Page 70 of Collide

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It was dark when Noah pulled the rental truck into the driveway at home. He was tired as hell. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed with Cooper, and pass the hell out. He’d made this trip much faster than he should have, just wanting to be home.

As soon as he pulled to a stop, he noticed the house was dark and Cooper’s truck was gone. Before he could put much thought into it, Noah’s cell rang. He almost didn’t answer Wes’s call but then…what if something happened to his sister?

“Hello?”

“Where are you?” Were the first words out of Wes’s mouth.

“I’m at home. What’s wrong?” Noah’s gut cramped. Something had happened.

“I’m with Braden. We’re going to come get you, okay? You stay right there. We’re on our way.”

The cramp became a fist, squeezing the life out of him. There was only one thing that would make Wes sound like that. “Where is he?” His voice cracked.

Wes cursed. “Wait for us and we’ll drive you.”

“Where the fuck is he, Wes?” Noah’s hands shook.

“There was a fire,” Wes told him. “He’s okay. Fuck, it took Braden forever to find me. No one had your number or we would have called you earlier.”

Noah’s whole universe rocked. Fire. “Tell me where the fuck he is. Now.”

Wes cursed again before rattling off the name of a local hospital. Noah ended the call the second he had the information. Noah ran from the rental to his car, knowing it would get him there a whole hell of a lot faster. It felt like two seconds and at the same time ten years later, before he pulled up in front of the hospital.

Braden and Wes were already standing outside when he got there.

“I told him not to fucking go in. He was on his way to his uncle’s. We were on the phone and he saw it,” Braden said. All Noah cared about was getting to Cooper.

“What room?”

Braden paused before replying. “ICU.”

Noah fought the bile threatening to crawl up his throat.

The two men flanked him, as they ran for the intensive care unit. Double doors blocked the entrance. Noah went straight for the nurse’s station. “Cooper Bradshaw.” His voice cracked. “I need to see him.”

“We only allow two visitors at a time, and there are already two people back there.”

Noah’s body tensed as he gripped the counter. “I need to see him. How is he? What happened?” He couldn’t lose Cooper. Not again. Not permanently.

“Are you family?” she asked.

Wes and Braden both groaned beside him.

He is the only family I have. I love him. “He’s my partner.”

Her eyes widened, before she smiled kindly at him. “Let me call back there and let them know you’re here.”

Noah’s feet wouldn’t keep still as he paced in front of the nurses station. “What do you know?”

It was Braden who spoke. “He saved a kid. He ran into that house and saved a little boy.”

And as scared and angry as he was, there was pride there, too. That was his guy. He expected nothing less of Cooper.

“Just as he got the kid out. We don’t know if something hit him and then the floor collapsed, or how it went down. He’s got a puncture wound where a piece of metal went through his shoulder. He was knocked out, and there is obviously worries because of smoke inhalation.”

When he heard the phone click behind him, Noah turned back to the nurse. The way her eyes cast down told him everything. They weren’t going to let him see Cooper. “No one’s stopping me from getting through those doors,” he told her. As he did they slid open, Vernon and Autumn stepped out.

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