Page 71 of Collide

Thank God. Noah rushed over to them. “Is he okay? They won’t let me see him.” Noah reached for Autumn, but she chewed her lip and looked away.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Vernon growled.

And that’s when he knew. Things hadn’t gone well when Cooper told them. “Listen, I know you might not agree with things between Coop and me, but now’s not the time. We need to be here for him.”

“His family needs to be here for him, and we are,” Vernon replied.

No matter what they thought, Cooper was his family. Wes’s hand came down on Noah’s shoulder. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. “He’ll want me there. I know this has to be confusing for you guys. I understand that, but I love him and he loves me. I can promise you he’ll want me in that room with him.”

Autumn gasped, leaning on her cane. Vernon’s eyes turned to ice.

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for him. You might not like it but he feels the same way about me.” Then he realized Cooper never made it there. They’d said he saw the fire on his way. Damn, this was a hard time for them to find something like this out but there was nothing to do about it now. “He was going to tell you, today.”

“Today, huh? You lying piece of shit. You show up, out of the blue and tell me my nephew is in love with you? You haven’t talked to Cooper in seventeen years! How the hell did you know what happened? What makes you want to push your way into that room the way your whole damn family shoved their way into our lives all those years ago?”

“Now, wait a minute.” Braden stepped forward, but Noah grabbed him.

They didn’t know. They didn’t even know Noah had come back. Why wouldn’t Cooper have told them that much? “You didn’t know I was here? That I’ve been living with Cooper for months?”

Cooper had said his aunt wanted to see him. He looked at Autumn, hoping to see knowledge there, but she looked just as taken aback as Vernon.

Cooper had lied to him. He’d even kept their friendship hidden, just like David had.

“Whatever you thought was going on between my nephew and yourself, you’re wrong about. I won’t let you try to ruin his life like—”

“—Vernon!” Autumn cut him off. “It wasn’t his fault. Noah was his best friend.”

“I’m fucking in love with him!” Noah yelled. He didn’t give a shit what any of them said. Even as angry as he was at Cooper, he wasn’t leaving this hospital without seeing him.

Noah went straight for the doors. Vernon tried to stop him, a look of disgust on his face. A glance at Autumn showed him, she was crying, a hand covering her mouth.

Noah just needed to see Cooper.

Before he could get a chance to do anything, security grabbed him. He hadn’t even realized they were here. His muscles tightened—chest ached.

Both Wes and Braden started yelling, trying to defend him.

But none of it mattered. Noah wasn’t family. Noah wasn’t even officially Cooper’s partner. Security escorted him from the building. He felt like he was cracking apart, his breath cut off. None of it mattered to them. There wasn’t a damn thing Noah could do about it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Still no luck?” Noah asked Braden, as the other man approached him. It had been two days since Cooper’s accident. He came back every day but they wouldn’t let him in. They didn’t transfer calls through, and no one answered Cooper’s cell. It was killing him.

No matter what happened between him and Cooper, he couldn’t walk away without seeing him. Without witnessing with his own eyes, that he was okay. He’d been forced away from Cooper one other time, and he wasn’t letting that happen again.

He fought to push those thoughts away. Thoughts that no matter what Cooper wanted, he might not be able to go forward with this. Not if he hadn’t even been able to tell his family Noah was here. Was he embarrassed of Noah being gay? Of what people would think of him? He didn’t know, and it wasn’t important now. Not as important as Cooper’s well being.

“His uncle told them not to let me in either, which I knew he would do. They won’t let him have any visitors. His uncle has been in touch with the captain but he won’t share any information with us at work, either.”

“Fuck!” Noah yelled. A couple looked at him and then scurried inside the building.

He could hardly keep still, adrenaline pumping through him as though it was on tap. What if he lost him?

“I’ll be back. I have…just wait here and I’ll be back.” Braden walked away, but Noah paid no attention. He didn’t care.

Wes came over and stood beside him. The man hadn’t left his side since last night. “You should be home with your sister,” Noah told him.

“She understands.”

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