Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
What really caught my attention were the boots on the side of the bed.
They’d been cut straight down each side and practically ripped apart. Tossed carelessly on the floor, along with many, many wads of bloody gauze, trash, and other medical paraphernalia, I knew that what I was about to walk into wasn’t going to be good.
In fact, it was going to be hideously bad.
I went anyway, determination steeling my spine.
I walked up just in time to hear Braxton, who I hadn’t seen, heading into the trauma room, spouting some awful bullshit.
“Our parents are on the way to a cruise,” Braxton said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “They’re in a bad area. It’s only me. I’m his only family. Now, I said no extreme measures to keep him alive.”
I all but fell onto my ass at Braxton’s words.
No extreme measures to keep him alive?
Was he crazy?
He had to be if he was saying things like that.
“Sir…” a nurse who was talking to him said.
“You will do absolutely everything that’s needed to keep him alive, no matter how extreme!” I cried out, throwing my arms out wide to get everyone’s attention in the room.
Including the man that was currently doing CPR on Bain. He was straddling Bain’s chest, so I couldn’t see his face.
I could, however, see the twisted leg that was definitely pointed in the wrong direction.
I barely contained the urge to throw up.
“His clothes,” another nurse said, pressing them against my chest with a look of urgency in her eyes. “Check his pockets so we can inventory everything?”
I looked into her eyes, getting the idea that she knew way more than I did and automatically did what she told me.
My fingers closed on his keys. A tiny lock of some sort and a…
I pulled out a diamond engagement ring and knew instantly why she’d wanted me to go through his pockets.
She’d seen the ring, made the correct assumption and had ordered me to check.
Because she believed he could be saved.
I saw the seasoned look in her eyes and slipped the ring on my finger.
“She’s nobody. I’m his brother. I say stop,” Braxton snarled.
I held up my hand and said, “Actually, I’m his wife as of today. You will do what you need to do to make sure he stays alive. No matter what it takes.”
Okay, so I could’ve said fiancée. But I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure that being his fiancée would be enough.
I looked over at Cassius and widened my eyes at him, hoping he caught on.
“I was witness to their marriage,” Cassius said when nobody said a word. But the man performing CPR and the woman holding the bag to the side definitely didn’t stop.
“You heard the lady.” The man in black we’d followed in clapped his hands. “Get to work. It’s a great day to save a life!”
“Did he just quote Derek Shepherd?” Cassius whispered.
I would later find this funny.
But right now…
“Who fucking cares?” I whispered back.
Anything seemed inconsequential when the love of my life lay lifeless on a gurney, having some man use his chest as a trampoline to keep him alive.
And let’s not forget the sickening way his leg was flopping from side to side as they worked on him.
That I would remember for the rest of my life.
“Ma’am,” I heard said.
I turned around to see Sunny standing there along with another sheriff’s deputy that I’d never met before. Sunny looked pissed. The deputy looked completely neutral as if what was happening in the room in front of him wasn’t affecting him in the slightest.
Sunny jerked his head toward the side, and I followed him, feeling my heart stretch wide as I took steps farther away from Bain.
“What?” I asked, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“We got the chick,” Sunny was quick to explain. “It was the baby mama.”
He jerked his chin at Braxton who was seething in the corner.
Shock and fury rocketed through my veins. Braxton.
Everything always fucking led back to Braxton.
Every single bad thing that had happened to me in my life had been because of Braxton.
It’d started with small things: him refusing to take me to prom, giving me those memories that every teen longs for. Years later, him turning on his own brother and running away while my life was in danger. Which led to now… now his brother lay in that bed dying because he chose another fucking crazy baby mama.
“Did she have anything to say?” I asked carefully,
“Lots, actually.” Sunny shook his head. “She’s in the next room over. Apparently, when she hit Bain, she caused a few issues with herself and now she’s in active labor. They’re keeping her in the room down the hall until further notice. So me and my guys”—he jerked his head at the deputy—“can keep an eye on her. I wanted to let you know before I let him know.”