Page 30 of Fierce-Hyde

“Why didn’t you?” Raina asked.

“The same reason I can’t walk away from my mother,” she said. “It’s like this weakness. I see someone that has a problem and there I am trying to fix it. Or hear them out. Or maybe it’s those damn blue eyes of his that just lifted me off my feet and had me floating toward him as if I was high on lust.”

Raina was roaring with laughter. “Oh my God. I’ve never heard you talk like this before.”

“I know,” she said and shoveled more ice cream into her mouth. “What is wrong with me? Maybe I’m just horny. I could have used him for that and I bet he’d be fine with it.”

“Now you won’t know,” Raina said.

“No,” she said, throwing the spoon in the container. She was going to puke up sugar and acid if she ate anymore. “I’m not giving him another chance. It’s over.”

But the next morning when she was in her office, she’d gotten a text that Hyde’s sister was in that accident on the highway and he called into work because he’d been at the hospital all night and they were waiting to get her into surgery.

“Urggggggg!”

She picked her phone up and sent an apology text but knew it was probably too late.

11

HURT HIM ENOUGH

“Do you want another coffee, Mom?” Hyde asked his mother on Wednesday morning.

“No,” his mother said. “And you don’t need one either. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep.”

“I’m not leaving here until we know what is going on,” he said.

His parents didn’t look much better than him. The three of them had slept in the waiting room, taking turns trying to get updates on CeeCee’s condition.

They’d finally gotten her stable enough and ran all the tests and they had her in surgery now hoping to repair her broken back.

The thought that his sister might not walk again because of a freak blowout on a tractor trailer turning into her was more than he could handle in his life.

He’d do anything possible to be there for his family after they’d been there for him.

“It could be several more hours,” his father said. “At some point, we should take shifts.”

“We can do that when we know more,” Hyde said. “I’m going to get coffee and food. I’ll bring back something for you guys. We have to eat.”

His parents just nodded their heads almost on automatic. He needed to stretch his legs.

All he’d done this morning was send a quick email to Drake and Ryder. He didn’t want to text them too early so an email was for the best. That was a few hours ago.

When he got to the cafeteria, he looked at the coffee and decided maybe his mother was right and he didn’t need anymore.

He grabbed a bottle of water and two bottles of juice, then got a couple of pastries to bring back.

When he was walking down the hall with the bag of food, his phone went off in his pocket. Oddly, he hadn’t noticed it wasn’t making much noise before this when it always did in the past.

But he’d had so much on his mind, that his phone was an afterthought.

He pulled it out and it was a notice his battery was low. Shit. He had a charger in his car and would go grab it for them all to use.

But then he realized his phone was on silent because he’d set it that way last night before his date with Tori.

Holy shit! He had a date last night that he was getting ready for when his mother called. It was the only call that would have gotten through.

He quickly scrolled through messages from friends and family to send Tori a text and saw multiple ones from her.

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