Page 58 of Shattered

“Pray.”

Jade woke up about twenty minutes before we landed, right in time to experience turbulence and touchdown for the first time. She climbed in my lap, burrowing deep into my chest with every sudden dip in altitude. Her trembling only got worse when she peered out the window.

Landing at San Francisco International Airport was a harrowing experience, even for the well-versed traveler. The runways started practicallyinthe San Francisco Bay, which meant by the time you touched down, the plane was so close to the water you could almost see the great white sturgeon leaping out of it.

Jett didn’t help her panicked state, teasing his sister mercilessly. I shut him up rather quickly though, when I took her mouth in a searing kiss. The distraction worked a little too well. My cock was rock-hard and aching by the end.

During the four-mile drive to the hospital, Riley called rather than texted. The good news was Mom didn’t need major surgery. The bad news, she still had to have a procedure to open up the blocked arteries around her heart and she was refusing any treatment until we arrived.

Stubborn-ass woman.

Thankfully traffic was light—or at least light by San Fran standards—which meant we made the eight-minute trek in twenty minutes flat. The Uber let us out right outside of the Emergency Room entrance, but as I looked up at the old familiar building, a deep wave of sadness washed over me.

Willow, Riley, and myself were all born here. We’d eachhad various injuries or illnesses through our childhood, which brought us to these same sliding glass doors. But the last time I’d set foot on the campus of Mills-Peninsula Medical Center was the worst day of my life.

“She’s going to be fine, Koen.” Jade met me on the sidewalk, circling an arm around my waist while Jett quickly grabbed our luggage from the trunk.

“The last time I was here was the day my dad was killed.”

“Oh, babe.” She squeezed me a little tighter. “I’m so sorry.”

Her endearment warmed the cold seeping through my veins. Leaning down, I kissed the top of her head, pausing to breathe her in. She had a calming effect on me, settling my nerves with her mere presence. I suspected she always would.

“We should get inside.” I cleared my throat against the emotion threatening to choke me and slipped out of her hold, only to thread my fingers through hers. “You and Jett being here means everything to me.”

“I just hope your family thinks the same after we break the news.”

“They will. Guaranteed. And they’re your family now too, Angel.”

Jade

Rushing down the halls of the emergency room felt like running through an obstacle course. We dodged stretchers being pushed out of rooms, doctors and nurses scrambling between patients, and a group of maintenance workers who’d set up a row of ladders to change out lightbulbs. In short, it was mass chaos—-hospital style.

When we finally reached the main elevator, I thought we’d escaped the mayhem unscathed, until we saw the “out of order” sign on the steel doors.

“What floor is the cardiac unit?” I asked.

“Sixth,” Koen replied while eyeing the pile of luggage he and Jett had unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

We packed light, but it was way too much to try to carry up so many flights of stairs.

“Why didn’t you call when you got here?” A definitively female voice sounded to the left.

“Willow.”

Koen said her name like the whisper of a prayer. Eating up the distance in three long strides, he enveloped her in his arms, lifting her feet clear off the ground.

“Can’t breathe,” she wheezed.

“Sorry, Wills.”

He extended a hand toward me and I took it. “Willow, this is Jade. Jade, meet my big sister and all-around pain-in-the-ass, Willow.”

She was tall, maybe five ten, yet slight with the same shade of emerald eyes and shoulder-length, dirty-blond hair as Koen. From the video chats I’d had with their mom, it was easy to see where they’d gotten the majority of their features. I’d assumed their height came from their dad.

“Jackass.” She landed a punch to his arm before turning all her focus on me, or more specifically, to our hands. Her eyes went wide a second before she grabbed his left one.

Oh shit.

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