Page 68 of The Way Back Home
Alex’s eyes flicked briefly over to the sheriff’s car.
Noah followed Alex’s gaze. Saw Graner in the back seat, slumped against the window, his face swollen and bloody.
Noah’s blood went cold. “Tell me she’s okay, Alex.”
The brief hesitation before he answered felt like years. “She’s alive.”
Those two words slammed into Noah’s chest like a wrecking ball. Notshe’s okay. Notshe’ll be fine. Justshe’s alive.
“I need to see her.” Noah tried to move forward, but Alex blocked him again.
“She doesn’t want you to see her like this.” Alex spoke the words quietly, as if they pained him as much as they did Noah. “She made me promise.”
Noah had had it with fucking promises. “You’ve seen her? It’s that bad?”
Alex couldn’t answer him, but the look in his eyes told Noah everything he needed to know. Something wild and feral rose within him. The knowledge thatTeagan was hurt, badly enough to shake his unshakable brother, ripped him apart.
They both turned as the EMTs wheeled out a stretcher. Noah caught only a brief glimpse, but it made him want to roar out in rage and frustration. He took a step toward them, but Alex caught his arm.
“I promised her, Noah.”
“Fuck that!” Noah said, struggling to free himself from Alex’s grip, but Alex held on. “I’m a fucking doctor, for Christ’s sake!”
“Noah.” No anger, just pain in his voice. “If she sees you right now, it will kill her.”
That gave him pause.
They watched the ambulance speed away, lights and sirens blasting. Only then did Alex release him.
“Come on,” Alex said, gripping Noah’s shoulder with an anchoring strength. “I’ll drive.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
NOAH
Teagan was in emergency surgery for several hours. Two of her ribs had splintered and punctured one of her lungs. Her pelvic bones were badly bruised. Her windpipe had partially collapsed. Her nose was broken, her cheekbone cracked, her lips split in several places.
“How could this happen?” Noah asked no one in particular.
Alex had filled him in. Let him listen to the recording of Josh’s threats. Until then, he hadn’t understood why Teagan went with him and put herself in danger. She hadn’t known that Alex was recording the whole thing. No, she’d believed she had no other choice. That she had to sacrifice herself to keep his family safe.
If Graner wasn’t being held in a locked cell under the protection of local law enforcement, Noah wouldkill him. Preferably over days or weeks. Painfully and without remorse.
Instead, Noah remained at the hospital, asking questions and demanding answers from the medical staff, until Alex had to promise to keep him confined to the waiting area or have him forcibly removed. The rest of the Ziegler family banded together in unanimous support, occupying the remaining chairs in shifts, taking turns running back to the house to watch the kids.
Noah shot to his feet the moment Teagan’s surgeon came into the surgical waiting room.
“We have her heavily sedated,” the doctor said. “She’s on a ventilator for now to give her body a rest. Her chances for a full recovery are good, but we’re going to keep her under for a few days and see.”
A collective sigh of relief rippled through the space.
“I want to see her,” Noah said.
“Noah,” Alex warned softly.
“You kept your word,” Noah told him. “But I need to see her.”
Needed to see with his own eyes that she was still breathing, even if it was with the assistance of a machine. She was alive, and that was what mattered. Everything else, they’d deal with later. Together.
