Sam
“When can I go back and see her?” I snapped at Caroline.
“Not yet. They’re still getting her cleaned up, and then they have to set her leg,” she calmly explained.
“You don’t understand. I was there. I need to see her.”
Caroline’s eyes softened as she placed a hand on my arm. I didn’t want her touching me. I didn’t need her sympathy or any placating words. I needed to see with my own eyes that Cassidy was okay.
“Look, I’ll get you back there as soon as I can, but you’re not family. Even if she was cleaned up, they wouldn’t let you back yet.”
I ground my teeth, biting back the retort on the tip of my tongue. Telling her to fuck off wouldn’t do me any favors.
“Sam!”
I spun around, cursing under my breath when I saw Parker staggering in with Blake, Rosie, and Wes. They both looked fine, but the fact that they were here spoke volumes.
“What happened?” I snapped, rushing over to my sister.
“We were ambushed at the house.”
I immediately grabbed Rosie from her arms. At two years old, she was already wiser beyond her years, and the wary look on her face said that she had seen things tonight that terrified her.
Tucking her against my chest, I kissed her head and ran my hand up and down her back as she clung to me. “Hey, baby girl. You okay?”
She nodded against my chest, but wrapped her arms around my neck, clinging to me like her lifeline.
Over the past two years, this little girl had wrapped me around her finger, and I gladly let her.
She was the sweetest, fiercest child I’d ever met, and I had no doubt it was all because of her parents.
“What happened?”
“The house was attacked,” Parker said. “It’s shot to hell. Thank God for Knight’s improvements to the house, or we’d all be—”
He cut himself off, his eyes flicking to his daughter.
“Never thought you’d say Knight was right.”
“Yeah, well, I never thought we’d be dealing with shit like this again. What are you doing here?”
“Cassidy was run down outside the police station. We were leaving Seafood & More, and that’s when someone attacked Alyssa. Ex-boyfriend, I think. Cassidy was running for help, and—” I swallowed hard, trying not to lose my shit again. “Hit and run. She’s lucky to be alive.”
“Sam,” Blake whispered, her eyes narrowing on me. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing. I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Pissed? You’re goddamn right I’m pissed.”
Parker reached for his daughter, taking her from my arms. “I think we’ll leave you alone to talk.”
As he walked away, Blake grabbed my hand, pulling me down a deserted hallway. “Spill.”
“There’s nothing to say,” I snapped.
“Sam, what the hell is going on between you and Cassidy?”
I didn’t want to talk about this. Hell, I didn’t even want to think about it. Seeing her lying on the ground in a pool of blood was bad enough. The last thing I needed was to try to put a label on the sharp pain stabbing me in the chest.
“It’s just sex.”
She flinched back, glaring at me. “Seriously? You’re all broken up because your fuck buddy is in the hospital?”
I swallowed hard at her words. Fuck buddy wasn’t right at all. I tried that. I told myself that’s all we would be, but somehow, it just sounded wrong.
“Look, whatever it is…”
“Sam, when was the last time you actually had a relationship?”
“Never,” I muttered. “It’s kind of a career killer.”
“Then what are you doing with her? I know you’re trying to get back in the ring, so why would you pursue something with her?”
“It’s not like that. I mean…It’s an attraction.”
“You don’t follow your attraction to the hospital and hang out for hours, pacing the hospital until you can see her.”
“So, I can’t be worried about her unless I’m in love with her?” I snapped. “She was run down right in front of me!”
Her eyes softened as she tugged me unwillingly into her arms and hugged me. “I know. Is this because of Mom?”
I yanked myself out of her arms and shot her a disgusted look. “What? Because Mom died, I must be fucked up in the head?”
“You’ve been like this since she died. Did you think none of us noticed that you shy away from any sort of connection that might make you feel something?”
I didn’t do that. It was my career. I put that first. It had nothing to do with the fact that Mom died young and left us all behind.
Except her accusation cut a little too close to my heart, making me rethink just how much weight I put on my career, causing me to live a lonely life on the road.
“It’s okay to care about her, Sam. Just make sure you really don’t want more than what you have before she decides to walk away.”
And with that, my sister left me alone in the hall to contemplate her words. The truth was, I did feel something for Cassidy, and I didn’t want to admit how much it was affecting me. Tonight had only proven to me that I didn’t have my shit under control.
“Sam?”
Caroline stood just down the hall, waving for me to follow her. I hustled to catch up with her as she snuck me down the hallway toward Cassidy. Nausea swirled in my stomach at the thought of seeing her beaten and broken, but I shoved that aside. I had to see her.
“Her parents are on the way, so I would guess you only have a few minutes,” she whispered, leaving me just outside the room.
My hands shook at the thought of seeing her again, all bloody and cut up. But I shoved the discomfort down and stepped into the room, sucking in a ragged breath when I saw her lying in the bed.
She was mostly cleaned up, her cuts covered in bandages and her leg in a stabilizing cast until the plaster could be put on. She looked so fucking terrible, and it was all my fault. I vowed to protect her, and here she was, in a fucking hospital bed.
One step at a time, I forced myself to go to her. If I only had a few minutes with her, I needed to take it while I could. To tell her how sorry I was, even if she couldn’t hear me.
But the moment I touched her hand, the words died on my lips.
So, instead, I pressed my lips to her bruised knuckles and sat with her, trying to tell myself that I didn’t really need her. That none of this was more than sex.
But as I stared at her in that bed, I knew it was all a lie, and eventually, I was going to have to face the fact that this feeling building inside me would eventually need an outlet.
And the ring wouldn’t be of any help to me when I decided what my future would hold.