“She’s awake now.”
Cam dropped his arms and looked up, meeting his youngest brother’s blue eyes across the table. He was struck by how similar Keith’s bearing was to Nic’s, but that was the only thing the two military men had in common. Just under six feet, Keith had a bruiser build like Cam’s, like their mother’s, and at thirty-one, he still had his fresh face and headful of dark hair.
“She’s asking for you,” he said, voice clipped, bubbling with the low-level resentment that had taken root the day Erin disappeared. Since the big brother he’d worshipped had let him down and cost him his sister and best friend.
They’d never been close again.
Didn’t mean he didn’t want to have his little brother safe and sound in his arms again, especially when Keith regularly put his life on the line. Cam stood and drew him into a hug. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Awkward as it was, Cam didn’t hold the embrace for long, but then Keith clasped his upper arm, keeping him close. “Don’t do what she asks,” he whispered. “This family has been through enough.”
This family, spoken like Cam wasn’t a part of it.
He was still trying to digest the words, his stomach tossing and turning, when he nearly ran into Jamie in the hallway.
“He’s right here.” Jamie held his phone out to him.
“I’ll get your brother’s leave extended,” Nic said, no greeting and no hesitation. Just getting things done for him.
Cam’s rioting insides calmed a little. “Thank you.”
“I wish you’d let me do more.”
Cam angled away from Jamie, hiding his blush at Nic’s softly spoken words. “You got any Gravity distributors out here?”
Nic’s deep laugh warmed his insides, soothing him more. “I’ll check my list.”
“Seriously, Dominic, doing this for Keith will go further than you know.” If Cam could take the threat of imminent deployment off Keith’s shoulders, then he’d feel like he was at least here for his brother now, like he hadn’t been before.
“I’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you.”
“Jamie said you’re at the hospital.”
“Yeah.” He raked a hand through his hair, pacing the area to the side of the elevators. “Getting ready to go up and see Ma.”
“Call me later. Let me know how she’s doing.”
“Will do.”
“Boston,” he said, voice brooking no argument. “Call me.”
Cam felt the urge to salute, which he hadn’t done since his Bureau swearing-in ceremony. “I will. Now go.”
He hung up and handed the phone back to Jamie. They were outside his mother’s room when his own phone buzzed with an incoming text. Reading it, he couldn’t help but smile. True to his word, Nic had sent him a list of Gravity distributors in the Boston area. His uplifted mood, however, was short-lived, disappearing as he entered his mother’s room.
Edith Byrne was a fisherman’s wife and mother of five, a stout Southie who took no shit off anyone, especially her husband and sons. She was loving, she was tough, she commanded any room she walked into, and she was the high standard Cam held anyone he’d dated up to. She’d been the glue that had held their family together after Erin disappeared. Her only daughter gone, presumed dead, she’d saved her husband from the bottle he’d almost drowned in and wrestled all her sons onto the right path. Seeing that woman, his mother, laid up in a hospital bed looking frail and helpless, hooked up by wires and IVs to a dozen monitors and machines, was going to haunt Cam’s nightmares forever.
His dad rose from the chair next to her bed. His salt-and-pepper hair was mussed, his Sox polo wrinkled, and his blue eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. He was the picture of misery. Cam hadn’t seen him like this in twenty years.
“Cameron,” he said, hauling him into a firm embrace.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Missed you, son.”
Lump stuck in his throat, Cam couldn’t make the words come out, so he held on tighter. Fuck, he’d missed them more than he’d realized.
