“Leo…” She trailed off, but I knew what she was about to say. You can’t.
I couldn’t. My entire body screamed at me, threatening to panic. My heart beat so fast I wondered if I could give myself an anxiety-induced heart attack. My vision blurred at the edges, my fingers and toes went numb, and my chest burned.
“Hannah, I’m coming.”
“Okay,” she breathed.
I ended the call, feeling like my skin was on fire again, melting off my body. Setting my hands on my desk, I leaned forward and closed my eyes. Took a few deep breaths.
This was my fault. But I was going to fix it. Even if it killed me.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I was out the door. My body was so full of adrenaline, I ran down the path to my mom’s house and burst through the door.
My family was all seated at the big farmhouse table, in the middle of dinner. Mom, Cooper, Amelia, Zoe, and Roland holding baby Hudson. Brynn and Chase. Everyone looked up at me as I rushed in, leaving the front door wide open behind me.
“I need someone’s car keys.”
No one moved for a beat, silence hanging in the air.
“Car keys,” I said. “Please.”
“Why do you—” Mom started to ask, but Cooper stood. His keys jingled as he fished them out of his pocket and threw them to me.
I caught them with a clink.
“What’s the emergency, bro?” Cooper asked.
“My friend Hannah’s boyfriend put her in the hospital. I’m going to Seattle to get her.”
Instantly, Chase and Roland stood, their chairs scraping against the hardwood floor. Cooper was already halfway to me when Roland handed Hudson over to Zoe. A second later, all three of them were heading for the front door.
“I’ll drive,” Roland said. “My car fits more people. Let’s go.”
My mom gaped at me from her spot at the table. I couldn’t stop to explain any further. If I did, I’d freeze. I’d panic. I had to keep moving, or I’d never be able to do this.
Failing her wasn’t an option. Not again.
Zoe said something, and maybe I heard Brynn and Amelia. I wasn’t sure. The next thing I knew, I was in the passenger seat of Roland and Zoe’s Toyota Highlander. Chase was complaining about being stuck in the third-row seat—Hudson’s carseat was in the middle—and Cooper was teasing Roland about driving a daddy-wagon.
It barely registered, just noise in the background. Roland backed his car up, then drove to the winery entrance. To the line I hadn’t crossed in almost five years.
My blood felt like it was boiling, searing me from the inside. I took a deep breath, remembering Hannah’s voice. How small and scared she’d sounded. That wasn’t my Gigz, badass warrior. This was real life, and my friend was in trouble. She needed me. I’d failed her once. I wasn’t going to fail her again.
“Go,” I said.
Roland didn’t hesitate. He pulled out onto the street.
And just like that, I was no longer safe.
As much as I wanted to keep calm on the outside—not show what a fucking mess I was as we drove toward the highway—it was impossible. I clutched my hands into tight fists and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I was breathing too hard, my heart beating too fast. A voice in my head shrieked in panic, demanding I turn around. Go back. Get to safety. Take cover.
Get down.
Take cover.
The street lights blurred as we drove. I blinked against their glare, forcing my breath to slow. Combat breathing. In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. Hold for four.
In.
Hold.
Out.
Hold.
In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. Hold for four.
I didn’t let my brain do anything but count. Breathe. Count to four. Hold. Count to four. Breathe. Count again.
Gradually, my heart rate slowed and I unclenched my fists. Cooper handed me a bottle of water and I took a few drinks, wetting my dry throat. Roland glanced at me from the corner of his eye but didn’t ask if I was okay. None of them did. Which was good. I wasn’t okay, and we all knew it. I was holding myself together by the thinnest of threads and talking about it was the last thing I needed right now.
As the miles went by and we came down the west side of the mountains, my relative calm held. I still felt like I was liable to fall apart at any second. But more and more, a sense of resolve settled over me.
Hannah. Her voice on the phone. Her fear and pain were like a beacon in the chaos. She was an anchor for the swirling madness that threatened to consume me.
