Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Elle
ELLE
I hope you're okay!
I sent yet another unread text to Rhett.
It had been six days since he left, and to say I wasn't doing well was an understatement. I was sick with worry.
Literally.
I couldn't stomach anything to eat, and the little I did eat sat in my stomach like a heavy rock.
"Are you sure you aren't coming down with something? You look like shit," Molly so helpfully commented as we sat in my classroom.
Molly resorted to coming in early along with me each day to keep me company. She refused to say that was the reason, but I knew better.
"Gee thanks." I rolled my eyes but, at the same time, wondered if maybe that was the case. I couldn't remember the last time I felt like this. "I'm just worried about Rhett."
"Still no word from him?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. Not even a 'leave me the hell alone' response, and I've sent a message a day to him."
"Have you tried calling him?"
With a nod, I sighed, "It goes straight to voicemail."
"So definitely not ignoring you, then."
I had thought the same at first, but there was no way Rhett would permanently keep his phone off just to ignore a woman. That didn't seem like his style.
"Unless he blocked me, but I don't see why he would."
"What kind of messages have you been sending?"
I handed my phone over and let Molly read. There was nothing there I didn't mind sharing. Each text was basically the same. I just wanted him to be unharmed.
"Definitely wouldn't block you for those unless he's a complete ass, and from everything you've told me, he doesn't seem like that kind of guy." She handed me back the phone.
"He's not." I sounded awfully sure for a person who has only had a handful of interactions with Rhett, but they were enough to give me a pretty good idea of who he was.
Plus I considered myself a pretty decent judge of character.
"Unless he's pushing me away because I'm getting too close. Now that, I can see him doing."
Molly gave me a sad look. "I hope that's not the case."
Me too.
We sat in silence for a few moments just staring at each other. There wasn't much more to say on the subject.
I was about ready to tell Molly that maybe I should use a sick day when my phone began to vibrate across my desk. I didn't recognize the number but something deep inside me was screaming at me to answer it.
"Hello?" I hesitantly asked as I placed the phone up to my ear.
"Is this Elle?"
"It is." Now I was further confused. "And who's this?" If it was some telemarketer, I was going to be slamming the end call and tossing my phone across the room. The only reason I even answered the unknown number was because I had high hopes it would be Rhett.
The male voice on the other end definitely wasn't him.
"My name's Zack Lynch. I'm Rhett's brother."
I didn't even let the man finish before I was cutting him off to ask, "Oh my God, is he okay?"
I wanted to slap myself upside the head. Of course everything wasn't okay. There was literally no reason Rhett's brother would be calling me unless something was wrong.
"He's alive but in pretty bad shape. I'm not sure how much you know about his line of work, but he was hurt on the job."
"He's told me a little. Where is he? I need to see him."
"Glad he's told someone," Zack grumbled on the other end of the line, and I wondered what that was all about. I pushed it away though. I had more important things to worry about. "He's at Massachusetts General. I can send you all the information if you want."
"Yes, please. I'm leaving now. I'll be there as soon as I can."
I quickly hung up the phone and began to throw stuff in my purse.
"What's going on?"
I almost forgot Molly was in my classroom until she asked the question.
"That was Rhett's brother. Rhett was hurt while working. He's at the hospital. I need to go there and see him."
I thought about what I was going to tell my principal, but then remembered how bad I looked, according to Molly. I figured my boss wasn't going to ask too many questions.
As it turned out, I was right. I rushed out of the school like the demons of hell were nipping at my heels. I hadn't even said goodbye to Molly.
Oh well. I would text her later once I knew how Rhett was doing.
Morning rush hour sucked, and it took twice as long to get to the hospital than it should have. By the time I pulled into the parking garage, I was ready to murder someone. I barely had the vehicle in park and the SUV turned off before I was jumping out and rushing inside.
The hospital was huge. It was a good thing Zack had been kind enough to provide explicit directions because there was no way I had the patience to stop and ask someone where to go.
"You must be Elle." I came to a skidding halt outside of Rhett's room and stared at the man who looked an awful lot like his brother might. Same dark hair, blue eyes, and chiseled jaw.
"Zack, I presume."
"The one and only." The man smiled, and it was scary to see just how much that smirk reminded me of Rhett.
"As much as I know how rude this is going to sound, I'm going to say it anyway. Let's keep the chitchat for another time. I want to see your brother."
"I should warn you... "
I didn't let the man finish before I was pushing the door open. I didn't get the chance to make it all the way to the bed before I stuttered to a stop and gasped.
"I tried to warn you."
Rhett's entire face was swollen and covered in bruises. He had two black eyes and a split lip. He was hardly recognizable under the thin sheet.
"What the hell happened to him?"
"He was captured and tortured along with the rest of his team," Zack spit out, and there was no mistaking the underlying fury in his tone.
"Is he going to be okay?" I couldn't see the rest of his body, but I imagined it looked similar to his face.
"A few broken ribs but no internal bleeding, thank God."
"How long has he been here?" Some of the bruising looked fresh, so I doubted it was long.
"My team rescued his team last night." There was nothing but shame in Zack's eyes as he looked down at his brother. "He kept mentioning your name whenever he would gain consciousness, so I had our technical analyst go through his phone records. That's how we found you."
"I appreciate it. I've been so worried." I looked up and found Zack was no longer looking at his brother but instead intensely staring at me.
"I can tell. No offense but what are you to my brother because he’s never mentioned you."
I dry laughed at that. "I guess you could say we're friends, although I'm still trying to convince your brother to even be that."
Zack didn't say anything at first. He looked at me like he was trying to solve a puzzle, so instead of making him ask, I gave him a little more information.
"We met at a bar. I needed rescuing from a jerk who wouldn't take no for an answer, and Rhett seemed like a good man."
"And he went along with it."
This time when I laughed, it was more of a snort. "Reluctantly. I asked him to give me an hour of his time. Pretty sure he would've ditched me if he could have, but in the end, he was a good sport about it."
"But he willingly told you about his life?" Zack appeared surprised.
"Hell no. I spent most of the time talking about myself. I mean, I knew he had siblings, but he would shut down whenever I asked about his life."
It was Zack's turn to snort. "Now, that sounds more like my brother."
"I take it he didn't tell you about the assignment he was on."
The same torment I saw in Rhett's eyes the first time I met him stormed through Zack. "I didn’t even know what he was doing for work."
I felt bad for the man who clearly blamed himself for what happened.
"I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure the only reason he told me anything was because I guilted him into it after he stood me up for coffee one day."
That didn't seem to help. At least not if the guilt in Zack's eyes was any indication. I was about to say more but was stopped when a noise from the bed caught our attention.