The nurse cleared her throat. “Err, well…” She glanced behind me to Dallas. “It’s up to you, Dallas. Doctor Jenson said that you have complete say on who goes in or out.”
Linc finally released his hold on the willowy blonde and she stood as if she hadn’t just been wrestling to free herself from the muscle-headed beast. Brushing past me as if she didn’t even see me, Dallas crossed to the door and grabbed Gabriella by the shoulders. Her eyes raked over the little Italian for a long moment. Brown eyes silently pleaded with blue until Dallas finally shook her head. “You can’t go back there if you are going to fall to pieces. He’s in a fragile state right now. Do you understand me, Gabriella? If I let you back there you can’t scream, sob, or even whimper. Understand?” She nodded mutely.
“I’m probably going to regret this…” She grasped Gabriella by the elbow and pulled her from the room with her. “I swear I’ll kick your little ass if you don’t listen to me.”
“You think someone should go with them? Make sure Dallas doesn’t actually kill the chick while behind closed doors?”
I turned my head to find Drake frowning after the two women. “Would you honestly care if she did?”
Drake shrugged. “Not really, but Angel would probably have a few things to say if I didn’t at least attempt to keep her friend from a murder rap.”
Dallas
I’d lost my fucking mind.
There just wasn’t any other excuse for why I had gone all soft and let bitch-troll Gabriella Moreitti come back with me to see my friend. Or maybe it was because I had been up for nearly twenty-four hours without much of a break physically and now emotionally.
Inside the ICU ward, I nodded my head at one of the nurses seated at the nurses’ station watching heart monitors. She gave me a grim smile and nodded to the room directly in front of her. I didn’t move immediately, though. I was having to psych myself up to go inside that small room with the glass wall overlooking the nurses’ station.
Having worked in the ER downstairs for over four months now, I had seen some pretty gruesome shit. I’ve seen everything from a man bleed out from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, to a defenseless baby with third degree burns from head to toe from where his mother had spilled scalding spaghetti water on him—a complete and tragic accident. I’d had to be strong and do my job as I rushed to help save both even though there hadn’t been anything anyone could have done for either.
Now, as I stood outside of the ICU room where a man I considered as much a close friend as Linc was to me, I found I couldn’t get my mind to kick over to nurse mode. It was stuck on friend and loved one and I was starting to tremble. Liam was so young and he had finally gotten his life on the right track. This wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair. I wanted to scream and shout and… Pray.
“Why have you stopped?” Gabriella demanded in a quiet voice shaking with tears. “Please, Dallas. I have to see him or I’m going to go insane.”
It was the use of my actual name instead of the usual ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ that Gabriella had used on the few occasions we had actually been in the same room together that slapped some sense into me. I sucked in two deep breaths to steady myself and tightened my grip on her elbow. I wasn’t sure if Liam would thank me or hate me for letting his ex in to see him like this, but I wasn’t going to regret it. I knew he was in deep where Gabriella was concerned.
Over the two months that he was in rehab and I had made my weekly trips up to see him, we had shared a lot of ourselves with each other. He knew all about how crappy my life with my mother had been and I knew just about everything from his past—from the reason why Liam and Devlin really and truly hated each other, to Marissa’s illness, to how long Liam had been in love with Gabriella Moreitti.
The glass wall slid back as we neared, letting us inside. Beside me, a small, distressed mewl came from Gabriella but I couldn’t call her out on it when the same noise was coming out of me, too.
Shit. Oh, dear lord. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Tears burned my eyes and I sucked in a shuddering breath as I stepped closer to the bed. Monitors were beeping and I glanced at them for a moment to see how well he really was doing. Not great. Heart rate and blood pressure were low. Brain activity was nearly nonexistent. Oxygen levels were stable, but only because he had a tube down his throat to help him.
