Page 76 of I'll Be There
Then Liza was screaming his name, running across the parking lot, straight at him.
She barreled into his arms, her legs locked around his waist, hitting him so hard she nearly knocked him over. She buried her face in his shoulders, shaking.
“Hey, hey, I’m okay. I’m okay—” He had only a moment to dip his head, let his heart restart before—
“We need help here!” John and Casper carried Reuben down the stairs, Seth and Pete on their tail.
In a second Liza had unlatched herself. “Go—”
“I’ll be back—”
“Go!”
Conner sprinted across the lot, caught Reuben around the body. Seth clambered down right behind them, lifted him from the other side.
“Hospital.Now,” John said, and nodded toward the truck in the lot.
Which apparently belonged to him, because after they’d hustled Reuben over, John jumped into the driver’s seat. Conner climbed in, cradled Reuben’s head in his lap, and held him as the rest of the guys leaped into the back.
John took off before they were fully in, but Pete and Seth scrambled on along with Casper, who was probably familiar with his father’s driving.
The hospital might have been more than a mile away, but they reached it in less than a minute, and miraculously, the ER staff waited with a gurney. Probably alerted by a timely call from Darek or one of the group.
They hauled Reuben out of the truck, then into the ER.
A female nurse pushed them out of the room. “Let us work.”
The door closed with a quiet swish behind her. Conner stared at it a full minute, just breathing before he whirled.
With everything inside him, he slammed his fist into the wall. White-hot heat exploded through his hand, but he didn’tcare, just shook it away, bouncing back, the fire thick in his veins.
Pete, Seth, and Casper stepped away.
He stood there breathing until finally, trembling, he turned his back to the wall and slid to the floor. Roughed his hands over his head, his face. “I should have never let him walk away.”
Silence.
Then, quietly, “Let who walk away?”
Liza stood in the hallway, banked by Jed and Micah. Romeo came in a step behind them, pocketing keys.
Conner looked up at her, those beautiful brown eyes that now held a sharpness he’d never seen before.
“Liza—”
“You tell me what is going on right now. Right. Now.”
Pete blew out a breath, cupping a hand behind his neck.
Micah reached out to touch her arm, but she ripped it away from his grasp.
Her voice turned lethal, low. “Out. Everyone,right now.”
Conner closed his eyes as his compatriots abandoned him to his once and maybe never bride.
“Please, just tell me everyone got out alive.” Conner looked up at Liza, and his eyes held every nightmare she’d endured as she’d watched him fling himself onto the street, as she’d climbed through the hole Darek and Jed had hacked through the wall—so fast, it seemed the wall had never existed—and abandoned the man she loved in a burning building.
She’d barreled into the escape, found Raina, baby Layla, and simply tried to hold herself together until Conner appeared, wrestled through the hatch by his guys. He’d collapsed on thefloor, writhing against the coughing that spasmed his chest, a growl rumbling through him as they splashed water on his eyes.
