Page 123 of Rebel Hawke

“I-I think he is, too, but I-I don’t trust myself anymore.” He sobs again, trying to cover it with his trembling hand. “No one should.”

“Gramps, don’t say that.” I rise to my unsteady feet, lean over, and press another kiss to his forehead. “You’re going to be okay…”

He shakes his head gently—barely a movement at all. His eyes drift closed. “No, Birdie. I’m not…”

ATLAS

The moment they slide open,I charge through the hospital doors, rushing straight past a packed waiting room and the registration desk and back into the ER, against the protestations of several staff members. But I know my way around this place and don’t give a shit if it pisses anyone off to see me bypass protocol.

Fuck protocol.

No stupid rule will stop me from getting to Wren and Jenkins, and it would take all the guards in the hospital to drag me out of here.

I turn the corner toward the patient rooms, and Aunt Nora stands at the nurses’ station and looks up as I approach her, skidding to a halt.

After rushing out of the tux fitting and racing over here, driving far faster than was probably wise, I struggle to voice even the most basic question, terrified of the answer she might give me.

Instead of risking learning the truth, I ask the easier thing. “Where is she?”

Nora sets down her tablet on the desk and turns toward me, offering me a sympathetic look that says a thousand words without her uttering a single one.

No…

She takes a step toward me. “I have her in my office—”

“Oh, God…”

“He died ten minutes ago.”

Her words barely register, and the hallway starts to spin around me. I stumble and grip the edge of the counter to stay up on my feet.

“She was with him.” She approaches and wraps her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Atlas. I know how close you were to Jimmy.”

“He’s…gone?”

It can’t be true.

Doesn’t feel real.

He was going to outlive all of us.

Nora pulls back and squeezes my arms—stuck somewhere between caring aunt and head of the very emergency room that couldn’t save him. “It was a heart attack. By the time they got him here, it was clear he wouldn’t survive any attempts at surgery. He was too old. Too weak.”

Her words make sense.

I’ve seen him really starting to show his age lately, but he was always so strong, so seemingly invincible.

“Did-did she get to talk to him?”

She nods. “I think so. She didn’t say much when I got to her after dealing with one of my patients.”

“Shit.” I press my hand against my forehead, trying to clear my brain enough to make my feet move. “I can’t believe…”

“Head on up to my office.” Nora squeezes my arms again. “She needs you.”

I nod and try to swallow past the emotion clogging my throat. Everything around me goes fuzzy around the edges as I push away from the counter and stumble toward the stairwell that will take me up to Nora’s office.

I’ve been in this hospital a thousand times for stupid little injuries suffered playing around as a kid or in the ring when I took a particularly hard shot. It never held a particularly bad feeling for me. Even when Kennedy, Isaac, and Uncle Stone were shot, and it looked like we might lose him for those awful few days…it was just always where Nora and Pope worked. It was where Stone wassaved.

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