Page 21 of Claiming Becca

I give her a confused look but don’t respond. I haven’t been roommates with Connor in almost three years. I moved into a small studio apartment and began saving to repurchase my grandfather’s house. That was about two years ago, around the same time Connor moved into the house he lives in now. I look back at Connor again before the door closes to his room. I assumed he’d changed his emergency contact to his parents. Why would he keep it as me?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CONNOR

MY EYESflutter open, but the bright lights hurt my head. Where the hell am I?

“Connor?” some woman calls out to me, and I groan. Why is she so loud? Closing my eyes, I focus on my breathing and not the pain in my head, which causes a different pain. What the hell happened?

“It’s okay. Everyone comes out of anesthesia differently. Give him just a moment,” the woman says. I have no idea who she’s talking to, but I want to yell at her to stop talking so loud. Opening my eyes again, I try to focus and find where her voice is coming from. Why do I feel like this?

“Connor? I’m Claire. Your brother is here.” I move my head toward her voice, and I finally find her. “That’s good,” she says, and I try to tell her to shut the hell up. But my mouth is so dry I can’t talk.

“Want some ice chips?” she asks, and I nod. She grabs a cup and scoops a piece of ice onto the spoon, putting it in my mouth. I suck on the one ice chip she gave me and scowl at her.

“More?” she asks. What the hell does she think? That one piece didn’t do anything. She gives me one more, and if my body didn’t feel like lead, I’d snatch the damn cup out of her hand. But it’s enough to allow me to speak.

“Jesus, woman. It’s like trying to throw a cup of water on a blazing fire. Can you give me the whole cup?” I exclaim. A deep chuckle sounds next to me, and my head swivels to Julian.

Everything rushes back to me. That bastard tried to kill my brother, or maybe Bailey, but that would have killed my brother, and there was no way I would watch him go through another loss.

“Julian? You’re okay!” I try to sit up, but pain shoots through my abdomen, and I groan. The nurse and Julian step toward me, but I shake my head. “I’m fine.” I’m not the same punk kid who couldn’t handle a broken leg. I hate pain, but I can suck it up. I look at Julian. “I hope that son of a bitch is dead.” The nurse gasps, but I don’t pay her any mind waiting for Julian to confirm it.

“He is,” he replies, and I can relax a little.

“Good.” My eyes turn back toward the nurse, and I narrow them. “Now, about that ice.”

“You can’t have the whole cup. You might throw up,” she tells me, and I moan in frustration. I’m so thirsty. “I’ll give you more than one chip this time, though.” I want to snatch the cup from her, but I’m too weak and in pain.

“Fine!” I snap and open my mouth for more ice chips. She gives me three ice chips. Closing my eyes, I savor them as they melt in my mouth.

“Alright, Mom and Dad are waiting to see you outside. So is everyone else,” Julian says. He turns around to leave.

“Wait!” I call after him. I love my parents, but they can be a lot sometimes. “Is Bailey okay? And the other girl? Becca and Caroline were losing their minds on the ride over.”

Julian turns back to me. “Yeah. She got released yesterday. The other girl got released a few days ago.” He replies, and relief washes through my body what Julian went through a few years ago. That was just a close friend. I couldn’t imagine what he’d feel if something happened to Bailey.

“Good. I know she means a lot to you, Julian,” I say.

“Yeah, she does,” he admits, and I want to pat him on the back for admitting it. He’s very closed off. It takes a lot for him to open up. Bailey is good for him. My thoughts turn toward everyone waiting. Is Becca out there?

“Can you send in Becca first?” I ask.

He smirks, a knowing look in his eyes. “Of course. Prepare yourself. She’s been losing her mind for the past week and a half,” he replies.

My eyes bulge. Holy shit. I lost a week and a half of my life. “It’s been a week and a half. Has anyone notified my employees? Or my clients?” Shit. I have other people trained to do things in my absence, but still. He walks forward and pats my shoulder.

“Yes. Everything is taken care of. Victor has helped a lot where your team wasn’t prepared,” he says. My stomach clenches, pain radiating through my body.

I force myself to relax. “Victor? Victor Valentine?” By the look on his face, I already know there’s only one Victor he could be talking about, but I need to hear him say it.

“Yeah. Lincoln knows him. Well, in a business sense. Though he may not know him like you believe you do.” He gives me a pointed look and continues. “However, Lincoln reached out to him, and Victor said he was happy to help.”

I stare at him. One thing was for sure: I needed to get out of this fucking hospital. I never got a chance to meet with Victor. Our schedules never quite matched up. It made me wonder if he was avoiding me, or perhaps I just didn’t want to see him. Either way, it never happened, and now he had access to my company, which was not okay with me.

“I swear if that man has done anything….” I trail off suddenly, feeling exhausted. I close my eyes tight and open them once more. I can’t fall asleep until I have seen Becca.

Julian sighs. “As I have said before, he is clean. And if he wasn’t, I think he’s turned a new leaf. We all know who the evil one was, and we both know it wasn’t Victor. From what I’ve heard, they are no longer friends. Victor has cut all ties with him, as you know.”

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