Almost reluctantly, I forced my eyes to skim over my friend. He didn’t look like the Liam I knew and had come to love. His face was one big bruise with cuts everywhere from the glass of the windshield he had been tossed through. Wires and IV lines stuck out from all directions; some monitoring, others keeping him hydrated and giving blood since he had lost so much before and while the surgeon had worked on him. Casts stabilized bones that still needed special attention. There was a bandage around his head from where the doctor had relieved pressure from his swelling brain and I knew he was going to be pissed when he woke up and found half his head had been shaved.
“L-L-Liam?” I glanced to where Gabriella was now standing beside the bed, her hands hovering hesitantly over Liam’s battered face. Tears streamed down her face and her lips were trembling. I would only admit this to myself, but Gabriella was a very beautiful woman. When she cried, however? Not so much. At least she wasn’t afraid to ugly-cry like that over the man she might love.
I swallowed a wave of bitchiness that burst to my lips. This wasn’t the time to vent my hatred for this chick at her. It was apparent that right then and there she really was in love with Liam Bryant. But while she might be in love with someone else, that didn’t mean that Axton’s emotions weren’t still involved with the little Italian rocker. Honestly… That was the one thing that made me hate the girl the most.
She had the one thing I knew I would never get… But still craved with everything inside of me.
I cleared my throat. “You can touch him. He most likely doesn’t feel any pain right now. Talk to him. I’m not sure if he can actually hear you or not, but don’t waste the chance. I’m not sure if you will be let in here again once Emmie gets here.”
Gabriella’s jaw clenched but she just nodded. “Liam… I’m so sorry,” she whispered, finally letting her fingers trace over his jaw and then his lips. Her hand noticeably trembled but that didn’t stop her. She didn’t seem to notice that his heart monitor changed at the sound of her voice or with each caress. “I never should have broken up with you. Maybe if…if…” She stopped and sucked in a steadying breath. “Maybe if I had fought harder for us, for you… this might not have ever happened. We could have been in California at Lee-Lee’s New Year’s party right now…” Her voice broke on Lee-Lee’s name and a fresh stream of tears flooded down her cheeks. “I love you, Liam. I love you so much.”
When she lifted her hand, the heart monitor protested, his heart rate dropping all over again. I bit my lip, ready to shout at Gabriella to keep touching him. But there was no need because she simply moved to his hand, entwining their fingers and lowering her head to kiss the back of it. “I love you,” she whispered again.
His heart rate jumped again and started to even out at a steady rate. I sighed in relief and backed up until I reached the door. The nurse at the station was already looking toward Liam’s room, having just watched the dramatic changes in his heart rate from the monitor at her desk. “I’ll get her a chair then call the doctor.”
I just nodded and returned to standing on the opposite side of Liam’s bed. I didn’t care how tired that little bitch got. She wasn’t going anywhere until I knew Liam was out of danger.
Dallas
Six days. I’d been at the hospital for six days straight. My contract had ended and I hadn’t even blinked as I’d signed the papers my boss had come up to the ICU waiting room to have me sign. I was exhausted, so, so exhausted. It was hard to sleep in a plastic chair, and even harder to lie across them. Especially when there were others in the room trying to sleep, too.
The ICU waiting room had been turned into the OtherWorld waiting room. Family membe
rs of other ICU patients were asked to wait in another, smaller room down the hall. It was for everyone’s protection, not just for privacy from the countless journalists trying to get up to sneak a peek at the haggard friends and family members of notorious rocker Liam Bryant as they waited for him to wake up. Fans had been trying to get in too, and that had made it dangerous for everyone who was in the waiting room. Crazy girls who wanted to get in to see Liam, or the other band members. A man that had wanted to finish Liam off for whatever reason. Seller and Associates security firm was out in full force and Emmie had more on standby in case things escalated.
The last six days felt like a blur now, but they had actually been a mixture of emotional overload, drama-filled tension, and the wearisomeness of waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Marissa had arrived with Wroth first. She had been an emotional mess before she got to see her brother, and afterwards had to be sedated because she was nearly hysterical. Wroth hadn’t left her side since. Emmie arrived with Nik and Mia. While Emmie got busy making statements to the press, Drake had taken Mia to his house to leave her with Lana and the baby so that the little girl didn’t have to be exposed to the stressful situation. Zander and Devlin arrived with Devlin’s son, Harris, who should have been taken to stay with Lana as well, but demanded to be allowed to stay.
