Page 82 of The Road to Home Base
Shoot.
My own eyes welled up and I looked away.
“No,” I whispered. “I meant… y’know.”
“Rome,” he said in a way that made me look up. “He loves you. You’re his partner. That makes you family.” He took in a breath and exhaled through his nose. “And thank God you are. You saved his life. I know you did. I know it in my heart. You saved my baby brother’s life.”
Control fractured like a baseball through a window. I shattered, tears springing freely from my eyes as the lump in my throat burst into a sniveling sob. Devin pulled me in as he stood next to me, wrapped his arms around me like a big brother. The side of my face pressed into his chest as my body heaved.
“Thank you, Rome,” Devin said. “Thank you for being there. I’m so thankful you met him.”
“How do you know?” I said between cries. “How do you know he’s okay?”
Devin pulled back, then grabbed a nearby tissue box for me. “Because if he wasn’t, we’d know by now. He’s gonna be fine.” I yanked a tissue free and wiped my nose. “They’re gonna come around that corner any minute and tell us. You’ll see.”
So we waited. Terry brought back that XXL scrub for me. It fit a little snuggly, but he told me the navy blue color brought out my eyes. Devin sat in the guest chair and together we trawled social media on our phones. Ricky had been apprehended and was now in custody. Emma found a way to put out a statement (while still stuck in traffic) and would be at the hospital soon. My agent had called no less than five times, all of them ignored. He could work through Joe. I didn’t have the heart to talk to anyone at the moment except sit in that room and wait with Alex’s big brother.
A half hour after Devin came in, a new nurse poked her head into the room. “Hey, guys,” she said. A cute blond with a wide smile. “Is now a good time?”
I could’ve thrown my phone across the room if it meant she’d be out with the news faster. Devin sat up and tucked his phone into his back pocket.
“He’s stable,” she said. I almost crashed from the adrenaline fleeing my body now that I knew. In fact, the room spun as my eyes, recently dried, sported a new misty sheen. “He’s beat up pretty badly, I can’t sugarcoat that. Three broken bones. Partiallung collapse. Concussion. Some internal organ damage. He lost a fair amount of blood, too.”
Each infraction took me in the gut like Ricky was there again using me as a punching bag. I don’t know when, but Devin had stood beside me, his hand across my shoulders.
“Is he awake?” I asked.
“No, he’s pretty heavily sedated. We didn’t need to intubate, which is a miracle. I know all of that sounds like a lot but you should know he’s lucky. Nothing vital was damaged. Ribs will take awhile to heal and he’s going to be in pain for awhile, but we can, of course, mitigate a lot of that.” She held out her hands. “One visitor at a time. Who would like to go first?”
Devin practically pulled me off the bed and shoved me toward her. “He can go.”
I stumbled but rooted myself. I wouldnotlose this argument. “No. Absolutely not. You go first, Devin.” He started to protest but I cut him off. “The two of you have been through so much together. I’m not, Irefuse, to get in the way of two brothers. I’m not arguing about this. You’re going first.”
?
The police finally showed up while I waited to see Alex. The nurses and techs gave me privacy in the room while I spoke with an officer different from the one who showed up at the parking lot. The biggest question came up: would you like to press charges? I didn’t hesitate to answer yes. Joe had already called the family lawyer. I had spoken to her and she coached me on the things I needed to say and what would happen next.
I had been working on not bullying my way into Alex’s life, on not assuming the things he wanted and what his schedule looked like. However, when I spoke to our lawyer, I made a choice and said that she would be taking on Alex Edwards as a new clientand that I would cover any cost. I didn’t know if Alex or Devin had a lawyer on retainer and perhaps it was judgmental of me to assume they didn’t, given the cost associated. I would ask for forgiveness later. In that moment, I wanted everything covered and for Alex to not have to worry about Ricky or the court system or anything. I told as much to the officer. The department would be in contact with the lawyer for both Alex and myself.
The officer gave me the rundown of what happened after the ambulance carted us away. It didn’t take long for a second officer to arrive, and a third, who all tracked down Ricky not far from the parking lot. He gave himself up easily enough, especially since he could barely walk on the one leg. The officer gave me a look when he said that. Per my lawyer’s instructions, I didn’t speak more on the subject. Yes, Ricky assaulted both Alex and myself first, but my reaction and the damage I did to him would be carefully looked at.
And I didn’t care. I’d bash his other leg if given the chance.
The police were in contact with the landlord of Alex’s apartment building. There were outward facing security cameras but they didn’t know if anything was recorded or even captured. I’d knew I’d be interested in seeingthatfootage, if possible.
By the time he left, Devin was swinging around the corner and waving me into the hallway. The moment between standing up from that bed and arriving in the ICU was a blur. Later, Devin would tell me how I practically sprinted through the maze of the hospital to get to Alex.
I arrived to dim lighting and a darkened nurse’s station, a horseshoe of a structure sitting in the center of multiple ICU bays. A nurse in pink escorted me to a corner bay. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. The blood rushing through my ears.
I didn’t recognize him. I almost had to ask the nurse if she was sure this man was Alex Edwards. His face, bruised beyondrecognition, held no familiar traces of the beauty that I knew of my lover. Both eyes swollen shut, lips cracked and caked with dried blood. Innumerable splits and cuts painting his face like it was constructed from mosaic tile. Bandages wrapped around his forehead, his sandy brown hair poking up in haphazard spikes. Medical devices haloed his bed while things beeped and ticked all around him like a discordant symphony of old video game chiptune music.
The nurse stepped away as I lowered myself onto the edge of a guest chair. Instinctively, my hand sought his. Oddly pristine. No broken bones, no blood. Not even dirt under the nails. I brought it to my lips and kissed the back of it. I pushed my soul through me and into him.
I’m here.
I kept my lips pressed into his hand as droplets of tears rolled down my cheeks.
And I realized… they were tears of relief. Not sadness. I feltrelievedseeing him, despite his state of health. He’d be all right. The recovery would require both of us and time away from the game, which I would willingly give up. But he’d be okay. Devin was right—I had made it there on time. I saved him from whatever doom Ricky had in his mind and heart.
