Page 75 of Texas Hold Em'
How many minutes had passed? Did we even have enough time to revive him? How had he and Brody pulled it off anyway?
Shit. Brody.
I called his name but didn’t have the stomach to step over Tex and go into the bedroom. To my relief, Brody appeared at Tex’s feet looking grim.
I pressed a hand to my chest. “Thank God. What do we do? How do we help him?”
Brody had already dropped to his hands and knees over Tex. I watched, horrified, as he began CPR.
“This is the play?” I asked.
He didn’t answer me.
“Brody! He’s been down for several minutes! Is CPR even going to work?”
He pressed the heels of both hands down on Tex’s sternum and pressed down hard in rapid succession. Tex jostled. Brody hissed out short breaths in rhythm to the beats he made with his hands. His face turned red.
Something cracked. I dropped to my knees at Tex’s head. Had Brody just broken one of his ribs?
I leaned over him and held his face in my hands, running my thumbs over the stubble on his jaw. “Please come back,” I begged. “Please.”
CHAPTER 31
JAMESON
Air rushed into my lungs. Everything burned. A white-hot poker ran through my chest and made it impossible to exhale. Someone slapped my cheek.Hard.
“Jameson!”
Somehow, I was cold and hot all at once. Everything hurt. It was so fucking dark. Where the hell was I?
“Tex!” A woman’s voice. “We’re here. We’ve got you. You’re all right.”
All right?
Fuck.
I sure as shit didn’t feel all right.
I groaned.
Gentle hands on my face moved up into my hair as the struggle between hot and cold ended and cold won out.
Finally, I managed to open my eyes and found myself blinking up at a beautiful face and blue eyes. She smiled at me as tears rolled down her cheeks, where there was a red splatter of blood. Was that my blood? It couldn’t be hers, could it? I reached for her. She caught my hand in hers and held it fiercely as my memories started sliding back into place.
“Sorry, brother,” a familiar male voice muttered from somewhere close by. “You didn’t make this easy on us. I think I cracked a rib while I was working on you.”
Cracked a rib? That was all? It felt like he’d broken my entire ribcage. And my skull. My head was killing me.
“Can you speak?” she asked.
Carrie. Brody.All the puzzle pieces of pain assembled themselves in my mind. We’d failed with the defibrillator but still pulled it off. I hadn’t expected to come back.
And yet there I was, blinking up at the woman I loved.
“That sucked,” I managed to say.
Carrie laughed with relief and leaned over me to press wet kisses to my lips.
