“What the fuck?” Jason bellowed. I heard him relaying what I’d told him to someone else, and then trying to convince whoever it was to stay put. “I figured he’d punked out and headed home after the game. Fuck!”
“Hey, I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you talk to Cam, could you not mention this to him right now?” Jason’s boyfriend, Drew’s best friend, was at the audition of a lifetime, but there was no doubt in my mind he’d jump in the first cab he could hail to get back to Milwaukee if he knew Drew was hurt. Luckily, I didn’t have to explain that to Jason.
“Yeah, there’s no point until you tell me what happened.” Jason sounded pissed off, but at least he wasn’t arguing. “Be warned, Mason and Sean are coming with me because Mason’s the only one sober enough to drive.”
“Okay. I’m going to text you a phone number. When you get here, call it and let the guy who answers know you’re here,” I told him. That led to more questions, but he seemed relieved to hear that we weren’t going to be congregating in the main waiting room. The last time that had happened for this group of guys was when Mason got hurt, and that turned into a nasty media shitstorm.
With the only call I could make taken care of, I bent over to rest my head over my forearms on the table. I doubted I’d be able to sleep, but I needed to block out what was going on outside this room.
I’d actually managed to drift off when the cavalry came storming into the conference room. Apparently, no one had heeded Jason’s advice to stay behind so the hospital wasn’t overrun with baseball players. Half the team and their significant others filed into the room, leaving poor Devon playing doorman. He seemed unfazed by the chaos which ensued, and actually offered to run to the store on his lunch break to get us some food to soak up the alcohol seeping out of the pores of most of the guys.
“Thanks, Devon.” I pulled three twenties out of my pocket and handed them over to him. “Seriously, when this is all over, I owe you big time.”
“Don’t mention it, Mr. Sapp. As I said earlier, I know what it’s like when a teammate is down.” As the big guy walked away, I noticed the way he favored his right leg. I wondered if he was the injured player he kept referring to, and knew how his own teammates had responded.
I followed Devon into the hall and called after him. He stopped and waited for me to catch up. “Have you heard anything?”
“Not yet, sir,” he responded, looking around to make sure no one else could hear us. “I’m sure you know I’m not supposed to give you any information since you aren’t family, but it seems to me someone should know the score.”
“Thanks Devon, but I don’t want you jeopardizing your job for me,” I responded. It seemed a more suitable response than throwing my arms around his neck and kissing his cheek, which had also crossed my mind.
“Don’t you worry about me, sir.” Devon motioned for me to follow him out a side door, which appeared to lead to an employee smoking lounge. It seemed odd to me that a hospital allowed their employees to smoke on the property, but then again they all had high stress jobs and it made sense that they needed to decompress from time to time. “As I said in there, I don’t have much information just yet, but they’ve taken him to X-ray and they’ll likely run a slew of other tests before the night is out, trying to rule out a head injury or any internal bleeding.”
That didn’t sound good, but after having been there with Drew, it wasn’t a surprise. I let out a sigh of relief because it sounded as if Drew might not be in as bad of shape as I’d assumed.
“Look, I gotta get back in there. If I hear anything else, I’ll be sure to let you know right away.” Devon stepped toward the door. “I know it’s not much, but if he’s gotta be here, tonight’s a good night. We were staffed heavy in case the Mavericks won, and people got stupid...”
How ironic. Drew was going to get expedient, attentive care, all because the team he played for lost the game. Because of a play that he’d been involved in. Talk about bittersweet comfort.
“Thanks again, Devon. I’d better get in there before the guys hunt me down.”
A conference room full of pissed off, mostly drunk baseball players awaited me inside. When I opened the door, the room exploded into a barrage of questions so loud I couldn’t hear any of them. Finally, Mason whistled loud enough to wake the dead and everyone stopped talking at once. “Thanks, Mason.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” Mason barked out. “You got these guys all worked up, and I want to know what the fuck happened that we’re sitting here instead of down at 42.”
Sean pulled Mason back as he advanced toward me. I swallowed hard and nodded my thanks to my friend. Murmurs started throughout the room again and I cleared my throat.
“First, let me tell you I don’t have a lot of information just yet.” I led with that so maybe they wouldn’t ask a million questions I couldn’t answer. “I cut through the alley on my way to 42 and interrupted someone beating the shit out of Drew. I didn’t know it was him at first, but I scared the guy off and called 911.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you go after the guy?” Kevin Green asked, which earned him a slap to the back of the head from his girlfriend. Amber wasn’t the type to take shit off anyone, including Kevin. That quality may very well come in handy before this was over. I needed someone with a level head in my corner as the rage in my friends and former teammates grew.
“Because if I’d gone after him, that would have meant leaving Drew lying in the alley in a pool of his own blood,” I snapped back, slapping my hands on the table, leaning in closer to Kevin. “It was a split-second decision, but if I had it to do all over again I’d have done the fucking same. Hopefully when Drew wakes up, he’ll be able to tell the cops something and they’ll catch the mother fucker who did this to him. If I hadn’t let the asshole go tonight, we might be having a very different argument right now.”
My entire body shook uncontrollably. I hoped I wasn’t about to break down crying, but I couldn’t be certain. The gravity of what had happened crashed down on me and it became hard to breathe. I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced to see Jason standing behind me. I placed my hand over his, not giving a flying fuck who might have an issue with it.
“You made the right call, Eric,” Jason assured me before stepping to the side to address the rest of the room. “And if any of you disagree with that, you can come and talk to me. It’s easy for all of us to sit here and talk about what we would have done, but the reality is none of us had to make that call. None of us had to see one of our own lying on the ground. None of us will go to bed tonight with those images running through our heads. Eric will. And even though he’s no longer a Maverick, he’s still our brother. Remember that.”
A soft knock on the door interrupted everyone from coming at me with questions for which I didn’t have answers. Devon poked his head inside and motioned for me to join him in the hall. He cocked an eyebrow when Jason followed me.
“It’s okay. If one of us is going to be here, it should actually be him,” I informed Devon. “Jason’s boyfriend is Drew’s best friend. He’s probably the one you should be talking to.”
I took a step back, but Jason stopped me. “No man, you’re as close to him as the rest of us. I’d like to hear what they have to say, but I think Drew would want you here. He and I haven’t exactly had the best relationship over the past few months.”
“You two can figure that out between yourselves.” Devon chuckled. “For now, I’ll just say what needs to be said. Drew’s back from X-ray. He has three cracked ribs and his right wrist is broken. He woke up for a while, but now he’s out again thanks to the pain meds. The CT scan showed no bleeding or swelling on the brain, which is a damn good thing. He does have a moderate concussion, but that’s to be expected in this type of scenario.”
“When can we see him?” Jason asked. Devon simply shook his head and looked past us into the conference room filled with men nearly gripping the table to keep from rushing into the hall.
“If by ‘we’ you mean the two of you, that should be possible once we take him upstairs for observation. I know it’s a long shot, but do either of you have information on how to reach his emergency contact?” Devon waited for me to answer and I looked to Jason, because I sure as fuck had no clue.
