Chapter 62
Austin
The room was too bright. The noise was too loud. My body was too numb.
Images flashed through my mind as my brain woke up.
“Nina?” I asked before my eyes opened.
Eye. My left one wouldn’t open.
“A little beat up and worried about you, but otherwise fine.”
“Bryce?” My hoarse voice sounded weak.
“The one and only.”
I stared at him through my open eye.
My tongue felt like a bag of sand, but I managed to ask, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m your emergency contact and, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re in the fucking hospital.”
I’d noticed.
“Austin, how the hell did you get caught up in something that got your kneecap shot out? And who the hell is Nina?”
Ignoring his questions for now, I changed the subject. “What time is it? How long have I been out?”
“Here.” Bryce put a straw between my lips and ordered. “Drink.”
The room temperature water rehydrated my tongue and irritated my throat. Rogers’ voice snuck into my head, suck on it like you’re giving head. My choked out laugh caused a coughing fit and reminded me of the abuse my body had suffered.
Bryce withdrew the straw, worry written all over his face as he pulled back. “It’s early Monday morning. You’ve been out for sixteen hours.”
Sixteen hours? “Is Nina still in the hospital?”
“Yes, but John said they’ll discharge her this afternoon.”
Bryce stuck the straw in my mouth again. I could probably do it myself, but I let him have his moment. “Slow down before you choke yourself again,” he ordered.
When he yanked the straw away, water dribbled down my chin.
“Christ, you’re a mess.”
I laughed. “When can I see her?” I asked again, singularly focused.
“From what I hear, her first stop after getting discharged is your room.” Bryce sat on the edge of my bed. “You gonna tell me who she is? Or will you make me guess?”
He obviously suspected, and when I didn’t answer right away, he said, “You’re in love with her.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “No.”
“Liar.”
“It can’t work.”
“Why?”
I almost got her killed. “Twelve years is a big gap.”
Bryce didn’t hesitate to correct me, “It’s nothing if you love each other.”
Maybe. If she could forgive me for putting her in danger, maybe the age gap wouldn’t matter. I hoped Bryce was right. My last thought before passing out and my first thought upon waking up was Nina.
Changing the subject, he asked, “How’d you two get yourselves hospitalized?”
Sucking in a deep breath made my lungs scream, but that didn’t stop me from doing it again in preparation for revealing my secrets. The first step to rebuilding my relationship with my brother.
Bryce waited as patiently as a younger brother is capable while I decided where to start and how much to share.
Maybe it was the morphine; maybe it was my newfound rebellious streak, but I went with the blunt truth. “I don’t work in logistics, I’m in the CIA.”
Bryce blinked a few times, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he processed my truth bomb.
“Damn, I thought you’d make me work harder for the truth.”
“You knew?” Surprise filled my voice.
“Not that you were CIA, but I suspected the logistics job was a lie.”
“You never said anything.”
“I figured you’d tell me when the time was right.”
His nonchalant tone didn’t match the disappointment in his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you, any of you. It was for your safety,” I babbled like a nervous teenaged girl. I’m blaming the morphine.
“I’m a cop; I can protect myself and our family.”
He was an upstanding cop in a small town, but didn’t have the skills required to deal with traitorous CIA officers and global mercenaries. “It’s not about your ability.”
“So you’re a spook?”
I cringed, hating the term.
“I’m an information analyst who sometimes finds himself in the thick of things.”
He looked me up and down. “How thick?”
“That I can’t discuss.”
“Ongoing investigation,” he said, accepting my answer without arguing.
I nodded.
“What will you tell our siblings?”
“I don’t know yet. I don’t want to keep lying, but I have an oath to uphold.”
“You told me.”
“You’re a cop.”
“Touché.”
“I’ll figure it out before I see them.”
“You have less time than you think. Everyone except Ethan is outside.”
Fuck.
“If you see Nina before you see them, there’ll be hell to pay,” Bryce warned.
“How bad do I look?”
“Like death warmed over.”
“Thanks.” I punched his arm.
“Austin?”
“Yeah?”
“You ever run background checks on us?”
I nodded. Knowing how it sounded, I said, “Only to make sure everyone was safe.” And give myself some sense of connection. A false sense. So many things, important things like Eva’s love of old words, didn’t show up in background checks.
