“Maddox!” I said after he picked up, my voice cracking. “Crusher got to Adam. It was a hit-and-run on the corner of 5th and Maple Street. Black sedan, heading eastbound. I called an ambulance, but I can’t be in two places at the same time. Can you please locate that human waste so I can kill him when I find the time?”
“On it. How is Markland?”
“Alive,” I managed to say. “For now.”
“He’ll be fine.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. Adam was pale as a sheet, and his breathing was too weak. His leg was twisted at an unnatural angle beneath him, making my stomach churn. Blood was seeping from a gash above his brow and dripping onto the asphalt.
“Adam,” I whispered, wiping away the rain and blood from his face. “Can you hear me? I called an ambulance. Please say something.”
Silence. Dread. The next few minutes were the longest minutes of my life. Even the time I spent lying on that minefield in Sommet seemed shorter than those minutes. By the time I heard sirens wailing in the distance and the ambulance arrived, I was already out of my mind.
“He’ll be fine,” the medic told me because he saw I was losing it. “He’s a strong man.”
“He’ll be fine,” the doctor said before they wheeled Adam into the operating room. “Please let go of his hand.”
“He’ll be fine,” Chief Bibb said, patting my shoulder in the waiting room. “He’s too stubborn to die.”
Everyone was so fucking encouraging while I could barely breathe. I sat there with my hands clasped so tightly my knuckles turned white. The clock on the wall ticked, too loud for my ears as the minutes stretched into infinity.
After a few hours of agony, the doctor came out of the operating room. Thank God, the surgery went well, he told us. They performed a closed reduction, put Adam’s leg in a cast, but other than that, he was stable. It left me waiting for him to wake up, tortured by the memories of everything that had happened. The look in his eyes when he realized why I came to the LD haunted me. The pain. The anger. The disappointment. It was my fuck-up, because I could have told him everything, but I didn’t do it because I was a coward.
“Jordie.”
The faint voice made me snap back to reality as I sprang out of my chair, still holding his hand. Adam was pale and still under the white sheets, with an oxygen tube resting beneath his nose. His eyelashes fluttered, revealing a glimpse of a brilliant blue gaze that never failed to make my heart stutter.
Jordie, he said. Not Jordan. Jordie. It almost broke me.
“I’m here,” I said, forcing a smile. “How are you feeling?”
Adam tried to straighten up, only to groan in pain and fall back into the pillow.
“You can’t move, love,” I said, trying not to sound alarmed. “Your leg is in a cast.”
“What happened?”
“Skull Crusher ran you over. Maddox is on his ass, along with the rest of the LD. Everyone is so mad, and Chief Bibb is on a warpath. They’re all outside, waiting to see you.”
“Don’t let them in,” Adam murmured. “I don’t want them visiting me.”
I opened my mouth to reply when the door burst open, and the entire LD barged in.
“Sup, Markland,” Maddox said, throwing a beer onto Adam’s bed. “This is for after. By the way, your prison pal is on my to-die list.”
“I heard your leg is fucked up, Scarman,” Buck said, giving him a high five. “Don’t worry, though. My wife is a masseuse. She will fix you up in no time.”
“My boy,” Chief Bibb said in his booming voice, making everyone flinch. “I knew you would recover. There was no doubt in my mind.”
“It’s because of Jupiter,” Verna Bulut said, rushing into the room and startling everyone. “His influence helps with the recovery. Adam, hun, everything will be okay. I read your cards, and the situation is encouraging. I saw both love and fortune in your future. Can you imagine that?”
Adam’s eyes were fixed on the wall, filled with both desperation and misery.
“What is this?” A stern voice made us all turn around. “Who let all of you in?”
“Some hot nurse,” Maddox deadpanned.
The doctor behind us didn’t look amused. His eyes narrowed, sweeping across the crowded room before he approached the bed.
