Page 59 of Forced Proximity
I swallowed hard and lied through my teeth. “Yeah, she’s just fine. She didn’t even need an ambulance ride. She’s on her way here now.”
His mouth kicked up at the corners, and he had the sweetest smile on his face, despite his lips being cracked and bleeding. “Bet she loved being left behind.”
I’d bet that she felt horrible up there, watching over him, knowing she’d left him behind.
“Shit, his BP is dropping!” someone yelled.
I looked up at the monitors and damned if they weren’t right.
It was rock bottom.
“Hey,” I said to him, cupping his cheeks with both of my hands. “You keep your eyes open, okay?”
Fuck, I didn’t want him to die.
He opened them back up, but it cost him.
“You lied,” the man whispered.
I kept my hand pressed to his cheek. “Did I?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “You said that she was alive. She’s not. She’s waving me on. Telling me to come home.”
I felt my heart flip.
“Can’t ever go anywhere without me.” He laughed, which caused him to cough. Blood oozed out of his throat and stained his teeth. “Best and worst thing. Can’t go grocery shopping without me. Can’t go to the ice cream store. Always has to have me with her. I’d give her anything, even this.”
“This?” I asked carefully.
He opened his eyes, and I could see the life fading from them. “She wants me, she’ll have me.”
A noise left my throat, and he closed his eyes. “Don’t let him go, D. He needs someone in his corner. He’s lonely, and he will act like he’s okay but he’s not. Nobody can be okay after losing something like he did.” Then his face lit up with absolute joy. “There’s my boy. I see him. Octo’s here.”
Then his heart stopped.
“Fuck.” The doctors started to work frantically, as did the nurses.
I, however, stood back and out of the way.
They wouldn’t bring him back. Not if he didn’t want to be here. You had to want to live, and the man clearly had no reason to stay here when the love of his life was beckoning him into the beyond.
I had no doubt about that.
Picking up his cut, I waited just on the outside of the trauma room until they pronounced him, then I slipped out with only a passing, “I’m taking a lunch break,” to the charge nurse.
She nodded but didn’t look up from her computer.
I hustled out of the hospital and ran to my Blazer, knowing where I was going despite not having ever been there.
The Truth Tellers MC were famous in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
If you knew of them, you knew where they were at any given time.
You could always find them, because they had no reason to stay hidden.
I drove to their clubhouse that was a little bit out of town and then pulled over right before I got there.
My heart was literally aching, and I had to get myself under control so I didn’t start crying the moment that I saw someone.
