Chapter Thirty-One
Hollie
It was AJ who passed me. In the ambulance, on my way out to Rapture.
He jumped. To save himself.
My heart thunders inside my chest.
How long ago? From how high up? Is he alive? Injured?
An explosion sounds out, interrupting all the thoughts rollercoastering through my mind.
We duck down. There are screams. More glowing embers are coughed out into the air.
I picture the pool tables burning inside the saloon.
Individual bottles of alcohol shattering under blistering heat, their contents only adding to the furnace.
Echo throws up one arm, indicating which direction we should all be heading, away from Scotch & Smoke.
I follow, tripping over my own feet. Echo begins barking out orders. I hear the roar of an engine and Chase’s truck pulls up.
His window is down. He and Echo exchange bellowed words, and a group of bikers climb into the back.
‘Take Hollie!’ Echo orders, and I feel him nudge me toward the door.
I climb into the cab, doing as I’m told, just as I glimpse Nicole climbing on the back of Balthazar’s bike.
Somebody loads two dogs in beside me, an enormous Rottweiler and a sandy-colored bulldog.
Their panting breaths fill the cab as I move myself to the seat by the window, just as Echo slams the door behind me.
‘Somebody can take my car,’ I say to Echo, as I hand him my keys.
I strap myself in, keeping one hand in front of both dogs, penning them in. Chase leans out his window, checking as many people as possible are inside the back of his truck before he guns the engine.
As we hit the access road, I don’t say anything. I don’t know where to start. There’s a dry lump sitting at the base of my throat.
‘Are you all right?’ Chase shouts to me, over the sound of the wind rushing through the window.
I glance in my wing mirror. I can see the inferno we’re leaving behind, and for a moment, close my eyes.
‘No,’ I shout back. ‘I need to know that AJ is okay. What happened?’
‘Somebody lit her up. Doused the place. Somebody said the Floods are involved. That they used gasoline, all around the outside.’
‘Somebody did this on purpose? Who are the Floods?’
‘Family of outlaws from over in Temptation Heights, West Canyon. They’re the ones orchestrating stealing all the cars in the city these last few months.
But far as I know, they got no beef with us, and we didn’t even retaliate for them roping in our kids to steal all o’ them Teslas and Audis from Canyon.
Echo put an embargo on any kind of strike back.
So, the whole thing don’t make no sense. Feels targeted.’
I swallow. ‘What about AJ? How far did he have to jump?’
Chase winces. ‘Don’t know. Echo’s generator is fueled by propane, so the whole thing went up in flames real quick. Wouldn’t have had much warning. Maybe he didn’t have a choice. By the time Reyes got to him, he weren’t talking.’
My heart leaps. We stare across at one another. One of my boyfriend’s closest friends and I recognize the fear in his eyes, because I have it too. I clasp my fingers together to stop them from trembling.
‘Were you with him? Last night?’
‘We played some eight-ball. He told me what went down with you two and the mayor. Was beating himself up for leaving you there, in Boulder Creek. But he was real excited to find a place with you. All he could talk about.’
I cover my mouth. Feel the surge of tears. The bulldog whines in his seat as the truck bounces over potholes in the road. I didn’t call AJ after I got home, and I wish now that I had. Maybe I could have convinced him to ride back to Eastvale to spend the night with me.
Guilt gnaws at my insides. I remove my hand from my mouth and look over the dogs’ heads at Chase.
‘Drive faster,’ I say.
Golden Oak Medical Center is situated on the northwest side of Canyon’s central business district, not far from the city’s main Danube Stadium.
The truck screeches to a halt as Chase hits the breaks and I grab both dogs to stop them from flying through the windshield.
He parks the truck haphazardly across the road from the emergency room entrance.
‘Don’t wait for me,’ he orders as I unbuckle my seatbelt and yank the door handle.
Inside the emergency room, there are bikers everywhere. I spy Echo arguing with a receptionist sitting behind a desk.
She’s raising her voice at him. ‘You people can’t all be here at once,’ she says. ‘We have patients. Immediately family only. Unless they require treatment, everybody else can wait outside.’
Echo turns to the waiting members of Hell’s Venom. ‘You heard the lady. Everybody out.’
There’s movement. Not everyone clears out. Echo spies me in the crowd and reaches for my hand. ‘Hollie, you stay.’
I step forward. I’m trying to control the rising sense of panic in my chest. ‘Is he here? What’s happening?’
The receptionist eyeballs us. Echo doesn’t answer me immediately. We move to a set of pale yellow dilapidated-looking chairs set out in a horseshoe shape and huddle together: me, Echo, Balthazar, Nicole and Chase.
‘Is Mercy with him?’ Nicole asks.
Echo nods his head once. ‘She is.’
‘Are the kids here?’
‘Armando’s checking them into a motel.’
I swallow. I haven’t met AJ’s mother, or her boyfriend, let alone his half-siblings, aside from Noah.
‘You all right, Echo?’ Chase asks. ‘I mean, with the fire and all?’
‘Let’s not talk about that now. Focus on AJ.’
Echo’s eyes settle on me. ‘How you holding up?’ he asks.
‘Was anyone else injured?’ I ask, ignoring his question.
Echo shakes his head and looks at the floor. ‘No. Just AJ.’
‘How high did he jump from?’ I ask, because I need to know.
I see Echo swallow. He leans forward, taking my hands in his. ‘Lester witnessed it. He thinks thirty, maybe thirty-five feet.’
My mouth falls open. ‘Thirty-five feet?’ I repeat in horror.
‘He’s alive, that’s what counts. Boy’s a fighter, he’ll come out swinging. He’s gonna be fine.’
‘And if he’s not?’ Chase blurts out from beside me.
