“Who is it from?” I asked, looking at her from over my computer.
“The nuclear radiologist.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said, reaching out and accepting the small stack of faxes that had been forwarded from the lab and would need to be added to Evan’s EHR.
“Anything else you need tonight before I head out for the evening?” she asked.
“No, I’m good. I’m just going to stick around and catch up on some charts.”
She paused for a moment like she wanted to say something else. Clearly, she was worried about my state.
But there was absolutely nothing she could do for me to make this better.
I’d brought it all on myself.
She gave a slight nod. “Okay, then. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She clicked the door shut, and I turned my attention to the printouts, scanning the numbers and tests, trying not to break down in tears like a goddamned pussy.
But fuck.
I missed him.
I missed them both so goddamned much I felt like I was being torn limb from limb. Stretched so thin there was no chance there would be anything left.
I forced myself to move forward. I scanned one page and then another, moving onto the third.
My heart tripped the second my eyes started to move over the numbers.
It was the report from the nuclear medicine radiologist. The results of Evan’s cardiac stress test. The numbers that we should have received two weeks ago.
The walls of my small office started to close in.
While I stared at the numbers on the paper.
They were the only thing I could see.
Only interrupted by flashes of Evan’s trusting, sweet face.
The episode of severe shortness of breath at the park. The redness on his neck and cheeks that day at Rex and Rynna’s. The way I’d asked him if he felt okay, and he’d said he was just tired.
Tired.
Tired because his transplanted heart was not pumping properly.
His records from earlier in the year had shown the very early signs of coronary artery disease, which was to be expected.
But this?
This was accelerated. Progressing at an alarming, dangerous rate.
Panic shot me to my feet, my chair tipping over and crashing to the floor as I clamored to grab my cell.
Frantically, I dialed the number I’d promised myself I’d never dial again.
In the same second, I flew out the door.
You’re my favorite.
That promise roared in my ears.
Deafening.
My favorite. My favorite. My favorite.
Fuck.
This couldn’t happen.
I wouldn’t let it.
Not to him.
“Answer the phone, Hope,” I begged under my breath, agitation lighting a path through me as I listened to Hope’s phone ring and ring. On the fourth, it clicked over to voice mail.
That sweet voice hit my ear like a song. Mine was grating and hard when it finally beeped.
“Hope, I need you to call me the second you get this. I know you have to be pissed and confused, but this isn’t about us. It’s about Evan.”
Ending the call, I raced down the hall and out the side door toward my car, feet pounding on the pavement.
Adrenaline surged.
A thunder through my veins.
My car blipped and unlocked as I approached, and I already had the engine turned over by the time I had the door closed. I threw the gear in reverse and whipped out of the parking spot.
The second my wheels hit the road, I floored the accelerator.
I weaved in and out of cars, trying to keep it together.
I told myself we’d caught it.
He’d be okay.
But it was that sense I’d been feeling all week—the one that warned something was terribly wrong—that reared its ugly head.
This dark foreboding that crawled beneath the surface of my skin.
Ominous and grim.
Shouting at me to hurry. That this was bigger than I could see.
I flew by the coffee shop. All the lights were off. It was late enough she’d already be gone for the night, so I took a sharp left turn, tires squealing as I skidded around the corner and headed in the direction of her house.
I floored the gas when I approached a yellow light, barreling through, unwilling to stop or slow, zigzagging between cars, pushing it harder and harder.
I careened around a corner and allowed myself a breath of relief when I made the last right onto their street.
I just needed to get there. Needed to know they were okay.
I slowed when I neared their house.
A disorder rumbled in my chest the closer I got.
An awareness.
An unease.
A sixth-fucking-sense.
I didn’t know.
All I knew was the hairs prickled at the back of my neck, standing on end and sending a slow ripple of disquiet skating across my flesh.
It was different from when I’d seen the results of Evan’s tests.
This was cold.
Protective and harsh.
A midnight blue car sat in front of Hope’s house.
It almost blended in with the deepening twilight sky.
Almost.
All except for the fact it was one of those flashy bits. Not just nice. But the kind that screamed pretension.
The kind of car someone bought because they wanted you to know they were better than you in their own fucked-up, inflated heads.
I couldn’t see anyone standing around it.
But I knew. I fucking knew.
My chest spasmed. Heart threatening to beat right through my ribs.
I didn’t know how I’d look at him without pounding the bastard into the ground for what he’d done to Hope and Evan.
How I’d remain standing when I’d look at him and see her eyes.
This had to be the most savage, ruthless reminder of my failure.
But there was no consideration when Hope’s porch finally came into view.
No hesitation.
Because the fucker had ahold of Evan and was dragging him out the front door.
Hope screaming and trying to free her child.
Panic and terror rippled through the dense air.
And there was nothing but the base, fundamental need to protect these two.
