Chapter Twenty-Five
“Stop pushing me.” I elbow Aleks as we descend the stairs of my private jet.
“You stop pushing me.” He elbows back.
“Seriously, you’re holding everyone up.” Jackson shoves between the two of us.
My hand flies out to grip the railing so I don’t totally eat shit. Aleks stumbles down a step, but Sydney’s hand shoots out to grab him.
“Children, please,” she sighs.
I watch her ass she walks in front of us, her tight pencil skirt hugging her curves. I start to follow her, but Deer bounds down the steps, jumping off the last one and miraculously landing on her sky-high heels.
“Come on, move your booty.” Lee uses her knee to nudge mine.
I pound down the remaining steps onto the runway. I not-so-accidentally clip Jackson with my backpack as I stroll to Sydney. He gives me a glare and I grin, throwing my arm around her shoulders.
She looks up at me with a smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
I drop a kiss on her cheekbone, and her smile grows before she looks back down at her tablet. She continues to type away, checking in on everything for the championship.
It takes a few minutes for all our luggage to get unloaded—especially Deer’s forty-ton custom pink Louis Vuitton suitcase. The girl is just as bad as me, not that I’d tell anyone.
Four black SUVs roll to a stop. Security files out and opens the doors to the middle two vehicles for us to pile into.
Lee and Deer jump into the first one. Jackson jumps into the passenger seat of the one behind it, and Aleks and I follow suit, getting in the back. I hold my hand out for Sydney.
“Syd, come hang with us!” Lee calls, waving her hand out the door of her car.
Sydney’s stormy eyes bounce between the vehicles.
“It’s fine,” I reassure her, kissing her hand before letting it go. “You can make it up to me tonight.”
“Okay,” she snorts.
I smile as she jogs to her best friend, but my view is cut off by the chest of a leggy brunette pushing into my face, a dove necklace swaying off her neck.
“’Scuse me.”
Stevie shoves her way into the car, her manicured hand digging into my shoulder as she forces herself between Aleks and me. When her bum is firmly on the seat between us, she hooks one of her legs over Aleks. “Thanks.” She grins at me.
I rub my shoulder. “Yeah, no problem.”
We leave the airport flanked by our two security cars.
I stare out the window at the red mountains in the distance as we make our way to The Covington on the Strip. The traffic is bumper-to-bumper, roads closed off for the championship.
I swallow down my nerves, trying to stop myself from thinking about how I’ll be playing in less than twenty-four hours. I focus on counting every desert palm tree we drive past and ignoring the cooing noises from the couple next to me.
My eyes snag on a Bugatti La Voiture Noire, and I just about piss myself. There’s only one in existence, and no one knows who owns it. I reach my hand out to tap Aleks and show him. He leans across Stevie, and we foam at the mouth. This is one of the many reasons I love Vegas; you can see some of the sickest cars here.
I distantly pick up on the sound of a revving engine over our conversation.
My eyes flick around, trying to locate the car, the deep rumble getting louder.
Everything stops as I watch a black Escalade blow right through the red light, right toward us.
I yell out a warning, but it’s futile.
Because the car swerves and hits the one in front of us.
The one with the girls in it.
The one with Sydney in it.
And I lose it.
***
“Sir, I will need to sedate you if you do not calm down.”
I shove against the security barring me from the room and glare at the doctor before me.
“She’s my girlfriend,” I growl. “Get them to take their hands off me.”
“I’m sorry, only family—”
“She is my family,” I bark.
“That’s not how it works.” The spindly man frowns.
They would regret this. They don’t know who I am. I will fucking find out their names and get them all fired. This doctor wouldn’t work at another hospital in his life.
The security guard’s hold lessens a little, and I use the chance to rip away from him. All decorum flees my body as I bodycheck the doctor and push my way into the room.
My heart shatters on the floor at the vision of the bruised woman before me.
Sydney’s body lies on a bed in the middle of the private hospital suite. An IV snakes into her hand, while a breathing tube feeds into her nose.
My knees give out.
I just about crash onto the vinyl when a strong hand grips me.
I look up into a set of dark blue eyes.
“Dad.” My voice breaks.
“It’s okay, son. I’m here.”
He steadies me and wraps his arms around me in a heavy hug. Sobs wrack my chest as I fold like a child against him, all my strength crumbling in his presence.
“Oh, Parker, darling.” My mother rushes into the room and cups my face in her delicate hands. “We came as soon as we heard there’d been an accident.”
I pull from my father into my mother’s embrace. Her hand rubs my back as she lets out soft, cooing reassurances.
It’s impossible for me to even form words. My brain is spinning nonstop, the crash playing on repeat in my mind, over and over and over.
The guys had had to hold me back at the accident site, stopping me from charging into the debris.
It was painful waiting for emergency services to arrive, and when they pulled her limp body from the wreckage, I just about threw up. I’d managed to bully my way into the ambulance, holding her hand and watching the monitor as her heart continued to beat. But the doctors had shut me out the second they took her into the ER.
I’d done the only thing I could do, and that was use all the money and power at my disposal to get her and the other girls their own private hospital suites.
I’d told the doctors to spare no expense, I’d cover any cost, they just needed to run every test, no matter how minor. I didn’t want them to miss anything. I needed her to be okay. I’d also made sure Sydney’s father was contacted and booked him on the first Imperial flight out of Missouri.
But that was all I could do, and I fucking hate it.
I can’t make her wake up.
The doctors said it should happen, but until her eyes open and I know she is okay, I wouldn’t rest. I couldn’t rest.
The driver died on impact and the police are still investigating, but all I can think about is that someone almost caused me to lose the single most important person in my life.
Sydney is my lifeblood; she gives me strength and power. She is the person who makes life that little bit better just by being by my side, the cherry on top of my sundae.
I can’t lose her.
I can’t imagine the world without her in it.
I’d just gotten her, finally. They can’t take her away.
The tears flowing from my body turn to quick, sucking breaths.
“Darling, you need to calm down. It’s going to be okay. The doctors said she would be okay.” Mum pulls away from me, running her thumbs across my cheeks to clear some of the wetness. Her seafoam eyes shine with empathy.
“Oh, baby.” She places a kiss on my forehead. “I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It breaks my heart.”
I stumble from her grip and hazily make my way to Sydney’s bedside. My knees crack on the linoleum as I crouch next to her. I shakily take her small hand in mine, trying to warm her up with my touch, hoping that it will wake her up.
“Please, Sydney,” I beg. “Please.”