By the time we arrived at the hospital, the desire to kill someone was in full swing. The doors opened behind me and there was a flurry of activity as Tess was wheeled out of the ambulance and flanked by people in scrubs.
“Sir, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave the room,” a nurse said when I tried to follow Tess back into one of the trauma areas. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to fuck off, but I was aware that any time I wasted being an asshole was time that the nurse was not spending taking care of Tess. Swallowing the words on my lips, I nodded and followed another nurse out to the waiting room.
The mood around me was oppressive; the air thick with uncertainty and apprehension. A television on the wall played the local news but I couldn’t bring myself to focus on anything. People sat waiting to be called, their faces betraying the worry they felt.
Do I look like them?
Pulling out my phone, I walked through the ambulance doors and down around the side of the building. The waiting room was not the place for the conversation I needed to have. Too many ears. Far enough from the entrance, somewhere between the dumpsters and the generator, I dialed the first of my numbers.
“What happened?” Dad didn’t pull any punches, especially when the call he was taking was on the line reserved strictly for emergencies only.
“Motherfucker is dead when I find him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dad snapped.
I ran a hand through my hair and continued to pace along the side of the building, my eyes scanning the area for any signs of someone listening in. “Someone beat the shit out of Tess.”
“The girl from the supermarket? The same one you won in the poker game?
“Yeah. I found her lying in a puddle of her own blood at her place.”
“Jesus Christ, Miller. What the fuck were you doing at her place? I thought you were done with that shit?” The phone practically vibrated in my hand as I did my best to control the desire to slam my fist into the wall behind me at his ignorance, and I had to remind myself that his ignorance was my own doing. Plus, landing myself in the hospital would not help Tess. I’d save it for the man who put her here in the first place.
“Did you not hear a goddamn thing I said? Someone broke into her apartment and knocked her around.”
“That shit happens all the fuckin’ time. Call the police and let them deal with it. She’s some piece of pussy, what’s it got to do with you?”
“What’s it got to do with me?” I snapped. “How about the fact I’ve been dating her for the last several months. That work for you?”
There was a brief pause where all I could hear was the sound of my own rapid breathing. This was the make or break moment. The moment where I found out just how royally I’d screwed up by not coming clean about my relationship with Tess sooner.
“I’ll send your brother down and put cleanup on standby. When Ashton shows up, come to the house. We’ll deal with this.”
And there it was.
Dad didn’t pull any punches. Someone hurt a member of his family—even if he hadn’t known that she was part of it until now—he wasn’t having it. The line went dead.
I had my instructions. Now to follow them.
I jogged back to the waiting room to wait for news about Tess, lamenting the fact that I wasn’t a smoker because at least then I’d have something to do with my trembling hands instead of keeping them trapped inside my jacket pockets like some weak little bitch.
The cold plastic of the cheap chairs bit into my legs as I sat closest to the doors leading to the treatment rooms. The smell of disinfectant permeated the air. I watched on as new patients came in and existing ones came out. Still there was no news on Tess.
I checked in with the lady at the desk numerous times, each time ignoring the look of pity in her eyes because if I dwelled on it I would start to wonder why she pitied me, and that scenario wasn’t worth contemplating. I had a very loose grip on my sanity and I was clinging to it with everything in me.
Finally, a man in a long coat came into the room and called her name. I jumped up, startling the elderly gentleman next to me, knocking his walking stick to the ground. I apologized, retrieving it for him before taking the doctor by the elbow and pulling him to a quiet corner of the room.
“How is she?” I didn’t bother to try and hide the desperation in my voice. The doctor gave me a once-over, took in my expensive suit, and offered a sympathetic nod as he gestured for me to follow him through the double doors, back to where Tess was.
“She’s sedated for now. We’ll be moving her to a room shortly.”
I couldn’t pull my eyes from her. “I want her to have her own room. I’ll pay for it.”