“You know we’re going to discuss this later, right?”
I did. He accepted my nod as the only reply I’d give.
“Can you send the herd in?”
“The nurse may throw a fit,” he chuckled, “but yeah.”
“Then I want to see Nina.” Understatement of the year. I had to see her to make sure she was okay.
“I’ll talk to John.”
When had Bryce stopped calling him Uncle John?
So many things I didn’t know about my family. Luckily, I planned on spending my medical leave of absence in Weatherford and Laurel Springs.
The instant Bryce opened the door, Cassie, Dalton, and Eva rushed to my bedside.
Laughing when they pulled up fast and knocked into each other like the Three Stooges hurt my ribs and soothed my nerves.
“Hey Big Brother,” Cassie said. “Is it safe to hug you?”
“Just be gentle.”
Cassie’s hug was physically gentle, emotionally powerful, and everything I needed. The strength of her love, love I don’t deserve but will earn, brought tears to my eyes. Tears I didn’t bother wiping away.
“Please tell me the other guy looks worse,” Dalton said, holding up his fist.
Eva gasped when I said, “They do.”
“Hey, come here.” I beckoned her closer. “I’m okay.”
She stared at me with tear-filled eyes for three Mississippi's before accepting my extended hand.
“You don’t look okay.” She called me on my lie as she squeezed.
“Give me a week and I’ll be right as rain.” Except for my ribs and knee, they’d need longer. After a week, facial recognition programs would recognize my face.
The room went quiet. Four very different sets of eyes looked everywhere but at me.
A knock interrupted the awkward silence a second before a nurse walked in.
“Mr. Winchester, I told you no more than one visitor at a time.”
I assumed Bryce was the Mr. Winchester the nurse was scolding, and he confirmed it with a shrug.
“Oopsie.”
“And you call yourself a good cop,” Dalton said.
“I am a good cop.”
Bryce glanced down at his phone. “Shit, I have to go.”
“Go, I’ll stay here,” Dalton said, giving Bryce a knowing look.
Once again, I was on the outside looking in. “Is he okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, he just has something he needs to take care of.”
From the looks on their faces, they all knew what. Or who. Before I could ask, the nurse ordered them out.
“Say your goodbyes,” the hardened nurse ordered. She gave off Nurse Ratched vibes as she crossed her arms over her ample chest and waited for my family to leave.
“There are more people waiting to see you,” the nurse said as she approached my bed. “But they’ll have to wait; it’s time for your morphine.”
I looked at her name tag and poured on as much charm as a human punching bag could muster. “Nancy, would you be an angel and let me talk to my Uncle John and Ryan Gibson before you knock me out again?”
She studied me for a minute. “Fine, but five minutes and not a second more.”
“Thank you, Nancy, there’s a special place in heaven for you.”
She laughed as she walked out. “Five minutes.”
When she opened the door, I saw Bryce talking to John and Gibson.
Whatever he told them didn’t go over well, but they both nodded.
I tried to sit up as they approached, but they rushed to opposite sides of my bed and pinned my shoulders.
“Easy there, Boss.”
Taking it easy wasn’t optional. I had the strength of a two-year-old, and moving too fast made me dizzy.
“What happened?” I asked. “And talk fast, Nurse Nancy probably set a stopwatch.”
John and G filled in the gaps in my memory, making sure to remind me often that Nina was safe and sound.
“Someone is with her at all times,” John said.
“Who’s with her now?”
When I coughed, John handed me the water cup. Unlike Bryce, he let me drink like an adult.
“Mary.”
“Her grandmother?”
“Kroupa and Madi are with her. We didn’t have time to relocate her to the care center.”
“She’s okay?”
“She's good. A little concerned for Nina, but good,” John said.
The mental picture of Gibson cradling an unconscious Nina in his arms filled my mind. I looked at him and said, “Thank you for taking care of her.”
“Anytime, boss.” He held his fist for me to bump. “You found yourself one hell of a woman.”
I didn’t have time to argue that Nina wasn’t mine.
“Times up,” Nurse Nancy said, closing the distance to my IV bag.
“Thank you,” I said as they turned to leave. “For everything.”