Page 54 of Forever Yours

“Thank you,” my father said.

The door latch snicked as it closed.

“Are we doing this the official way or the Montgomery way?” Fallon asked Dad.

What did that mean?

Dad hooked his foot in the nearby armchair and scooted it over to the bed, then sat down in it. His hand cradled mine, and he brought it up to his mouth and just held it there as he looked at me.

I almost lost it when I felt his lips tremble against my knuckles and saw the fat tears well in his hazel eyes. Eyes I inherited. They slipped free, one by one, only to disappear in his short blond beard.

With subdued tenderness, he kissed my closed fist, but his response was fortified with rage. “Your way. Find who did this to my son.”

Fallon nodded sharply. “With fucking pleasure.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

I didn’t like the way that sounded. Fallon’s way usually meant bad things. My dad was a good man. An honest, law-abiding man. A man whose life was dedicated to helping people. He took an oath to serve and protect.

The eye that wasn’t swollen scowled at Fallon. He had one cardinal rule: Don’t seek answers to questions you were better off not knowing. Willful ignorance, I think they called it. I asked anyway because I was done with playing ignorant and letting others fight my battles.

“This happened to me, not you. Don’t I get a say in whatever happens next?”

“No.”

“Fallon, for fuck’s sake—”

“Elijah!”

A chaos of shouts and commotion erupted outside my hospital room, and then he was there.

“Jesus fucking Christ, baby,” Julien said when he saw me.

And for the second time in the last hour, I burst into tears.

CHAPTER 16

One second Julien was standing in the doorway, and the next, he was at my bedside, arms outstretched but too sacred to touch me. His hands hovered around my face, shaking violently, before he withdrew them and curled his fingers to white-knuckle the guardrail.

“Oh my god,” Ryder said just as Jayson pushed past him to get inside the room.

“Fucking hell, E. Jesus Christ.”

The nurse from before arrived next.

“I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over.”

“It’s okay, Nancy,” Fallon said and waved her off.

I’d have to ask him why all the staff, including the doctor, kept deferring to him like he was in charge.

Dad got up. “I need to make some calls, and Elijah needs to rest.”

“Understood,” Ryder replied.

Dad’s gaze pinged from him to Julien to Jayson.

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