29
Hope
I sometimes wondered if people were born evil. If they were bred that way. If they had no chance of compassion. No chance of giving love or providing protection.
Or did life’s tragedies and disasters seed it, allowing it to grow and grow until it was twisted and vile?
I wondered it as I came to an abrupt stop at the opening of the hall that led to Evan’s room and found Dane Gentry standing in the middle of my living room.
Wearing one of his impeccable suits and hate in his eyes.
My heart climbed to my throat and my stomach sank to the floor.
Nothing but fear freezing my veins in shards of ice.
The instinct to protect Evan swelled inside me, and I pushed him farther behind me, my hand on his arm, trying to give him reassurance.
It did nothing to stop the quiver I felt shake through him, head to toe.
I couldn’t let this happen. Not again. I had to find a way to put this madness to an end.
“Get out of my house,” I warned.
Dane laughed a morbid sound and took a step forward. “Did you really think you could erase me so easily?”
My eyes went wide at the way he phrased it, my already pounding heart taking off at a sprint.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The defense trembled from my mouth. It might as well have been a confession of guilt.
A smirk ticked up at the corner of his mouth. Cruel and biting. “Always so innocent and pristine. Yet, she doesn’t hesitate to tell lies or commit felonies.”
<
br /> An alarm sounded inside my head, so loudly I could hear it blaring in my ears.
There was no questioning it then. He definitely knew.
A shudder rocked my spine, and I gulped, lifting my chin and trying to pretend as if he didn’t intimidate me when I was shaking so bad I didn’t know how I managed to remain on my feet.
“This ends now, Harley. Get your things and get in my car.”
My head shook. “You’re insane,” I told him again. He had to be. Crazy. Crazy for coming here. Crazy to think I’d just jump and do his bidding.
“Come with me now or rot in prison, Harley. Your choice. It seems like a simple one to me.”
Or maybe I was the insane one. The one who had thought going down this road was smart. But at the time, it’d felt like the only way.
“I have no idea what you’re saying,” I maintained, but I knew it was a losing battle.
I knew there was no way to talk my way out of this with the way his eyes gleamed in victory.
Because he knew. Oh God, he really knew, and the true consequences of that were just sinking in when he took another oppressive step forward, coming closer and closer to my son.
My son who he wanted to reject. Do away with. Toss him aside like garbage.
Try again.
“I warned you that you’d regret it if you took this any further, Harley. And you’ve gone too far. Now get in my fucking car before I drag you there.”
Sickness roiled. I was overtaken by desperation. Every nerve and cell in my body flooded with the wild, violent need to protect my son.
I could feel Evan peeking out from behind me. His small frame shook with fear and confusion, his silent questions ricocheting from the floors as if he were shouting them into the air.
He doesn’t belong here, Mama.
This house is love.
My little man who thought it was his job to defend me when I would give my life defending him.
I took a step back, herding Evan with me. “Stay away from us or you’ll regret it.”
Incredulous, his eyes narrowed as he shook his head. “You think I’m going to regret it, Harley? You have it all wrong. You should have known better than to think you could play me. Now tell that kid to get in my car before I make him regret it, too.”
“I’ll die before I let you get anywhere near him.”
I meant it.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t the wrong thing to say.
Because rage lit on Dane’s face. A match to gasoline. Two quick steps forward, and he had me by the upper arms. As if I weighed absolutely nothing, he tossed me out of his way and went straight for my son.
Panic seized every inch of my body as I flew across the living room.
It was an awareness taking hold. A deep-seated knowledge that I’d pushed Dane over a line. The same way as he’d done to me a year before. When he’d left me without a choice. When there’d been nothing else I could do.
All I’d wanted was to stop the torment.
To give my son the chance to live the life he deserved to live.
And this man was again exerting his horrible, brutal control. This time . . . this time, he was doing it with the force of his hands.
I screamed out as an excruciating pain splintered through my left side when I crashed into the sofa table set up behind the couch.
Frames that showed off Evan’s innocent face fell to the floor. Glass shattering as it struck the wood.
Our best memories scattered across the floor.
I tumbled down on top of them. A wave of helplessness took me over. It was never supposed to be like this. I didn’t know how to stand up against it. Fight it.
But that helplessness was eradicated the second I saw the horror blanket my son’s face when Dane yanked him by the shirt. He started to drag him through the living room and toward the front door.
Evan’s eyes went wide. So wide with an overwhelming terror that I scrambled to find my footing, my words screeching from my raw throat. “Let him go! He’s just a little boy. Let him go!”
Dane didn’t slow, he just issued his command into the air. “You’re coming home with me now. Both of you. You no longer make the decisions. Do you understand me?”
Running after them, I grabbed at Dane’s arm and tried to break his hold. “Let him go. He’s just a little boy. I won’t let you hurt him. Not anymore. Not anymore.”
