Chapter Thirty-Two
Mark
T he hospital smelled like antiseptic and bad coffee. The fluorescent lights blinded as Lanie and I made our way from reception through a set of double doors. I barely registered the nurse’s words as she guided us down the hall.
Critical but stable. Unconscious. Broken ribs. Lucky to be alive.
I swallowed hard. I should have called Dylan back. I should have taken the speeding car more seriously. Sure, this could be a completely unrelated accident, but my gut told me it wasn’t.
The fact that Dylan had stayed in the area, near enough that he was at Maplebridge’s closest hospital, was a sucker punch.
All I’d wanted was a few days of uninterrupted happiness with Lanie. Was this my fault? Had my silence left Dylan vulnerable? The thought churned in my gut like acid.
One perk of suddenly having a twin? No one questioned whether I was a relative. No need to explain my presence or sign visitor forms. Just one look at my face and they let me through. I’d laugh if the whole situation wasn’t so fucked up.
The perk of coming from a small town? The nurse leading us down the hallway had not only gone to high school with us, but she was the one who’d called me to tell me I needed to come quick because they’d just admitted someone who looked just like me.
Lanie’s fingers tightened around mine, grounding me. I don’t know if I would have been as calm as I was, had she not been at my side. I exhaled slowly, glancing down at her hand. The ring I’d placed on her finger only days ago gleamed under the harsh hospital lights. It wasn’t just a promise of marriage. It was a promise of us. A commitment that had already survived separation and misunderstandings. I would survive this and whatever life threw at us.
She must have noticed the way I was looking at her, because she squeezed my hand again. “You’ve got this,” she murmured. “We’ve got this.”
The knot in my chest loosened a little. I turned my hand over, and raised it to my lips for a quick kiss. None of us had the power to undo the past and regret wouldn’t help any of us figure out what to do next.
The nurse said, “We didn’t know who else to call. He didn’t have any emergency contacts, but one look at him and I knew you were family.”
I nodded, “We are.”
When we reached Dylan’s room, we entered slowly. I wasn’t ready. A few days ago, I’d cursed the universe for his existence and wished I’d never met him. Now, as I considered a future without him—imagined losing him before truly getting to know him—I took it all back.
I could never regret finding out about him. After taking a deep breath I approached his bed. Dylan lay motionless in the hospital bed, bandaged, bruised, with an IV and a monitoring device beeping beside him.
It was a near out-of-body experience for me. I stood there, looking down at myself—no, my twin—praying for more time with him. My pulse roared in my ears.
The nurse asked if I needed anything before she left. Lanie laid her head on my arm. Her grip on my hand was tight—a tether to sanity. She whispered, “Mark... that day near the bridge. You were spooked when you saw that car. This isn’t related to that, is it?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. There was every chance. “I don’t know.”
Lanie’s expression tightened. “We need to tell the police.”
“We will.” I couldn’t tear my attention off the bruised face of my brother. “We’ll take care of everything and make sure he’s safe.”
“Sorry to disturb you, Mark,” the nurse said from the doorway. “There is a limit of how many people can be in here, but if you don’t tell anyone, your parents are here with Julian and Eliza. I can sneak them in, but you’ll all have to be very quiet.”
“Absolutely,” I said in a gravelly voice and shot her a grateful look. “Thank you.”
Her smile was brimming with sympathy. “Of course. You’re the reason I had furniture to sleep on when I got my first apartment after nursing school. I owe you.” She smiled at Lanie. “And it’s good to see you two together again.”
I thought Lanie was going to burst into tears right then, but she held it together.
A moment later, it was my turn to get all emotional. When my parents stepped into the room, my mother was clutching something to her chest. A stuffed animal that looked an awful lot like one I’d left in my bedroom at their house. Something small and soft, worn from time.
She walked slowly to Dylan’s bedside, her hands trembling slightly as she set it down on the table beside him. Not in a bag. Not tucked away. Just there. Waiting.
And then I saw it.
A small note, written in my mother’s careful handwriting. No envelope. No card. A message for when he woke up, in case he woke up alone.
“You are not alone, Dylan. You are loved. You are family. And you will always have a home with us.”
