Page 19 of Dangerous Love

I exhaled a deep breath. The more things looked up for me, the more my guilt haunted my subconscious. And though no part of me took responsibility for what Hal Cooper had done to us—done to Seth—my once-a-month visits seemed bleak in comparison to knowing my brother would never recover from the torture inflicted on him by our father and his gang.

“Thanks, Elly.”

Right before she buzzed me into the secure area, she called out, “Riley, how’d you manage to have one of the best psychiatrists in the country get his hands on a drug we don’t have access to? For your brother?”

I gave her a polite smile before grabbing my visitor’s name tag from her hand. “Just lucky.” I pasted the sticky note on my chest and stepped inside the air-lock that led to the next building. I looked down, my jaw clenching at the letters.Riley Cooper.

For the rest of the world, I was a Williams. But in this place, and everywhere my bloodline breathed, I reverted to being Riley goddamn Cooper. I’d agreed to keep in contact with Hal in exchange for him promising to leave Jarryd and Avery alone, and to protect Sienna from being collateral damage. But after every single text from him, every unannounced update from his deadbeat enforcers, and every time I heard his voice, it took all my strength not to do the world a favour and run him over with my car.

Being a Cooper here stopped all the questions, because there was no way I wanted anyone to know anything about me or my new family while I wore the name of the biggest piece of shit in history.

The vinyl floors creaked under my steps, the smell of doom invading my nostrils. Staggering past me, drug-fucked patients stared into oblivion, marching like zombies towards some imaginary feast. Shivers crawled up my spine with every one of their moans. I almost felt relieved when a massive guy threw a chair across the room in the next corridor; maybe there was some life left in them after all.

The hallway continued, growing quieter the closer I got to Seth’s room. My strides stretched longer until I faced the thick door, the dirty yellow light above my head flickering. My knuckles rapped on the wooden frame. The nurses had told me to barge in since Seth had been catatonic for almost three months, but I couldn’t. There was a respect that came with announcing my visit. Even if my brother was just his old shell.

“Hi, Seth, can I come in?” I called out, fake cheerfulness laced in my greeting.

The door opened instantly, and I froze, the abnormal action startling me. My jaw tightened when I recognized our older brother on the other side of the threshold.

“Hey.” Trey motioned me in.

I leaned against the door frame, my shoulder sinking into the hardness. “I didn’t know you’d be here. I’ll come back.”

“Don’t be a fucking idiot, Riley. You’re both my brothers.”

Didn’t seem like it when you sided with the old man three years ago.Genuine pain flashed across his pupils when I hesitated, and when he thrusted his chin towards the back wall, I stepped inside the sterile room. In his usual plight, Seth curled up in his bed, in whites, his eyes staring through invisible spots in the paint. Next to him on a hospital tray, an opened yoghurt waited. My throat thickened when Trey settled beside our shared sibling, a spoon in his hand.

“Come on, buddy. You gotta eat.” My older brother pushed the utensil past Seth’s lips, and when nothing happened, he just tossed it back on the tray. “I’ve been going at it for an hour. He hasn’t had solids in over two weeks.”

I pulled a chair and slumped down on it. Seth looked even worse than he had last month. Sunken orbs, dirty clothes, even dried spit lined his mouth. I shook my head. “He’s lost so much weight.”

Trey nodded. “It’s a fucking joke. What are they even doing to help him, Ri?” His breathing grew shallow, the tendons on his neck cording. He clenched his fist, but before I had time to see what was coming, Trey’d punched the wall above Seth’s head. “Fuck!” he screamed through the room. Underneath him, Seth didn’t even flinch.

“Not helping, Trey.” I ran a hand through my hair and blew a hard breath. “I’ve got a new treatment approved. It will work.”

Trey collapsed on Seth’s bed, his back sagging against the wall as he rubbed his knuckles. “I’ll source the money. Just tell me what you need.” His voice cracked as he patted our brother’s calf.

Silence stretched in the room, neither of us finding the words to break years of Cooper ice. My eyes trailed over the trees outside the barred windows. Blue skies, warm sun. Being in this room with my brother dying felt so out of place.

“I taught him how to ride a bike.” Trey’s sad chuckle resonated in the room. “Shit, I even changed his nappies between nanny number four and the skank Hal hired as number five.”

Heaviness filled my chest like I’d consumed every brick of this concrete prison. I swallowed hard as I fought the despair clawing at my gut. “Sometimes I forget how things were before—”

“Our father became Hope Island’s underground king?” Trey sighed. “I’m gutted it took our brother being reduced tothisfor me to finally wake up.”

“Yep.”

Trey’s palm tapped Seth’s leg rhythmically, a silent incantation between him and a redeeming God. Trey begged for a miracle. As if Seth would suddenly jump back up, like nothing had ever happened. When Seth didn’t respond, Trey turned and faced me, his eyes empty. “Foster care saved you, little brother.” He choked on the words and cleared his throat before slapping the back of his hand across his eyes.

Trey’s redemption touched me deep inside my core, shaking all the helplessness I’d ever felt about him. I sprung across the room and took him into my arms. He stood and bear-hugged me for what seemed like an eternity. Unspoken words floated in the air. How the hell did one admit that our father had screwed us all over? Especially when one of us still fraternised with the enemy.

Thick with emotions, I let my brother go and stepped towards the small window. Palm against the frame, I leaned on my forearm, my head resting on the muscle as I took steady breaths. My gaze drifted over the glass and landed on a couple of kids running in the hospital’s front yard. “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t feel guilty that I got out and you guys didn’t.”

“Not your fault.”

“I know. Doesn’t make it easier though.”

Trey sighed. “Seth was completely innocent. Hal fucked him up because he wanted nothing to do with the underground.” His tone deepened. “Me? I deserve everything I get. I hope I burn in hell for all the help I gave our father, just so he’d give me the time of day.”

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