Few of the newcomers rarely left the waiting room. Emmie mostly being the exception. She and Natalie were kept on their toes with answering phone calls. And wondering if she was going to have to find a bassist for the upcoming tour that would start in March. She’d tried to get OtherWorld out of the tour that was going to go up and down the East Coast, but contracts had been signed and if the band pulled out, then Emmie as well as OtherWorld would be sued by the band’s label for libel. They didn’t seem to care that Liam was fighting for his life, which had forced Emmie to question if OtherWorld or Demon’s Wings would be renewing their contract with the record company when it came time to do so at the end of the year. Thankfully, if things did come down to it, Shane Stevenson had offered to fill in until Liam was able to proceed.
Food was brought in, and blankets and pillows provided, which everyone turned into makeshift beds on the floor. It wasn’t that we couldn’t leave, we just didn’t want to. At least that was my reason for staying. The crowd of screaming paps outside was not holding me hostage, as might have been the case with the others.
Liam had been through so much over the last six days. More surgeries to fix his broken bones. Countless specialists came and went until they were all just a white coat or surgical scrubs instead of faces. The swelling had barely gone down around Liam’s spine, but it was enough to show that he didn’t have any breaks or major trauma. Of course it had taken Gabriella’s cousin coming in with her brother who was one of the top rated spinal injury specialists in the country to figure that out.
Through it all, Liam hadn’t opened his eyes once. He was in a coma and the doctors had suspected that it was his body’s way of trying to conserve energy as it healed from the majority of his injuries. It had taken three days for his heart rate and brain activity to stabilize without having Gabriella touching him continuously. I’d been impressed with the little Italian’s staying power during that time. When it looked like Liam was going to be okay without her having to stay by his side twenty-four seven, the ICU team had told her she would have to wait in the waiting room with everyone else.
That was when the drama-filled tension had really set in. Emmie spent more and more time outside of the waiting room, finding things that needed her attention so that she didn’t have to be in the same room with her archenemy for long periods of time. I was surprised that Emmie didn’t kick Gabriella out as soon as she could. I was certain it was because Marissa, who was finally coming out of her state of extreme shock, had asked Emmie not to. It hadn’t hurt that Gabriella had been useful in having an in with Dr. Vince Shepard, who had dropped everything at Gabriella’s request to fly to New York to consult on Liam’s case.
I’d been praying for so long, and so far those prayers had gone unanswered. I was starting to figure that, like most everyone else in Liam’s life, God—or any god, since Emmie swore by more than one—had counted him off as a lost cause and was putting all his heavenly powers elsewhere.
Needing to get up and stretch, I stood and lifted my arms above my head as I surveyed the rest of the room. Everyone was quiet, as they had mostly been over the last six days. Marissa was sitting with her head in Wroth’s lap as he ran his long, thick fingers through her hair. The look on his face was tortured and for the hundredth time since I’d met both of them I wondered if there was something going on. Marissa seemed so innocent, and Wroth never touched her like a lover, but the way they looked at each other when they assumed no one else was watching was full of secrets and longing.
Across from Wroth sat Devlin, Zander and Natalie. The rockers didn’t look all the worse for wear, and I assumed it was from all the years of touring and the unpredictable sleep schedule that went with it. Natalie, who had been going home at night with Linc to get a few hours of sleep in her own bed, looked more tired than they did. Still, Natalie had been working her ass off with Emmie.
Natalie was scheduled to go on tour with OtherWorld in March and for the last few weeks she had been trying to make friends with the band. She had seemed to get the closest with Zander friend-wise, but I knew that she was crushing on Devlin in the worst way, which was why she tended to hide it behind disdain for the long-haired, sexy drummer.