By the time we reached the city, I was a man with a singular purpose. Nothing existed in the world except for Hannah Tate. Reaching her was the only thing that mattered. I was in a tunnel of midnight black and she was the light at the end of it.
I’d get to her and keep her safe. Keep us both safe.
“Leo.” Roland’s voice startled me. “We’re here.”
I blinked, realizing we were in a parking lot, a bright red emergency room sign casting a ruddy glow over the wet pavement. Rain beat down in a steady rhythm outside, pattering against the windshield.
“Right,” I said. “Let’s go.”
The short walk to the entrance left us all drenched from the downpour. I didn’t pay attention to the droplets running down my hair and glistening in my beard. That didn’t matter.
The woman at the front desk looked up and opened her mouth—probably to ask if we had an emergency—but I didn’t wait for her to speak.
“I’m here for Hannah Tate. My name’s Leo Miles.”
“Hmm,” she said as she clicked her mouse and looked at her computer screen.
It took an enormous amount of willpower to keep my body still. My brothers stood behind me, a solid wall of support. Now that I was here, I was no longer on the edge of panic because I’d left home. My only thought was Hannah. I had to make sure she was okay.
“She’s expecting me to pick her up,” I said. “I got here as fast as I could.”
The woman eyed me and my brothers. “I’ll be right back.”
I twitched, ready to bark at her, but felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Easy, Leo,” Roland said, his voice quiet. “They just want to keep her safe, same as you.”
Roland’s steady presence behind me kept me from shouting all the obscenities going through my head. She was here, so close. I had to see her.
An automatic door opened and a nurse in blue scrubs stepped out. She glanced at my brothers before her eyes settled on me. “Leo? I can take you back.”
She led us to a small curtained-off room. “She’s in here.”
Roland, Cooper, and Chase stayed back while I stepped around the curtain.
My heart cracked wide open at the sight of her. She sat up in bed, a beige hospital blanket spread out over her lap. One eye was blackened, and her bottom lip was split and swollen. Her arm was held tight to her body in a sling and she had a bandage on her forehead.
A tear trailed down her cheek, and when she spoke, her voice cracked. “Leo?”
“Yes.” I rushed to her bedside. “I’m here.”
Thirteen
Hannah
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Leo, standing next to the hospital bed. He’d really come. And it felt like suddenly, the nightmare was over.
“You’re here.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rough. “God, Hannah, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
A flash of anger crossed his features, so fast I almost missed it. “Where is he?”
“Jail.”
He nodded once, his eyes like cold steel.
“He came home while I was packing,” I said, my voice starting to shake. “Obviously he lost it. Did all this. Neighbors called the cops again. They stopped him. Ambulance brought me here, and then I had to talk to the police, and—”
“Shh.” He touched a finger gently to my lips. “You don’t have to talk about i
t yet.”
“Thank you.”
Leo’s brother, Cooper, poked his head around the curtain. “Hey, how’s it going in here?” His eyes landed on me, and his expression fell. “Oh shit.”
“What?” another voice said behind him. Next thing I knew, there were three other men standing inside the tiny room.
“My brothers came too,” Leo said with an apologetic shrug. “You met Cooper, and that’s Roland and Chase.”
Grinning, Cooper stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked up onto his tip-toes, then down again. “It’s how we roll, sister.”
“When you’re ready, we’ll take you to get your stuff out of your apartment,” Roland said. He was tall with dark hair and neatly-trimmed stubble. The family resemblance between the Miles men was clear.
“Dickmonkey’s in jail, right?” Cooper asked.
“Dickmonkey?” I asked.
“The guy who, you know.” Cooper pointed at my face.
“Oh, yeah. For now, at least.”
“That kinda sucks, actually,” Chase said.
“Why does it suck?” Cooper asked. “That’s a very weird thing to say, Chase. I think we can all agree that Dickmonkey belongs in jail.”