The words blurred as my throat tightened. I turned to my mother and gave her a hug. She hugged me back, blinking back tears.
From beside her my father said, “She wouldn’t let me add anything about owing him an ass whooping, but now that I see the condition he’s in, she was right.”
She gave him a light shove. “Stop. You know if he woke up right now, you’d be the first to hug him.”
“I would,” my father said as he wiped the corner of one of his eyes. “Damn, Mark, it’s like looking at you in that bed.”
“I know,” I said, my voice raw.
I know.
Lanie was next to give my mother a hug. “He’ll be awake and telling all of us off again before we know it.”
“I hope so,” my mother said with humor.
Eliza and Julian were right behind them, quieter than usual, as if they knew this wasn’t the time for words. Their support, though, was everything.
I leaned near Dylan’s face, and in a voice low enough that only he would be able to hear, I said, “We’ll be here when you wake, brother. You’re not alone anymore. I would hope that bump you got in the head has knocked some sense into you, but I’m sure it hasn’t. I want you to know it doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere. We’ll figure out who did this to you, and we’ll make sure they don’t hurt you or anyone else ever again.”
It was a lot to take in—looking down at Dylan, having everyone there, the highly charged emotion of the moment. “I’m going to step outside the door for a moment,” I said. “If that’s okay.”
My mother took the chair next to Dylan’s bed. “We’ve got this. Go, take a moment.”
I bent and gave her cheek a kiss before I did. As I passed my father, he hugged me and I drew strength from him as I always had. We exchanged a look and a nod.
Julian gave my shoulder a firm pat as I walked by him and Eliza exchanged a long hug with Lanie.
At the door, Lanie paused, “It’s okay if you need a moment alone.”
I held out my hand to her. “Oh, no, your ass is coming with me.”
“You got it,” she said with a hint of humor.
I almost smiled at that.
Once in the hallway, I bent over and took a deep breath. Holy fuck.
Lanie remained by my side, seeming to understand all I needed was a moment of quiet to recharge, then I’d go right back in there. I didn’t have to tell her we wouldn’t leave the hospital before Dylan woke. And I didn’t have to ask her to stay with me.
We were both all in—with each other as well as our families.
When I straightened, I noticed a tall man in a suit watching us. At first, I thought he was an administrator, possibly preparing to tell us there were too many people in the room. Was he security? His arms were crossed. His expression unreadable. He looked like someone who was waiting for the right moment to approach us.
Instantly, I was on the defensive. Was he dangerous? Someone who’d come to finish what he’d started? I wasn’t armed, but I could fight like a bastard. I told Lanie to go back inside and looked around for something I could use as a weapon if I needed one.
Lanie didn’t budge. I was torn between dragging her into the room or shoving her behind me.
A man came out of the bathroom and took his place beside the other man.
“No fucking way,” Lanie said from beside me. “Does everyone have a twin?”
I didn’t laugh at her joke because there was no way to prepare for walking into whatever this nightmare was. Between gritted teeth, I said, “Lanie, for God’s sake, go back in the room.” When she seemed determined to stay with me, I added, “Get Julian.”
She nodded then and retreated.
In a heartbeat, I was flanked not just by Julian, but Lanie and Eliza as well. My only surprise was that they hadn’t included my parents in this assembly of avengers.
The first man stepped closer. His voice was deep and measured. “Mark Walker. My name is Thane and this is my brother Zachary. We have good news and bad news for you.”
At my side, Lanie joked, “Is the bad news that we all have a twin? Because I don’t know if I could handle that.”
The man named Thane tipped his head to the side. “As far as I know you don’t.”
In a high-pitched voice, Eliza asked, “Should I call the police?”
“No,” both Thane and Zachary said in unison.
Zachary ran a hand through his hair before saying, “Like Scott would say, we’ve gotten ourselves in quite a pickle, but we’ll figure it out together.”
Thane frowned. “You’re quoting Scott now?”
Zachary shrugged. “I have more in common with him than you.”
“Rude,” Thane said.
“Who’s Scott?” Lanie asked. “Another twin?”
Thane and Zachary exchanged a long look, then Thane’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “It’s complicated...”
The End
But the story continues with Dylan and Jennifer in
Out of Touch