As Cole turned to walk him over to the sitting area, Logan grabbed the arm of his jacket and stopped him.
“Tell me what happened,” he said, his voice sounding foreign, detached, even to himself.
“Why don’t you come and sit down first?”
Logan stepped in until only inches separated them and demanded, “Tell me what happened.”
“I wasn’t there,” Cole explained as he clasped his arm. “I only know what Rachel has told me.”
Logan’s heart was working overtime as it tried to keep up, getting shock after shock. He looked beyond Cole’s shoulder and found Rachel seated in the corner of the waiting room, her arms wrapped around her stomach and her bloodshot eyes glued to him.
“She was there?” Logan asked, not taking his eyes away from her.
“Yeah, she was in a cab about to leave. They just finished checking her for shock, but she insists she’s fine. She wanted to be here when you arrived.” Cole squeezed his arm, but Logan’s eyes were fixated on the haunted ones holding his. “She saw it all happen. Called the ambulance and then called me.”
Without a word, Logan pulled away from Cole and walked past the chairs filled with people to where Rachel was sitting. When he stopped in front of her, he didn’t say anything, but as she stared up at him, her blue eyes brimming with tears, she finally lost it.
She got to her feet, tears falling over her blotchy cheeks. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Logan.”
Logan mechanically wound his arms around her as she continued to cry. He felt numb as he listened to her weep.
“He…he was so happy. Couldn’t wait to get home to you, and then…” She stopped and sucked in a breath, and when she pulled away, Logan swore he could see all of his worst fears in her eyes. They spoke the words she couldn’t seem to manage.
What she’d witnessed was horrific. The pain and fear swirling in those usually sparkling eyes were gut wrenching. It was the kind of anguish one never forgets, and as she covered her mouth, fighting back a sob, Logan knew she’d been through hell. A hell he needed her to tell him about. One he needed her to walk him through so he could understand exactly what had happened to the man he loved.
He touched her cheek and somehow managed to speak. “Will you tell me?”
She took a shaky breath before replying, “Yes.”
Logan took the seat beside her, and when she reached for his hand, he wondered if he was as strong as the tiny woman sitting beside him, because he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear this.
“We had just finished for the day, and Tate… He was getting on his bike to come and see you.”
“That fucking bike,” he muttered, his stomach knotting as he remembered all the times he’d joked about it with Tate.
Rachel nodded and clasped his hand in hers as if she needed the strength of another to get through the rest. “He had his helmet on, thank God, so it protected his head, but the car was going so fast. And before he had time to move, he… He was thrown so far, Logan.”
She chewed her lower lip, and her chin started to quiver. Logan squeezed her fingers, fighting back his own emotions, unable to imagine what she’d seen—and not wanting to.
“I raced over to him as soon as it happened, and he was just lying there in the middle of the street. He wasn’t moving. And I know you aren’t supposed to touch someone, but I…I just couldn’t leave him there.”
Logan’s chest ached to the point where he wondered if his heart could take any more. It physically hurt to hear what she was saying—as if it were splitting in two. But he needed to know more. He needed to know everything. So he clamped his teeth together and kept his mouth shut.
Hold it together, Mitchell. Be fucking strong.
“I took his hand and kept telling him I was there. But he wouldn’t wake up. He just lay there—so still. Then I called the ambulance and Cole, and he said he’d call you.”
When she raised her eyes to his, she shook her head as if she were still in shock. She opened her mouth several times before she said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve made him take a cab with me. Should’ve warned him—”
Logan couldn’t get his tongue to work to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, so he pulled her into his arms instead.
Tate. His gorgeous, stubborn Tate was somewhere in the hospital, unconscious and fighting for his life. And what am I doing? I’m out here trying not to fall apart.
He saw Cole watching them from the opposite chair and that’s when Logan pulled back and managed to ask Rachel, “Did the paramedics or doctor say anything before they took him back?”