Chapter 32
Piper
Iran.
There were no thoughts in my head, just the desperate need to get to my brother.
I pushed through the front doors and a blast of cold air hit me. I didn’t slow down. My entire focus was on the limp body lying in front of the hotel.
“Chance!” I sprinted the last few steps, then dropped to my knees.
He was facedown, and I rolled him over. When I saw his face, a terrible sound rasped out of me. His face was swollen and bruised. He’d been beaten. Blood covered the front of his shirt.
“Chance, no…” I gently touched his cheek. There was blood everywhere. I touched his neck. Did he have a pulse?
Strong arms wrapped around me. “Piper—”
“Everett, he’s hurt…”
“I know, babe, and he needs help.”
“Is he…alive?”
Enzo dropped down beside my brother and expertly checked his vitals. “He’s breathing.”
Everett tugged me back. “Move back, Piper, let Enzo and Caden see to him. They both have first aid training.”
I blinked, tears in my eyes, and realized Caden was there too. I resisted for a second.
Everett’s lips pressed to my ear. “Let them help him.”
I nodded, and Everett pulled me back against him. Caden and Enzo knelt beside my brother, both checking him over and laying him flat.
A horrible sound escaped my throat. What if he didn’t make it? We’d never have a chance to sort things out. My mother and grandmother would be devastated.
Everett held me tighter, and I felt pressure growing in my chest. My gaze stayed locked on my brother. On his terrible injuries. Then I looked at my hands. They were smeared with blood.
My brother’s blood.
“He’s been stabbed,” Enzo said. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”
Caden rose, pressing his cellphone to his ear. “This is Caden Castro, we need any ambulance at the Langston Windward. Front entrance. We have a twenty-eight-year-old male with stab wounds, and he’s taken a bad beating.”
“Stabbed.” A sob welled up inside me. “Corvo did this.”
I felt like everything was falling apart. I desperately tried to stay in control, to keep my emotions in check.
“It’s all right.” Everett pulled my face around so I was looking at him. “Caden and Enzo are taking care of him. We’ll get him to the hospital.”
“What if…?” I couldn’t finish.
“Don’t play that game. Right now, let’s focus on getting him to the hospital.”
I nodded, pressing my lips together. I stared at my blood-smeared hands. God. “I feel like I’m flying apart. I can’t fall apart.”
“Yes, you can.”
I blinked at him.
“Fall apart, Piper. I’ve got you. You don’t have to always be strong, you don’t always have the answers. Just hold on and let go.”
My hands gripped his flannel shirt, then a sob ripped free.
“There you go.”
I pressed my face to his neck and cried. He held on, not once letting me go.
My sobs had finally died away when I heard the ambulance sirens. The vehicle screamed into the entrance. I vaguely noted that a crowd had gathered at the hotel entrance. Tessa and Ro were there, trying to encourage people back inside.
With Everett’s help, I rose on shaky legs. I watched a male and female paramedic check Chance over. I pressed my curled fist against my chest. Please be okay.
They loaded him onto a stretcher and then into the back of the ambulance.
“I should go with him—”
“No, babe. They can only take one person with them, and you aren’t steady enough. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
I looked up into his hazel eyes. They were steady, fully focused on me. “You’re always there for me.”
He wrapped his arm around me. “Always, big city. Now, I want you to wait here with Caden while I bring my truck around.”
There was a steady beep of a machine.
I sat in the uncomfortable chair beside the hospital bed, my hand holding my brother’s limp one. He lay there, unmoving. The doctors and nurses had stitched and bandaged his wounds. They’d cleaned him up. Now he looked pale and small. And young.
I swallowed. “Chance…I wish it hadn’t come to this.” I squeezed his fingers. “You need to be okay. You need to wake up.”
The police had come. That had all been a bit of a blur. But the very efficient Officer Sanchez had asked questions and taken notes in her notebook. I’d told her everything. The time for hiding any of this had long passed.
She’d promised they’d look for Hugo Corvo.
Everett appeared in the doorway, two takeout coffee cups in his hands. “Drink this.” He pushed one into my hand. “I won’t say it’s good, nor does it have oat milk in it, but it’s hot.”
With a faint smile, I took it. When I sipped, I winced. It was a long way from good.
“Three stab wounds,” I said dully. “Multiple contusions.” I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. “And a head wound and concussion. Everett, what if he doesn’t wake up?”
His hand curled around my shoulder. “The doctors said it’s too early to know anything. He needs to rest and heal.” He took my coffee and set both cups on the table beside the bed. Then he tugged me out of the chair and into his arms.
I wrapped my arms around him, pressed my cheek to his chest, and absorbed his warmth. I realized now how cold I’d been.
“I don’t know if I should tell Mom and Gram.”
“Let’s leave that until tomorrow. He’s stable for now. There’s nothing else they could do tonight except worry.”
I nodded.
“Let’s get these hands washed.” He gripped mine in his. Mine were still stained with Chance’s blood. “Then we’ll sit with him for a bit longer.” He tipped my face up. “But once visiting hours are over, we’re going back to the hotel.”
I shook my head. “No, I—”
“You’ve been here for hours, Piper. And there’s nothing else you can do for him. The best thing is to eat and stay rested. So you aren’t dragging when he does wake up.”
If he woke up. I chewed on my lip.
Everett lowered his head and gave me a quick kiss.
My heart gave a quick rap against my ribs. Having him here, supporting me, I was getting far too used to it. I’d been shocked to feel glad when we’d returned to Windward. Happy to be back at the hotel. Thrilled to be back in my bed with Everett beside me.
I swallowed. I knew what that meant. That when I left, and all this was gone, it would hurt like hell.
I forced myself to look at my brother in the bed. He was what I should be focused on, not myself and my future worries. I had more than enough to deal with right now.
“All right, Murray.” I set my shoulders back. “I’ll let you boss me around for my own good, but I’m not drinking the rest of that swill you call coffee.”