Page 78 of Cole: Bloodlines
Savannah—alive, breathing, real—threw herself into his arms with a sob that shattered the sterile silence. His arms remained frozen at his sides for a terrible second—fearing she might vanish into mist if he dared to believe—before he crushed her against him with such force he almost feared he might break her fragile frame.
“Oh God, oh God,” he gasped. His entire body convulsed with sobs that tore from somewhere deeper than his lungs as he buried his face in her hair, inhaling proof of her existence.
Through the blur of tears, he saw Maddy standing by the bed, hospital gown hanging from his slender body. The boy's jaw clenched against trembling lips, tears carving silent paths down pale cheeks, shoulders squared with a desperate, fragile dignity that made Devlin's heart splinter further. Yet, something in his posture remained defiantly upright—a resilience Devlin had feared was gone forever after the island.
“Maddy,” Devlin's voice wavered around the name. The boy stepped forward, and Devlin pulled him into their embrace with desperate force, as if they might disappear if he didn't anchor them with his own body. “We thought—” His voice broke completely. “God, we were so scared—”
“We're okay,” Savannah whispered against his chest, her voice fragile as spun glass. Devlin pulled back just enough to search her face, his trembling fingers tracing her features like a blind man memorizing salvation, terrified of finding hiddentrauma in her sea-colored eyes but detecting only exhaustion and relief mirroring his own. Her throat constricted as she forced out the words: “Abel... is he...?”
Devlin's throat tightened, and his vision blurred as fresh tears spilled over. “He's sleeping. He...” The words caught in his throat as images flooded his mind—Abel's screams when they found him in the park, the blood, the way the boy had clung to him. He pushed them away; this wasn’t the time to relive that horror story.Not now. “I gave him something to help him rest.” He looked into Maddy's eyes, seeing shadows there that he prayed time would erase. “Angel too.”
Terror shadowed Maddy's face. “How bad... is Angel?”
“You're here,” Devlin whispered, the miracle of it stealing his breath. “You're here, and that's all that matters. Angel will be okay.” The unspokenbecause you're alivehung between them.
Maddy nodded, his jaw clenched from emotion, uncertainty lingering in his watery eyes.
“Cole and Gabe...” Devlin’s heart pounded against his chest, the fear from the past hours rushing back.
“Over here.”
Devlin jerked toward the voice, his heart hammering so loudly he thought it might burst through his ribs. He ripped back the curtain separating the other patient station with frantic hands—and collapsed against the doorframe at the sight of Gabe in the hospital bed. A sob escaped him, torn from some deep, wounded place that had been bracing for grief.
“Gabe...” The name trembled off his lips as Devlin stumbled forward. When Gabe's arms wrapped around him, Devlin completely shattered, his body convulsing with relief. Every heartbeat against his chest felt like a miracle he had stopped believing in. “I thought—” He couldn't finish. He couldn't speak of the horrors his mind had conjured during those endless hours of waiting.
“You're a sight for sore eyes, doc,” Gabe rasped, and grabbed Devlin's face with trembling hands, kissing him with desperate force.
Devlin's knees nearly buckled, his body shaking. “Cole...?” The name escaped him as a quiet fear took hold of him.
“He's okay,” Gabe whispered against his lips. “He’ll be here soon. He has some broken ribs, and he’ll be sore as hell for a while… but he’s gonna be okay.”
A sound escaped Devlin's throat—half-sob, half-laugh—as the nightmare scenarios that had tormented him for hours began to fade. The kids gathered around, and he pulled Savannah close, pressing his lips to her hair and inhaling the scent he had feared he'd never smell again. “You made it,” he whispered, voice raw. “You’re all home… everyone issafe.”
Dane checked on the boys, then returned to the hall, his chest so tight he could barely breathe. He paced like a caged animal, fingers trembling as they swiped at his phone screen, checking for messages from Devlin for the twentieth time in five minutes. The silence was deafening, crushing him beneath its weight.
No news. Was that mercy or torture? His mind conjured images too horrific to bear—blood-soaked concrete, empty eyes staring skyward. The boys would wake soon to this living hell, and he had nothing—not one goddamn word of comfort to offer their broken hearts.
“Fuck.” The word lodged in his throat like a stone as he collapsed into a chair, his entire body convulsing. He pressed his face into his palms hard enough to leave marks.
God... PLEASE... end this nightmare... PLEASE...
Dane dug his heels into his eye sockets until stars burst behind his lids, as if physical pain could somehow drown theagony ripping through his soul. “Please...” The word was a shattered whisper as hot tears leaked between his fingers. He slid his hands over his head, his fingers raking through his hair, pulling until pain sparked across his scalp and caused his vision to swim through tears. Down the corridor, the elevator doors swooshed open. Dane choked back a sob, his sleeve smearing wetness across his flushed face as he lifted his head.
His heart seized mid-beat. The world crashed to a standstill. Every muscle in his body locked in paralysis. Fresh tears flooded his eyes, distorting the impossible vision before him—a mirage his broken mind couldn't bear to trust. “What...” Dane lurched to his feet, legs threatening to buckle beneath him, his pulse thundering from nothing to everything as the two kids—alive, breathing, real—walked toward him, Devlin a guardian shadow behind them.
Dane's knees weakened. His hand covered his mouth as a rasping sound escaped his throat—something between a gasp and a wail. Maddy sprinted toward him, and Dane seized him with such force that the boy's feet left the ground. Their bodies collided and melded, as if trying to erase the nightmare hours of separation through sheer physical pressure. His fingers dug into Maddy's hospital gown, clutching fabric and flesh as if the boy might vanish if he loosened his grip for even a second.
“Oh my God,”Dane's voice shattered, each syllable raw and bleeding. His fingers dug into Maddy's back, clinging to this miracle while his mind still flashed with those blood-soaked images from the park—the moment his world had shattered when they thought... The relief was so violent it felt like drowning. He buried his face in Maddy's hair, inhaling the living scent of him, his tears soaking the boy's scalp.
When he finally lifted his head, his vision swam through tears that scorched trails down his cheeks. He spotted Savannah clinging to Devlin, her small shoulders heaving with silent sobs.“Sweetheart…” His voice broke completely as he reached for her with a trembling hand. The girl flung herself into his embrace, and Dane clutched both teens against him as violent sobs racked his frame, stealing his breath until he thought he might pass out from the sheer force of his relief.
Devlin stood back, face damp with tears that glistened under the harsh fluorescent lights.
“Cole and Gabe?” Dane asked, his voice cracking on the final syllable.
“They're okay,” Devlin said, running a trembling hand through his disheveled hair. “They’re both bruised up, Gabe will need some more stitches, and Cole has some broken ribs… but they’re alive and safe.”
“Thank God,” Dane breathed, his shoulders sagging with momentary relief.
