Ride Wild(50)

Sam shook his head. "Cora was the brave one. She warned us. She knocked  me down. It would've been so much worse without what she did."

The kid wasn't wrong, and it made Slider's heart clench so hard he couldn't catch his breath, so he just nodded.

"Everything would be so much worse without Cora," Sam said, his voice  cracking on her name and tears falling. "Dad, I love her." Sam's whole  face crumpled and a sob ripped out of him.

Slider sat on the bed and pulled his son into his arms. "I know, Sam. I  know. We just gotta stay strong for her now. She needs us, you know?"

Crying, Sam clutched at Slider's shoulder with his good hand and nodded his head. "I know. This is m-my f-fault," he wailed.

The sound of the boy's pain threatened to break what was left of Slider's heart. "No, Sam. Nothing about this was your fault."

"If she hadn't tried to protect me . . ."

"That was all Cora," Slider said, feeling the truth of it down deep.  "That's just who she is. You couldn't have kept her from protecting  you."

"But Mom was my fault," Sam rasped.

The shock of the subject change was so abrupt, Slider almost felt like he'd walked into a pole. "What?"

"Mom . . . you're gonna hate me." Sam heaved a shaky breath, then another, and another, trying to calm his tears.

Coming from his son, and knowing how his own father had felt about him,  that word was like a kick in the gut. Slider leaned down to look his son  in the eyes, needing him to know, needing him to believe. "I could  never, ever hate you. What would I possibly have to be mad at you about?  Your mom had cancer, Sammy." He hadn't used the nickname in years,  since before Kim died, but it felt right, just then.

"I . . . I knew . . . about Mom," he said, his voice shaking so much his teeth almost chattered.

"Knew what . . . ?" Slider's gut twisted as realization dawned. "What did you know? You can tell me. I promise I won't get mad."

Sam's eyes were so shattered when he looked up. "I knew about the man  she saw. I caught them, once. And once after that she took me to see  him."

White-hot rage curled in Slider's chest. Not at Sam, but at Kim. For her  infidelity, for the years he'd lost to his shame and grief, for her  planning to leave their kids. And now for this-for putting the knowledge  of her betrayal on her son's too-small, too-young, too-innocent  shoulders. Slider blew out a breath. "None of that was your fault,  either, Sam. Those were choices your mom made that she never should've  laid on you."

"B-but I . . . I should've told you, Dad. And I'm so, so sorry I didn't." His tears started again.

Slider gently cradled Sam's head against his chest and pressed a kiss to  his hair. "You listen to me, Sam. I love you. Nothing could ever change  that. You don't owe me any apologies, and you never should've felt like  you had to choose between us. I'm sorry."                       
       
           



       

Sam's good arm came around him tight. "I love you, Dad, so much."

When was the last time Sam had hugged him, talked to him about how he  felt, or told him he loved him? It was like some wall had come down  between them, and Slider was going to make sure it never, ever went back  up.

"I love you, too." God, how light Slider's heart would be if only Cora were okay, too.

"Did you know I interviewed Cora for school?" Sam whispered after a long while.

"Oh yeah?"

"Know what she told me?"

Slider forced a deep breath. "What's that, Sammy?"

"That in five years she hoped she'd be in college, married, own a dog,  and maybe even be a mom." Sam lifted his gaze to Slider's, and those  little brown eyes were entirely open with want. "If she . . . if she's  okay, after this . . . maybe we could be the ones . . ." He shrugged  with his good shoulder.

Slider heard what Sam didn't say just then, because he'd said it once before.

Cora should have a family.

Slider gave a quick nod and blinked away the sudden sting behind his  eyes. Because his boys wanted Cora Campbell in their lives as much as  Slider did. "Yeah," he managed, his heart torn between hope and despair.  "Yeah, maybe we could."

Drained and drowsy from the pain meds, Sam fell asleep not much later.