“Yeah, but if he was out, we could get a piece of him.”
Cooper grinned at Chase, but it wasn’t humor in his expression. Roland’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms. There was danger in these men’s eyes. But it was the fire in Leo’s expression that sent a shiver up my spine. He was violence. Pent-up and controlled, but violence nonetheless.
Jace would never know how lucky he was to be in jail tonight.
“Can I have your address?” Roland asked. “That way we can get as much of your stuff as we can fit in my car. I don’t have room for furniture or anything, but you can at least pack some things.”
“Thank you.” I gave him my address and he plugged it into his phone.
“Of course,” he said. His eyes flicked to Leo, then back to me.
In fact, all three of them kept looking at Leo like he was a bomb about to go off.
Then again, maybe he was.
I didn’t have the head-space to reconcile the fact that Leo hadn’t left his family’s winery in years, and now he was standing here, in an emergency room two hours away. The side of my head hurt from my hairline down to my jaw. My arm wasn’t broken, but I had deep contusions from where Jace had hit me. My lip was split so badly I could barely speak, and my eye was almost swollen shut. I was a disaster wrapped in bandages, and I couldn’t stop staring at this man who’d done the impossible for me.
Why had he come?
When I’d called him, I hadn’t thought he would. But he’d been expecting me back at the winery tonight, and I’d wanted him to know where I was. And that it would probably be another day or two before I made it out there. I’d figured I’d need an Uber to get back to my apartment when they finally discharged me.
And yet, here he was.
The nurse came around the corner, holding a stack of paperwork. “I have your discharge instructions.”
Cooper reached out to take the stack, but Leo nudged him out of the way. “I’ll hang onto those for her.”
“She needs to be careful of that head injury,” the nurse said. “She doesn’t have a concussion, but if she starts experiencing dizziness, vision problems, or nausea and vomiting, bring her back. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Leo said.
“All right, sweetie.” The nurse stepped closer and lowered her voice. “These are your friends?”
“Yes,” I said. “I called him. Well, them, I guess.”
She nodded. “Okay, I just have to be sure. You’re free to go.”
“Thank you.”
She squeezed my hand and gave me a sympathetic smile before she turned and left. I simultaneously wanted to hug her and crawl under the covers in shame. How had I become this? A domestic violence victim sitting in a hospital bed.
I needed to get out of here.
“I’m ready to go.” I pulled off the blanket and shifted my legs to the side of the bed.
“Whoa.”
I wasn’t sure which one of them had said it—or maybe all of them had. Leo stepped forward and took my hand to help me down. The others stepped closer, as if they were all about to pick me up and set me on the ground.
“I’m okay,” I said. “My legs still work.”
Leo didn’t let go, nor did the intensity of his gaze leave my face. I slid down off the bed, my good hand clutching his. It didn’t escape my notice that he didn’t use the hand on his scarred side.
“Do you need to grab anything?” Chase asked.
I didn’t have anything else with me. I wasn’t even wearing shoes. I’d taken them off while I packed, and the paramedics hadn’t grabbed any for me.
“I don’t have shoes.”
“Don’t worry,” Cooper said. “We’ve got ya, sister.”
“I’ll pull the car up to the entrance,” Roland said.
“Let’s just get her out of here,” Leo said.
Roland led the way out to the front lobby. I tried to ignore the stares of the people in the waiting area, but I knew I looked a mess. I wondered what people thought of the battered woman walking out of the ER surrounded by four men.
Because surround me they did. Leo stuck by my side, close enough that our arms touched. Cooper walked on my right, while Roland took the front and Chase brought up the rear. I wasn’t sure what they thought I needed to be shielded from here—Jace was in jail at least overnight—but I appreciated the feeling of security nonetheless.
Roland went outside to get the car while the rest of us waited. The blast of cold air through the automatic doors made me shiver. I was wearing a thin t-shirt and jeans, a pair of blue hospital socks on my feet.