Dane spun around. With a single arm, he locked Evan’s back to his chest. He stood there as if my son was a pawn. A twisted ransom held between us.
Contempt dripped from his tongue. “What does it fucking matter, Harley? Why are you clinging to nothing? Nothing.”
How could he say that? This was a little boy who was made up of flesh and bones and the brightest spirit. Made up of the biggest heart that beat life through his veins. A boy who was everything.
Hopeless tears streaked down my face, my soul fragmenting as I watched Evan kick and flail, frantic as he clawed at Dane’s arm.
“Evan,” I whimpered.
His feet kept giving out from under him as he struggled to break free.
His weight held in the palm of Dane’s malicious hands.
Dane started backing through my house, his eye on me the entire time as he dragged Evan away. Expecting me to follow. This vile, horrible man using my child as bait.
“Dane . . . don’t do this.”
“You’re out of chances, Harley.”
“Why are you doing this?”
My steps were lurching as I moved toward them, and the words flooded from my mouth in a pour of desperation, “Dane . . . please . . . I’m begging you. Let him go. He doesn’t deserve your anger. Your hatred. He never has. You are free. We are no longer a burden to you. A worry for you. I don’t want anything from you except for you to let us go free. Just let him go and let us live our lives and you can live yours.”
At my words, Dane’s jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth cracking. “I will never be free. I will never be free of this.”
“What does that mean?” I begged.
For the beat of a second, I wished I could go back to a time when I’d thought I understood this man. When I’d thought our hopes and dreams had been one. Before he’d become this.
A monster.
“Please.” It ripped through the foyer. Breaking on my pain.
It didn’t even touch Dane’s rage. He jerked Evan through the door and out onto the porch.
Daylight was giving up its hold. It cast the world in shadows and mist and somehow set everything to slow motion.
A part of me felt detached. As if I were watching it happen from a distance. Removed from the reality that this man was really trying to take my son from me.
It had always been my greatest terror.
But I’d never known how great that terror could truly be until Evan started making these rasping, raking sounds.
Sounds I’d never heard him make.
His lungs brittle. As if my little boy was getting ready to crack.
Still kicking his feet, he stopped clawing at Dane’s arm and instead reached for me as if he were begging for a lifeline.
For me to save him.
To keep him safe the way I’d always promised him I would.
“Evan, it’s okay. Baby, it’s okay. I won’t let anything happen to you,” I rushed, meeting his eyes, promising him through that connection that I wouldn’t allow this to happen. That somehow, some way, I would stop this.
No matter what it cost me.
But Evan’s face . . .
It was turning a purpled, beet red. Unnatural. Wrong.
A different kind of panic set in. Stretching out my insides.
Dane spun away and started for the steps. I launched myself onto his back, clawing at his face, screaming in his ear. “You’re hurting him, Dane. Oh my God, you’re hurting him. Let him go.”
I was barely able to see through the haze that clouded my eyes.
This was where we’d come to a head.
Where this monster who held a thousand pounds of vile, ugly hate around his heart spiraled into a beast.
“You’re hurting him.”
I clawed and bit and kicked, but I knew I was no rival for Dane’s physical strength.
But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t fight with everything I had.
I yelped when I was suddenly jarred back, my arms I’d locked around Dane’s neck unloosed.
No.
But I was falling. Failing. I crashed onto the wooden planks of the porch.
“No!” The scream tore from my throat as I struggled to get back to my feet.
But it was relief that slammed me when I realized Evan had also been knocked free of Dane’s malicious grasp.
It was blinding, cutting relief when I realized it was Dane who was colliding with the ground one second after a fist collided with his face.
A stunned gasp ripped from my lungs.
Kale.
He was there.
Oh, God, he was really there.
Kale dove for him, pinning him down at the waist as he began to pound his fists into his face.
Over and over again.
Shouts and grunts and punches.
Knuckles against buckling flesh.
Dane kicked and grappled. But he was no match for Kale’s assault, and his wicked face quickly morphed into a river of blood.
Shocked, I watched wide-eyed and frozen as Kale beat Dane into an unconscious oblivion, my heart thundering so hard and my lungs rasping as I tried to process the scene.
It felt as if it took an age for my mind to catch up.
Kale had come back to me.
He was there.
Saving us.
I finally found a breath for my screaming lungs and managed to tear my attention away from Kale and Dane to look toward Evan. To give him a promise through my eyes.
That even though I’d never wanted him to witness anything like this—violence and bitterness and this savage, brutal war—I wanted him to know he would always be worth it.
My eyes found him where he’d been knocked to the lawn.
The second they did, my heart cracked in the center of me.
Evan was on his hands and knees. His expression was twisted in sheer, confused panic that had him seized.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 63