So Slider slipped out and stopped at the nurses' station. "Any word on  Cora Campbell in surgery yet?" But there wasn't. "How about Haven  Randall?" No news on her, either. Slider had learned that Haven had been  hit in the shoulder, too, so the two best friends were going to have  matching scars. Someday, a long, long time from now, he might find some  humor in that. Hell, Cora would probably find the humor even sooner.

But not him. Not today.

A few rooms down, he knocked on a door, and found Caine sitting in bed,  his left arm bandaged from wrist to elbow, Phoenix at his side. A bullet  had passed straight through Caine's wrist, yet Slider distinctly  recalled seeing him run after the truck in the seconds after the  shooting. It was one of the few clear memories he had that wasn't  directly associated with Cora and Sam.

"Hey," Slider said. "How are you feeling?"

"It's not serious," Caine said. "How are Cora and Sam?"

"Sam's fine. Sleeping. No word on Cora and Haven." Slider blew out a  breath, his every movement like walking through molasses. "What happened  after?"

Phoenix rose, his expression more serious than Slider had ever seen it  during all the years they'd known each other. "Maverick, Caine, and I  took care of it. It's over. It's done. We made it look like Dominic and  Davis turned on each other, and Martin will make sure that's how the  scene report reads, too."

It was a hollow sort of satisfaction. Slider couldn't take any pleasure  from it. But he did at least draw a measure of relief. "Good."

"Fuck, Slider," Phoenix said, gripping the rail of Caine's bed. "This is  all my goddamn fault. Dominic made me. The fucker. He made me and I  didn't know it."

Caine cleared his throat. "That's how Dominic and Davis got out before  the police arrived. They were already leaving before the shit hit the  fan at the fight."

Slider's brow cranked down, confusion swamping him. "But we didn't have a tail. We looked. Repeatedly."

Shaking his head, Caine grimaced. "They didn't follow us. They wanted to  catch us off guard. Davis was drowning in gambling debt to Dominic and  had been for years, so when the guy recognized us, Davis bargained to  show him where we live. He tried your house, and then Phoenix's, and  then finally Dare's, figuring we might come back to report."

"He told you all this?" Slider asked.

"Men say a lot of things when it's their time to die." Caine nailed him  with a lethal stare. "Including that Dominic was the last of the Iron  Cross fuckers to survive." Slider nodded. At least there was that.

Phoenix hung his head, his shoulders tight with anger. "I'm just so fucking sorry."

Slider rubbed the back of his neck and blew out an exhausted breath. He  wasn't letting one more person he cared about live with guilt and grief  for things that weren't their fault. So he went to Phoenix and put an  arm around his brother's shoulders, even though he had so very little  solace left to give. "You don't have anything to apologize for. We  didn't know. None of us did. With Dominic in play, if it hadn't have  been tonight, it would've been another time. Or it would've been Davis  instead. Either way, this disaster had our name on it no matter what we  did. It was a matter of when, not if."                       
       
           



       

Slider believed that, he did, but he didn't feel remotely okay about it  with Cora still fighting for her life. What the hell was taking so long  anyway?

Besides the four fucking gunshot wounds.

Sonofabitch.

Caine nodded. "He's right, Creed. This wasn't your fault."

Phoenix scrubbed his hands over his face, not refuting, but not accepting, either.

Slider ground the heels of his hands against his eyes. He felt ancient.  What the hell time was it anyway? Not that he'd be able to sleep until  he knew Cora was okay. Still, he retrieved his phone from his back  pocket to see that it was just after midnight-and that he had a text.

He almost ignored it. Until he saw who it was from.

Cora.

I can't wait to hold you in my arms and look in your eyes so I can tell you in person how much I love you. Because I do. xo



Fist to his mouth, he was barely able to restrain a sob. "I'm, uh, I'm  gonna head out to the waiting room. See who's there. See if I can find  Dare. Need anything?" Slider managed. Both men shook their heads, and  Phoenix dropped back into his chair on a troubled sigh.