“Sorry,” Leo said. “I didn’t grab a coat before I left, or I’d give you mine.”
“That’s okay. I’ll be fine once we’re in the car.”
“Do you want my shirt?” Cooper asked. He wasn’t wearing a coat either—none of them were—but he pulled up on the bottom of his shirt, like he was about to strip it off right here.
“Cooper,” Leo said. “Keep your clothes on.”
He paused with his shirt halfway to his chest. “Why? She’s cold.”
I held my hand up. “You don’t have to give me your shirt.”
“I don’t mind,” he said.
“Coop, we all know how much you love to get naked, but maybe tone it down a notch,” Chase said.
Cooper sighed, dropping the hem of his shirt. “Fine. I was just trying to help.”
Chase patted him on the back. “It was a nice gesture, though.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Sorry,” Leo said low in my ear. “They’re… I don’t know.”
A car pulled up just outside.
“That’s our ride,” Cooper said. “Last call for the shirt. I won’t blame you if you think I look awesome without a shirt on, but I’m totally in a committed relationship, so I’m perfectly harmless.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Let’s just go,” Leo said.
The entrance was covered by a large overhang, so the ground was dry. But the cold pavement bit at my skin, even through the socks. I tip-toed to the car so less of my feet would touch and Leo hurried in front of me to open the passenger-side door.
I eased into the seat, and the next thing I knew, we were headed to my apartment.
Correction: Jace’s apartment. I didn’t live there anymore.
We parked in a guest spot in front of the apartment building. I knew Jace wasn’t up there, but I tasted bile on the back of my tongue.
Leo came around and opened the door for me. “Come on. Let’s just get this over with.”
I met his eyes and found strength there. I could do this. “Okay.”
Leo kept his hand on my arm as we walked up the stairs. The men checked around corners, as if we
were about to be jumped by bad guys, and Leo insisted on going into the apartment first.
I took hesitant steps inside. Evidence of our altercation was everywhere. My clothes were strewn around the apartment; Jace had grabbed the things I was packing and thrown them. He’d left a dent in the drywall near the bedroom door and tipped over the coffee table. The mess from where Jace had thrown my lunch was still on the wall, the broken plate in pieces on the floor.
Chase went into the kitchen and grabbed garbage bags from under the sink, then handed them out to the others. They started walking through the apartment and bagging things up.
Cooper opened a closet and pulled out a large plastic bin with a lid. “This yours?”
“No, that’s his stuff.”
Without a word, Cooper opened the bin and dumped the contents on the floor. “We can put stuff in here, guys.”
I took a deep breath to pull myself together and went into my office to finish packing what I needed. Cooper and Chase found more boxes and bins to empty so I could use them. While I went through drawers and closets, they asked about items, packing what was mine and dropping the rest like it was hot.
After getting everything I needed from my office, I went into the bedroom. Leo took a bag of clothes and he and Chase left with a load for the car.
Cooper came in and cast a glance over his shoulder. “Hey, sister. I gotta make this quick, which isn’t really my style, and I know we haven’t been BFFs for very long, but I need you to do me a solid tonight.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“If Leo tries to get you to stay in the guest cottage, tell him you don’t want to be alone. Stay at his place.”
“Why?”
He looked over his shoulder again, then leaned closer, lowering his voice. “I don’t know if you know this, and I probably shouldn’t be the one to tell you, but it’s really fucking relevant right now, so I will. This is the first time Leo’s been off our family’s land in almost five years.”
The gravity of that was only just starting to sink in. “Yeah, he told me.”
Cooper’s shoulders relaxed and he smiled. “That makes it so much easier and now I’m not an asshole for spilling his secret. Not that it’s exactly a secret, but you know how it is with a big thing in your life. You want to be the one to tell the people who are important to you. Feel me? And this is a really big thing in Leo’s life and I’m worried he’s going to lose his shit sometime in the very near future. Can I have your phone?”
Hidden Miles (The Miles Family Book 4) Page 9