I guess Bram didn’t know Hawk’s real name either.
“Uh… sure thing.” The guy walked to a whiteboard on the wall and searched the names.
I followed his gaze, saw Hawk’s name — first name only — with a bunch of shorthand that may have been vitals and other medical info.
“He can’t have visitors,” the guy said, turning to face us.
There was genuine regret in his voice, although I suspected that had more to do with the consequences of telling Bram no than with turning away a visitor in the ICU.
“Room number?” Bram asked.
“Uh… 4328,” the guy said. “But he can’t have?— ”
Bram was already walking.
I followed him, trotting along at his heels.
I dared one glance back at the nurses’ station, half expecting to see security headed our way, but the guy with the brown hair was just standing there, shaking his head at one of the other nurses, an expression on his face that said going after Bram would be a very bad idea.
I trotted to catch up to Bram, then read the numbers next to the doors.
4324… 4325… 4326… 4327…
4328 looked like all the other rooms — wide doorway, shadowed interior, half-glass wall that looked out onto the hall.
But it wasn’t like any other room because a third of my heart was inside.
Hawk.
I still didn’t know his real name, didn’t know where he went when he disappeared alone, didn’t know hardly anything about his family.
But I belonged to him.
To him and Jagger and Vigo.
And he was in room 4328 fighting for his life.
“I’ll be right here,” Bram said, leaning against the wall.
“What if the nurses call security?”
“No one’s calling security, Cass.” Bram sounded as sure about that as he did about everything, and I wondered what it was like to be Bram. To be sure things would go your way because you would make them go your way.
Because no one dared to defy you.
It had been lonely for him before Maeve, I knew that much, but I was grateful for his power now.
Grateful to have him on my side.
I rushed into his arms and inhaled the scent of safety.
Of family.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Cass.” His voice was gruff. “Anything you want, you get. You know that.”
I looked up at him. “Even them?”
