Page 96 of Karma

Tess being here was different.

He came to the last closed curtain and knew it had to be hers. A nurse was just stepping out as he reached for the drape.

“Is this Tess Moss?” he asked.

The kind-looking older woman nodded. “She’s sleeping.”

“I’m her brother. I won’t wake her. I just need to see she’s okay.”

The nurse nodded. “Go on in.”

Dare stepped inside. Tess lay propped up, her light brown hair spread over the white pillow. The makeup she’d probably painstakingly applied ran down her face, giving her black-looking eyes, her face streaked from tears.

She wouldn’t be a happy camper when she woke up and took a long look. But at least she’d wake up.

He didn’t know how he’d come to love this kid so much in such a short time, but she was as much a part of him as his brothers. He felt as responsible for her as he did for his siblings and even their wives. Even Ethan, as much as Dare wouldn’t have believed that a year ago.

He pulled up a chair and eased over to the edge of the bed, taking her hand. She didn’t stir.

“Hey, squirt.” He knew she was sleeping, but he needed to talk to her, and he kept his voice low. “What were you doing drinking beer? Even nursing one?” he asked, not expecting an answer. “You’re too good for parties like that. And heaven knows you don’t need to be anything like Ethan or me at your age.”

Dare’s throat felt dry and raw. “I know you heard a lot about what happened when I was younger. How I was there when Stuart Rossman died and didn’t call the police. How I ran away instead.” His head pounded with the memory.

Eyes closed, he leaned his head against their joined hands. “Tonight, when we got the call to respond to the house, I knew you were there. And when I saw you on that bed”—pain and nausea swept through him—“suddenly, I was back there again…” Seeing Rossman on the floor, the guy lying in his own blood, an eerie parallel to Tess unconscious on a stranger’s mattress. Helplessness had flooded him again, along with stark fear.

He kissed the top of her hand. It still chilled him, knowing how close she’d come to dying. “I didn’t help Rossman, and I was paralyzed, thinking I was too late to help you.” Even though the paramedics ran in and took over, in Dare’s mind, all he’d heard was Brian McKnight yelling at everyone to clean up the evidence or get the hell out.

Brian, who’d punched another drunk kid and watched him fall, then went into self-protection mode instead of calling 911. And Dare hadn’t been any better.

“Just be okay,” he whispered to his sister, damn near close to shattered and completely numb.

“Hey.” Faith placed a hand on his shoulder.

Dare glanced up into his sister-in-law’s worried gaze. “Here, sit down.”

Faith shook her head. “No, I don’t want to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know that Ethan was able to get her a private room, so she won’t be alone tonight. Kelly can stay with her.”

Dare exhaled hard. “That’s good.” He rose to his feet. “You should sit with her for a while. I need some air.”

Faith nodded, squeezing his shoulder before switching places with him.

Dare stepped out of the small cubicle, claustrophobic and feeling a startling sense of anger at the entire situation. At his inability to control anything that happened to the people he loved. But most of his anger centered on the fact that once again, alcohol, irresponsibility, and complete stupidity had almost caused irreparable harm.

Anger and frustration swirled around him, filling his lungs, rising to his throat. Damn Tess and her need to fit in so badly she had to go to one of those stupid parties. The same kind of party he’d cut school to attend.

He wanted to scream, to yell, to punch someone and alleviate the building furnace inside him he couldn’t control.

A couple walked by him, the woman bumping into him as she passed. “Sorry,” she whispered, bringing him into the present.

He needed to get back to the rest of his family. Somehow, he pulled himself together enough to return to the waiting room, but his head pounded, and everything inside him continued to bubble as if waiting to explode.

He tried to focus on Tess and the fact that she’d be fine, but somewhere in his mind, he was back in time and he couldn’t manage to close off the memories as he thought he’d trained himself to do. He’d gotten pretty damned good at it too. Until tonight.

He walked into the room, and his gaze immediately fell on Liza. She’d tipped her head back against the wall, eyes closed.

He headed over and touched her arm. When she didn’t immediately awake, he shook her lightly.

To his shock, she jumped, startled, and let out a frightened cry.

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