Echo’s expression darkens. ‘Brennan you say another goddamned word, I swear…’
Chase looks away. I feel a rush of tears and shoot to my feet.
‘You okay, Hollie?’ Nicole asks me.
‘I need to…’ I say, my words coming out only just above a whisper, because they are caught in my throat. ‘I… I need to go outside.’
I turn and flee toward the exit door before anyone can stop me. I walk through the sliding doors, witnessing the number of people waiting outside for news about AJ, all of them from Rapture.
I turn a corner, walking up a grass bank that overlooks the street.
In the darkness, I let the tears come, my shoulders trembling as I hug my waist. There’s a sharp pain in my chest that pierces my heart, slicing it in two.
I can’t breathe. And all I can think is I cannot lose you. I cannot lose you. I cannot lose you.
I’m angry at whoever did this. I’m frightened he might die. That he might be so badly injured he won’t recover from his injuries.
I reach for my phone. I don’t care what time it is. I dial my dad.
He answers immediately, which takes me by surprise.
‘Hollie?’ he says, and there’s an urgency to his tone.
‘Daddy,’ I manage to say, and I look to the skies above Canyon, my cheeks streaked with tears that drip down my chin and neck.
‘Where are you?’ he asks.
‘Golden Oaks Medical Center. There was a fire. In Rapture—’
‘The sheriff called Evelyn. She’s on the phone to him now. What’s happened?’
‘It’s AJ. He lives above Scotch & Smoke. The bar. They’re saying someone set it on fire. He was inside. He… he… oh god, Dad, he had to jump from the building.’
‘Oh my god. Is he all right?’
My voice quakes. ‘I don’t know. It was thirty-five feet. He was brought here in an ambulance. I… I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do. There’s nothing I can do. Will you come here?’
‘Of course,’ he breathes. ‘I’ll get in the car now.’
‘I’ll be inside, in the waiting area.’
‘I’ll be there soon.’
I hang up and press the handset to my chest. Then I take a breath, wipe my face one more time, and head back inside.
When I walk back through the double sliding doors, I spy Echo with a woman in his arms. I can’t see her face because it’s buried in his shoulder. She’s wearing a floral dress and a pair of leather sandals. Dark hair the same shade as AJ’s flows loose and wild down her back.
I move closer. Nicole sees me, a sad look on her face. The pain in my chest turns searing.
Wretched sobs wrack her body. ‘I can’t do it, Echo,’ she cries into his chest. ‘I c-can’t lose another. Logan is never coming back here. Noah is… oh god, Echo… I’m not strong enough. I can’t lose another boy. I can’t lose AJ too.’
I’m looking at Mercedes Callahan. I bite my lip to try and stem the tears.
Echo brushes a kiss against her temple. Keeps hold of her, soothing her.
‘I won’t let that happen. I swear, Mercy. You gotta breathe. Tell me everything they’ve said so far.’
She pulls back. I look at her face and she’s beautiful.
Big tears swell then roll down her cheeks and she tries in vain to wipe them away.
With Echo’s encouragement, she takes a moment to compose herself.
I move closer still and Nicole comes to stand beside me.
‘Not much. They’ve taken him upstairs for an x-ray. He’s still strapped to a board.’
I swallow a lump in my throat.
‘Is he talking?’ I blurt out. ‘Do you know?’
Her eyes, ablaze, land on me. The room stills as she drinks me in. She wipes her cheeks, then looks at Echo. ‘Is this…?’
Echo looks at me too, and a smile tugs the corner of his mouth. ‘This is her. This is Hollie.’
‘I’m Hollie,’ I repeat, as though it needed confirmation, and my cheeks flush pink.
She steps forward, takes me by the hand. ‘It’s wonderful to meet you, Hollie. AJ’s told me so much about you.’
I didn’t want to meet her under these circumstances.
I wanted to meet her, but for AJ to introduce me as his girlfriend.
I’d already imagined that day, because I felt like it could be imminent, and I was ready.
But, tonight as two women with the same deep-seated worry about the same man, I don’t say another word as we fall into an embrace, the pair of us holding onto the other tightly. Behind me, Nicole rubs my back.
We break apart. AJ has her eyes. ‘I don’t know if he’s talking yet,’ Mercy says. ‘They won’t let me near him.’
‘You haven’t had any update?’ I question.
‘They told me they had to run tests first. That I should wait. Will you come wait with me?’
I nod frantically. ‘Please. You don’t mind?’
‘Oh, my darlin’, the way he talked about you? You’re the only person he’d want by his side right now.’
The last of my resolve breaks. I can’t stop another surge of tears.
Mercy holds out her hand. ‘Come on, honey.’
‘We’ll be right here,’ Echo says from behind us.
Mercy wraps her arm around my shoulders, and together we make our way toward a second set of sliding doors. I look back at Nicole, Chase and Balthazar. Nicole crosses her fingers, holding them close to her chest.
It’s another half hour before we hear anything. I wait with Mercy. Pacing. Climbing the walls. It feels like we should be trying to get to know one another, but we don’t say anything.
Finally, a doctor approaches. ‘Mrs Callahan?’
We both shoot to our feet.
‘How is he?’ Mercy asks.
‘Well… his left ankle and tibia are broken. His right femur sustained a fracture in the fall. We had concerns that there could be damage to his lower back and spinal cord, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.’
‘So…’
‘We can’t say for sure yet, but given time, and enough physical therapy, he should make a full recovery.’
Relief floods my veins.
‘He’ll need surgery to reset his thigh bone,’ the doctor continues. ‘That should happen later today. His leg will require a cast. Most patients can return to activities within three to six months. Full strength and mobility can take up to one to two years.’
‘Is he awake?’ Mercy asks. ‘Can we see him?’
‘Oh, he’s talking all right. Keeps asking when he can see somebody called Hollie.’