Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
She held her breath, waiting for his response.
“Okay, Walsh? Can you at least do that for me?”
She heard a car door slam.
“I’m on my way.”
She’d have to take that as a yes.
* * *
Walsh sat in the parking lot, considering the hospital entrance, so quiet at this time of morning, the sun just starting to overtake the night sky. The last time he’d been here, it had been to take his mother home to die. And before that, there had been Iyani. Kerris had been by his side through that ordeal.
He smiled, remembering how they had distracted each other that day with silly jokes and teasing as they’d waited during Iyani’s surgery. They’d laughed over his mother’s soul food. His mind had greedily hoarded every moment he’d ever spent with her, and it was like bread and water to him now—sustaining. What if he never saw her alive again? He slammed his fist into the steering wheel, wishing it were Cam’s head.
Thoughtless. Selfish. Foolish. Irresponsible.
He had known Cam could be all those things, and he’d bowed out anyway, let him walk off with a treasure he had known was meant to be his. He really didn’t know if he was angriest at Cam or at himself. He pulled out his phone.
“Meredith, I’m here.” He kept his voice low and free of the wretched emotion boring a hole in his gut.
“I’m coming out,” she whispered back. “Where are you?”
“There’s a G on the pole in front of me. Does that help?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you in a sec.”
A few minutes later, Walsh unlocked the car door, and Meredith slid into the passenger seat.
“Hi, Walsh.” She looked at him like he was a booby trap, poised to go off with one misstep. She wasn’t wrong.
“How is she?”
“Still in surgery.”
“What are we dealing with?”
“Well, of course her car was ancient. No side air bags, so she really bore the brunt of it when she slammed into that tree. A huge limb came through the window. Four ribs on her left side are broken. Her left lung was punctured and has collapsed. Her left arm and leg are broken.”
Meredith fixed a flat gaze on the windshield ahead of her.
“She hit her head against the side of the window, but we don’t know the impact of that yet. It seems that there wasn’t much damage to her face. Just some surface scratches and cuts from the shattered glass and branches.”
Meredith had cataloged Kerris’s injuries dispassionately, almost matter-of-factly. She didn’t fool him, though. Walsh saw the tremble in her fingers and noted the sharp marks where she had bitten her lip too hard. The same terror that gripped him gripped her.
“How’re you holding up?” Walsh reached over to squeeze her hand.
“I…I’m,” she started and stopped with a flurry of blinks to stem her tears. “I’m fine.”
“You’re a wreck.”
Her face crumpled, tears rolling down her cheeks unchecked.
“I’m a wreck. I’m so scared, Walsh.”
“Me, too.”
The words were a breath, all the sound he could spare with fear holding him in a headlock. He gathered her close, offering the comfort he needed for himself. He allowed her to cry a few minutes, releasing some of the strain and trepidation that had been locked inside her for the last few hours. He finally pulled back, peering into her tear-splotched face.
“Better?”
“Not really.” She choked on a half-laugh, half-cry.
“I didn’t think so.” Walsh drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Tell me how this needs to go.”
“If Cam sees you, it won’t be good.”
“Yeah, well if I see him it won’t be good.” A growly rumble, Walsh’s voice held the threat of a violent storm. “She was chasing him after a fight? And he was drunk? He’s supposed to take care of her.”
“Accidents happen.” Meredith shifted in the passenger seat, her fingers plucking at the seat belt. He could see all over her face that she didn’t buy that line of crap. “He couldn’t have known she would follow him out like that.”
“This is Kerris we’re talking about.” He squeezed the steering wheel. “Did he honestly think she would let him drive drunk?”
“I don’t think he was thinking.”
“That isn’t good enough. Dammit, if she dies…”
The silence following his outburst was almost too painful to sit through. He hoped the fire in his eyes cloaked the bleak desolation enveloping him.
“You love her,” Meredith whispered.
He looked straight ahead through the windshield, not acknowledging her.
“You knew the night before their wedding.”
“Don’t, Walsh.”
“Don’t what? Remind you that if you had stopped it she might not be fighting for her life right now?”
“And you?” Meredith fired back. “You could’ve stopped it at any time. You knew she lo—”
Walsh swiveled a glance at Meredith when she cut herself off.
“Actually I didn’t know how she felt until later, but I couldn’t deny there was something special between us. She did enough denying for the both of us, though, and I let her get away with it. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”