
Aiden (A Next Generation Carter Brother Novel Book 2) Page 28
