Chapter Forty-Two
Brady
The private medical wing was entirely too quiet.
A staff member behind a desk greeted us and led us into a private wing of the hospital. Security lined the perimeter, present and alert. They had the standard earpieces, eyes locked on the doors, and the heavy, unblinking presence of men who didn’t wear hospital badges and were definitely armed.
Dominic’s operators. My father would never be so overt.
Money and power were on full display and it should have made me feel better, but it didn’t. We were not in control of any of this.
The woman from the bench, the woman I’d spilled everything to, stood near the far entrance with her arms folded, her gaze scanning every shift in the room.
Her face was familiar now, though my embarrassment over how we’d first met was long gone.
She caught my eye once and gave a short, decisive nod.
It wasn’t the time to talk.
Bella hit me before I could take three steps inside. She wrapped her arms around me hard enough to knock the breath straight out of my lungs. “You’re here,” she whispered.
“I’m here.”
My voice sounded shockingly steady, and I had no idea how I was pulling it off.
I held her until her grip finally loosened, and then Nora stepped in. Her eyes were bloodshot but steady, carrying that hollow look people get when they’ve already fallen apart once and realize they don’t have the luxury to do it again. She pulled both of us close.
Drew stepped in from the side and clapped a heavy hand against my back.
“About time,” he muttered.
His gruff voice didn’t match the raw look in his eyes. I just nodded, because if I tried to speak, I wasn’t sure what would come out.
We stayed locked like that for a few seconds. Nobody wanted to be the first to let go.
When we finally pulled apart, I surveyed the rest of the room.
My father sat on one side of the space, his shoulders squared back and his hands perfectly still.
My mother sat close beside him, her hand resting on his arm as if she could anchor him to the chair through sheer force of will.
Across from them, Cody sat exactly the same way.
Different chair, identical posture.
Neither of them looked at the other.
They didn’t have to; the silence between them carried actual physical weight.
I reached back without turning around and found Elise’s hand. She didn’t hesitate when I pulled her forward into the light. She stepped right in beside me, and her fingers caught the fabric at the back of my shirt in a tight grip.
I kept her close against my side, completely understanding why she was tense. I was standing in the dead center of my family’s worst nightmare with Thomas Steele’s daughter pressed against me, choosing her before anyone here realized there was a choice to be made.
It really should have scared me more than it did. I introduced her to my siblings. If they were curious about her, none let on. They simply welcomed her without overly engaging.
Behind us, Tim walked in from the hallway, his expression carved into something strictly official.
He looked less like the chief of police in that moment and more like the family friend he’d always been.
There was a smudge of dark blood on the cuff of his sleeve, not much, but enough to make my stomach turn.
I stared at it until he noticed my gaze.
“It’s been a day,” he said quietly.
I just nodded.
Drew looked directly at me. “Thank God you found him.”
I shook my head once and looked away. “I found a blank spot on a map.”
“It brought him home,” he said, his voice firmer this time.
Bella’s hand flew to cover her mouth. Nora’s eyes instantly filled with fresh tears, and she looked at the floor.
I should have been able to accept the credit.
I should have felt a wave of relief, or maybe even pride, because being recognized as competent had once felt important.
But I’d found the blank spot after Evan had already been taken.
After he’d been hurt. Whatever I’d done right had still come too late to spare him that.
This.
Having everyone alive and together.
It was all that mattered now.
The door to the inner hallway clicked open, and a doctor stepped out.
The room stilled.
“Evan is stable,” the doctor said.
The words moved through the tense space like oxygen rushing back into a vacuum.
Bella collapsed forward into Drew’s chest. Nora closed her eyes and pressed a hand hard against her mouth. My mother’s shoulders dropped so heavily that my father reached out to steady her before she could sway.
The crushing pressure in my chest finally eased to let me take a full breath.
The doctor continued, “He has significant bruising and a concussion, and he was unconscious for a period of time. Fortunately, there’s no sign of internal bleeding. We’ll keep running tests and monitoring him closely, but right now, there is nothing life-threatening.”
Nothing life-threatening.
The phrase should have felt clean, but it didn’t. It still meant someone had actively put their hands on my brother. My fingers tightened around Elise’s.
She squeezed back.
“Can Nora see him?” Bella asked.
The doctor’s expression softened slightly. “Of course, but keep things quiet and calm. He’s been drifting in and out, so he may be somewhat disoriented.”