A few seats down from the three sat Gabriella Moreitti. She was alone, as she had been before and after her cousin had arrived. The chick had been quiet, and I wasn’t yet sure if it was because she didn’t want to draw attention to herself from Emmie or anyone else, or if she was just so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice anyone else was in the room.
On the only couch in the room sat Emmie, who was finally taking a breather from running her ass off all day long. She sat in the middle of Axton and her husband. Both had an arm around her shoulders, as they whispered back and forth. Nik, seeing my eyes were on the three of them, paused before giving me a grin and a wink. I found the energy to smile back, because there was no way I couldn’t not smile at Nik Armstrong if he was granting me one of his sinfully gorgeous smiles.
Drake and Linc weren’t present at the moment. Linc still had to work, but he was stopping by every night to check in and take Natalie home. It made me feel better that he was with her and could protect her from all the grabby hands of the crazies outside. Drake only spent a few hours each day with us. He didn’t like to leave Lana alone with Neveah and Mia for too long. Lana, who thankfully hadn’t had too horrible of an episode with post-partum after the baby had been born was, however, fighting some anemia issues and tired out easily.
Finally, my gaze fell on Harris who was sitting by the closest window to the door, staring off into space. He had a tormented look on his face and I couldn’t help but want to reach out to the boy. I glanced at my watch and then back at him. Making my decision, I grabbed his elbow and tugged him up and out the door with me.
“Where are we going?” he asked quietly as I headed to the double doors that kept us out of the ICU ward.
“You haven’t been back to see him since you got here.” A look of apprehension crossed Harris’s face but he didn’t protest as I punched in the code that was used to unlock nearly every door in the building. With my hand still on his arm, I pulled him through the door and up to the nurses’ station.
The nurse whom I’d come to be thankful for over the last few days was on duty tonight and I offered her a tired smile as we stood in front of her. Her gaze lifted from where she had been watching the heart monitors and smiled back. “I know we’re a few minutes early, but Harris hasn’t gotten to visit with his uncle yet and with everyone else wanting a few minutes he probably won’t get to see him when visiting hours do start at six.”
The nurse hesitated before waving us on our way. I gave her a salute in thanks and
turned Harris around. Liam was the most critical patient in ICU at the moment, which was saying a lot as there were several other patients who were basically knocking on death’s door. Being the most critical meant that Liam’s room was right in front of the nurses’ station. The glass door opened soundlessly as we stepped right in front of it and I tugged Harris inside.
The two of us stood beside Liam’s bed, and I felt a small whisper of relief as I noticed that he had a little more color today. His vitals were improving, but he still hadn’t woken up. Several MRIs had shown that there didn’t appear to be any noticeable brain damage, and with the brain activity lately, that was further proof that his body was trying to heal itself, which was why he hadn’t yet woken up.
Beside me, Harris was looking anywhere but at Liam. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders. At fourteen, Harris was almost taller than me. I’d watched him closely over the last few days, and knew that he was the clone of his father. Devlin and Harris were incredibly close considering the rocky start that the two had had as father and son. A start that Liam had told me all about.
“It’s okay, Harris. He’s going to be okay.” For the first time in six days I was finally starting to believe that myself. “Why don’t you talk to him?”
With his eyes still averted, Harris cleared his throat. I knew that Harris and Liam weren’t close, and it was because of the hard feelings that Devlin and Liam still carried. I was surprised that either were able to tour with the other feeling the way they did about the past. “He was almost my dad… Did you know that?”
I gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Yeah, Harris. Liam told me all about that.”
My answer surprised him enough to make him look at me. The tears in his eyes made my heart clench for him. For Liam, too. Because for a whole nine months, Liam had thought that Harris was going to be his child. Liam and Tawny had been high school sweethearts. She’d been by his side through all his ups and downs. When OtherWorld was formed she would follow them around from gig to gig until their original manager had discovered them and gotten them an amazing record deal. That was when the real Tawny had come out. She had only been along for the ride, or so Liam had told me.