Page 86 of Catcher

The hospital room door opens. Riggs walks in first, and Nova is right behind him. Their eyes sweep the room once and take in everything exactly as it is—Ruby upset in the bed, me with Robby pinned against the wall, and tension choking the air thick enough to taste it.

Riggs’ gaze settles on my hand around Robby’s throat. “Let him breathe.”

I don’t loosen my grip right away.

I don’t want to.

Then Ruby inhales softly behind me, and that sound cuts through deeper than Riggs’ order. So, I ease enough for Robby to suck in air without letting him go completely.

He coughs hard, eyes watering.

Nova shuts the door quietly behind him and leans against it, arms crossed, watching Robby as if he’s already deciding how many pieces the man would break into under pressure.

Riggs studies Robby for one long second before speaking. “You’re walkin’ outta this hospital with us.”

Robby’s face drains.

Ruby closes her eyes briefly, because she already knew this was coming, the second I tossed her the phone.

“Catcher…” she whispers.

“Babe…” I say carefully, “… we need answers.”

“He’s still my brother.”

Robby’s eyes shut hard for a second, like the words hurt worse than my grip did.

I feel nothing for him.

But I feel every damn crack in her voice.

Riggs weighs in. “Then he should’ve remembered he was your brother before he handed your life over to monsters.”

Silence settles heavily.

Nobody argues because there’s no argument to make.

Robby finally looks at me again. Fear sits plain in his eyes now. Good. He should be terrified. “You don’t understand who these people are,” he says quietly.

I lean closer. “Then when you get to where we are goin’, you better start talkin’.”

The energy shifts the second club business locks into place, and everybody in the room feels it, Ruby, especially. I can see it in the way her shoulders tighten against the bed, and her fingers curl tighter around the blanket, even while exhaustion drags at her face. She knows what the Kings are capable of. Still, she looks at Robby as though she’s searching for some last piece of the brother she remembers.

That’s what kills me about her.

Even if a person is broken, she still loves too hard.

“Please don’t hurt him,” she says softly.

Nova lets out a low breath through his nose.

Riggs stays steady. “That depends on how honest he decides to be.”

Ruby’s eyes come back to me, and the look in them damn near guts me—fear, trust, confusion, and something deeper. It hits hard enough to feel like a wound opening in my chest, because every time she looks at me, I feel myself slipping further into something I can’t stop and sure as hell don’t know how to survive.

I grab my phone from the bed and slide it back into my pocket. “I’ll come back for you.”

Ruby’s throat works. “Okay,” she whispers.