Nora stood immediately, then faltered for a second as if her knees had forgotten how to support her weight.
My mother was on her feet before anyone else could move. “I’ll walk in with you.”
Nora nodded, but she looked back at me first. “He’ll want to see you.”
My throat closed up tight. “No rush. I’m here,” I said again, but this time, I couldn’t make it sound normal.
Nora and my mother followed the doctor through the inner door, which clicked shut behind them with a heavy, final sound.
For a few seconds, the room fell into a hard silence.
Then my father stood up. “Who did this? Do we know anything yet?” His voice was perfectly controlled, which was always worse than if he had started shouting. He scanned the space before his attention landed squarely on Cody. “Who hates our family enough to leave one of us to die in the woods?”
Cody didn’t stand up, but a prominent muscle flexed along his jaw. “If I were coming for you, Gabe, I wouldn’t involve your children,” he said, his voice low and unvarnished.
My father’s eyes went cold.
Cody continued, his gaze locked with my father’s. “I’d put you through a brick wall if you gave me a reason, and you know it. But I would never hurt the kids. Not yours, and damn sure not mine.”
“A convenient line for you to draw after thirty years of—”
“Enough,” Bella snapped, cutting across his words.
The room dropped into dead silence.
My sister was pale, exhausted, and visibly shaking, but her eyes were absolute steel. Drew moved directly behind her. He didn’t attempt to take over, but his presence lent his support.
Bella pointed an accusing finger at both older men.
“If either of you turns this wing into another battlefield while Evan is lying in a hospital bed back there, I swear to God I will have security drag you both out to the asphalt and leave you in the parking lot until you remember how to behave like fathers.”
My father stared flat at her, stunned.
Cody was the one to look away first.
Alethea stepped forward into the clear space. Her cold gaze moved from Gabe to Cody, with no sign that she was impressed by either of them. “This wasn’t a local. But it wasn’t done by a professional,” she said with chilling precision.
Nobody in the room attempted to argue with her.
“He was taken,” she continued, her voice level. “Beaten. And then left. No ransom request. No explanation. This was personal. An angry punch in the dark by someone who wanted pain more than leverage. So who hates the Hollistons enough to do that? Any ideas?”
Her piercing green eyes flicked to me briefly.
My stomach turned over.
“I’m sure they have many enemies,” Cody said in a low tone.
“Dad, stop,” Drew growled.
“Just being honest,” Cody added.
Alethea cut in. “It could have been a message meant for someone else, but that’s not what my gut is telling me.” Her lips pursed. “And I’m rarely wrong.” Her gaze cut across the room close enough that I felt Elise tense against my side.
My father’s voice was low and guttural. “It’s true that I haven’t always played by the rules. If this was my fault . . .”
I wanted to say it couldn’t be, but that wouldn’t have been true. Alethea’s attention swung to me for a long beat and I nearly blurted out Thomas Steele’s name, but held back. Everything would change if I did.
And there was no proof that the Steeles were at all involved. We’d gone looking for them, not the other way around.
Tim cleared his throat, breaking the lock. “We won’t stop until we find out who did this.”
My father sat back down, though the deliberate movement was far too controlled to count as surrender. Cody leaned back heavily in his own chair and dragged a tired hand across his mouth.
I exchanged a look with Elise. It was one I’m sure neither of us knew how to interpret.
Alethea turned smoothly toward the entryway. As she passed our side of the room, her pace slowed down. Her cool green eyes moved from our laced hands straight up to Elise’s face. Then she leaned in slightly and delivered a message only Elise heard.
Elise inhaled sharply.
Alethea straightened, her gaze cutting to mine for half a second. There wasn’t a drop of softness in her expression, then she nodded and left.
I pulled Elise aside. “What did she say to you?”
Elise kept her eyes locked on the closed door, her voice barely a whisper. “She told me I’d better be right.”
“Not you,” I said. “Us. We’d better be right because I didn’t say anything either.”
She searched my face. “My father is a lot of things, but he’s not whatever did this.”
“I know.” Believing that was my only lifeline to sanity. If her father was responsible, then so was I.
Elise swallowed visibly. “We’ll find out the truth.”
I wrapped both arms around her and held on. “I hope when we do, it doesn’t change how you feel about me.”
Her breath caught. “How could it?”
“Because I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone before, but that’ll change as soon as the person who did this has a name.”