“Oh, sweetheart, what happened to your wrists?” Pru asked softly, lifting my hand. The red marks on my skin were livid, and there were a few patches where blood bubbled. It would be a scabbed mess around my wrists on both hands.
My face heated and I shrugged, gently extracting myself from her grip. “It’s fine.”
There wasn’t room for both of us in the back of the ambulance, so we followed it into New Gothenburg, with Levi driving us in Brooks’ car. Pru held my hand the whole way there, a grim set to her mouth and fear in her eyes. I squeezed back just as tightly and probably didn’t look any better.
By the time we arrived at Walnut Creek Hospital, the ER doctor had already sent Brooks off for an MRI and to have blood drawn to test the levels of medication in his body, so all we could do was settle down in his room to wait for him to return. Levi brought us coffees and stood with his back leaned against a small counter, silently contemplating the floor. I shivered in the cold of the air-conditioning and ended up setting my coffee on the floor without touching it because I suspected that I wouldn’t keep down anything at the moment.
“He’ll be okay,” Pru said. She sent a wan smile to me, then included Levi.
He let out a sad sound, and I sniffled a little too loudly.
“Brooks has never not woken up,” Levi whispered, and I stared at him, my heart twisting.
“Well, I’ve seen this before, and he’s always snapped out of it,” Pru said with her chin sticking out, as if defying Brooks to prove her wrong. “So this’ll be okay, kids. You’ll see.”
There was a familiar masculine laugh in the hallway that had me shooting to my feet, and Pru stood as well as Brooks’ bed was wheeled into the room. The nurse pushing him along had a big silly grin on his face. There was gauze packed in each of Brooks’ nostrils, and his bottom lip looked too fat, like maybe he’d also smacked that on the floor when he fell. The bed hadn’t even stopped before I was flinging myself at him and wrapping my arms around his solid muscles.
“Oh, this is nice. Hello there, sweet prince,” he murmured into my ear, voice clogged from the plugs in his nose. His strong hand carded through my hair and he cradled me close. I trembled against him and couldn’t say anything, just held him, overwhelmed and happy he was talking.
“I thought… I thought something really bad happened to you,” I whispered.
“Well, I want a welcome home like that,” the nurse said with a hearty laugh. “Let him spoil you, okay? Relax, Mr. Sutherland.”
I snorted. “Yeah, get a taste of your own medicine.” Brooks chuckled, but he sounded tired, and tears burned at the corners of my eyes again. “You scared me. A lot.”
He dug his fingers into the hair at the back of my head, but I was too wound up to be comforted. “Why did you bother with the ambulance?”
“Your nose is probably broken!” I said, jerking back, but he had a firm grip on my head, and I didn’t get very far.
“We could have driven to town.” He frowned and tilted his head back, running a hand along my cheek. “Did the seizure happen after I untied you? I don’t really recall.”
“No, it did not.” My words were too cold, clipped, fuckingicy. I felt stupid, but tears spilled from my eyes as the memory of those terrifying moments zapped through my mind. He ran his thumb under my eye and inhaled sharply as he smeared my tears around. He grasped my arm, and I wasn’t sure what he was doing until he ran his fingers down to my wrists. I jolted at the pain his questioning touch caused, and he growled.
“What did you do? Why didn’t you call for Levi?”
“I did!” His mother inhaled deeply behind me, but I still couldn’t make myself sound nicer, even though I was beyond elated he was alive and talking to me. “Levi was asleep, remember?”
“No,” he said faintly.
“I couldn’t get to you.” Fear swamped me, not quite as potent as when the seizure was happening, but bad enough.
“I’m so sorry, Brooks. I was just tired, and you were at your mom’s when I crashed out.” Levi winced. “If you fire me, I totally understand.”
“We didn’t wake you up,” I said firmly. “No more of that. We didn’t think, either.”
Levi’s eyes were as large as a baby owl’s as he stared at me, and I knew for a fact I’d still sounded like my worst self on the worst day at the Courtesan, but I couldn’t help any of those things.
Brooks chuckled. “There’s the man always watching out for everyone.” He slid his fingers along my shoulder to my neck and continued up to cup my cheek.
“Well, it wasn’t his fault, not really. It was mine.”
Brooks’ smile vanished. “How the fuck do you figure?”
“You know,” Pru said, “I’m happy to see you awake, honey, but it seems like you two have some things to work out.” Her face was rosy, but she didn’t appear too daunted as she stood from her chair. She bent and kissed Brooks’ cheek, and I held my head high, the same way I did when anyone questioned me. I wasn’t going to be embarrassed about being with Brooks. I was surprised when she also gave me a quick peck on the cheek. She smoothed back Brooks’ hair from his forehead. “I’ll get your dad to pick me up on the way home. If it turns out that they’re keeping you for some reason, let me know, okay? You take care, Darcy. It seems your quick thinking got Brooks somewhere safe.” She patted my cheek, then waved at Levi on her way out.
I hung my head, and okay, maybe I was a little embarrassed, but she was his mother, after all, and she’d probably guessed we were having a discussion about sex.
Brooks ran his thumb along one of my wrists, then the other, and I tried not to jerk out of his grasp at the pain he caused. He scowled. “Levi, what the hell happened? Didn’t you do what you were supposed to do? Why am I feeling broken skin? Why didn’t you just wait for him, Darcy? You did this struggling.”
