Page 103 of Broken

It could be worse. I could have lost Izzy, too.

But it was far from being a comfort. If the loss of our baby could hit me this hard, I knew Izzy would take it worse. I’d onlyjustgotten attached. The baby had been Izzy’s life since the moment she knew she was pregnant. The news would kill her inside, and that would be just as bad, if not worse, than if I’d lost them both in the first place.

Chapter 27

TUCKER

Tucker! Help!The screams were too far away.

You should’ve saved me! You should’ve saved her first!

Tucker!

Tucker!

“Tucker.” I jolted awake, Izzy’s screams fading back into the ever-circling torrent of my thoughts. My back ached with the way I was slouched over the bed, and I carefully sat up, pulling my arms slowly above my head in an easy stretch that still killed my back. My eyes burned, and I rubbed to help bring them back into focus, taking in the now familiar dim lighting of Izzy’s hospital room. A machine beeped by my ear, like a stab to my head in my exhaustion. Every ounce of sleep I was managing to get was filled with her screams.

A hand touched my shoulder, and I looked up, finding Bridgette staring down at me. Stress from the last few days lined her face, and her eyes were drawn, likely from her own exhaustion. The two of us had been by her bed more than anyone, just waiting for Izzy to wake up.

She gave me a compassionate smile, or what she could manage at least, the corners of her mouth barely lifting. “Why don’t you take a break? Head home for a shower and some real rest. I’ll take over for a while.”

I shook my head and scraped my hands over my face, trying to wake up. “No, I’m alright.”

“Tucker, you’re exhausted. And hurt. You know what the doctors told you.”

I glanced down at the bed. Izzy looked the same as she had for the past several days since the accident. Tubes across her face and hand, her left leg and right arm in casts, her head wrapped heavily in gauze, and bruises splotched across her body. Her color was sallow, still too pale, even for her. It ate at my gut for letting this happen to her.

“Not as much as her,” I finally answered, and Bridgette sighed.

“No, but still enough that I’m concerned about you. I’m sure Izzy knows you’ve been here, and she’d want you to take care of yourself.”

I took the pale hand on the bed in mine, holding it in my palm to not disturb the tubes.

“She’s not waking up anytime tonight, Tucker. The doctor hasn’t cleared her yet.”

All they’d cleared her for so far was the transfer from the Dallas hospital to the one in Houston. They weren’t even willing to place her in one on the Ridge; they were so concerned about her injuries.

I pulled in a long deep breath, relishing the sharp pain along my spine and ribs. I deserved to feel all of it.

“Tucker, if you don’t go, I’m going to put you on the ban list for the room.” Bridgette pulled out her no-nonsense voice, and I slowly turned to glare up at my girlfriend’s mother. “Look at me like that all you want, but I mean it.” She crossed her arms over her chest, raising a single brow as she leveled me with a stare.

Damn. I knew that look. It was basically the Donovan women’s signatureDo-what-I-fucking-saylook.

Pushing the chair back, I stood and leaned over Izzy to press a gentle kiss on her brow just below her bandages. “I’ll be back, princess.”

Bridgette’s look was pure compassion when I turned around, but I didn’t say anything, stepping around her to pull open the wide, faux wood print door.

I barely remembered walking down the hall to the elevator. My body was on autopilot. My thoughts still in their never-ending torrent, torn with needing to be there when she woke up. Still praying she did. Terrified of what would happen once she had.

There was no way to win.

Not that it was a game. It was far from that.

Life had sucked the humor right out of me.

Frowning when I sat in my truck, because I barely even remembered walking outside, my brain struggled to focus as I turned the ignition. I was going to need someone to drive me back. Hell, I probably should call someonenow, but that would take time, and the longer I sat here, the less likely I was to leave.

After almost drifting a few times on the highway and a close call at a stoplight, I made it home and trudged up the stairs to my room, part of me groaning that it was at the end of the ridiculously long hall. I fell face first onto my bed, not even bothering to kick off my shoes, and within seconds, I was out.

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