Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations)

by Tymber Dalton

  He hoped.

  Tilly emerged from the bathroom five minutes later, dressed in jeans, flats and a blouse, and her hair neatly pulled back into a braid. “Much better,” she said as she sat down on Landry’s far side. “Sorry. I literally bolted out of the house when Jesse called me.”

  Tilly leaned forward, reaching across the gap and resting her hand on Eva’s knee. “We are going to be here for all four of you. As long as it takes, whatever it takes. We have more friends on the way.” She paused and looked at Landry, who nodded. Then she returned her attention to Eva. “We’re going to get all four of you through this, I promise.”

  He noticed how Tilly kept saying four. A little subtle psychological warfare.

  Damn, he loved her. “I thought you were going back to LA tomorrow,” he said.

  “Nope. I already called Leigh and told her I can’t. The gang sends their love.” She returned her attention to Eva. “Whatever Leo needs, whatever any of the four of you need, we’ll all make sure it’s taken care of.”

  “What happened?” Jesse finally asked Eva. “When did it happen?”

  “Not long after he left my house. FHP said that a guy was texting and blew through a red light.” She gave the details as she knew them. “I was actually trying to call Leo when the FHP officer answered his phone. Laurel forgot her pink sneakers at your place, and I was going to ask if one of you could bring them by tomorrow. It came up on Leo’s caller ID as an ICE number and…”

  She looked down, shredding the tissue in her hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner. I was frantic, trying to find out what was going on and where they were taking him, and afraid to miss any calls. I didn’t have your number stored in my phone yet and I forgot it at the house.”

  “What happened to the other guy?” Tilly asked. “The one who hit him?”

  Eva glanced at Laurel, then back to Tilly, and grimly shook her head.

  They didn’t need any clarification.

  June and Scrye were actually the next arrivals, Laurel reaching for Aunt June and sobbing in her arms. Ed and Hope were through the door before Jesse could even introduce June and Scrye. Then Ross and Loren appeared, and others—everyone, it seemed. The entire core Suncoast Society group, or most of them.

  Eva looked shell-shocked and turned to Jesse. By now, Laurel had also taken turns hugging Tilly, Ross, Scrye, Ed, Gilo, Abbey, and Tony. And even more of their friends had arrived.

  “Who are all these people?” Eva whispered to Jesse.

  He glanced around, trying to focus on breathing, on keeping an eye on Laurel and her emotional state. “They’re family, Eva. Every last one of them. And they’re damn good people.”

  “But…the cookouts you guys have gone to with her? The people she talks about? These people?”

  Jesse nodded. “Yep. This isn’t even all of them.” He turned to her. “Laurel told you they were our friends. They’re here because of us. For that man in there.” He couldn’t help the way his eyes teared up and he didn’t even try. “Please,” he whispered. “Don’t keep me from him.”

  Eva started to say something when a female doctor came out to get her. With Laurel being cared for by her “aunts and uncles,” Tilly caught Jesse’s arm with one hand, and Eva’s with the other, and led the way as if she’d been officially appointed in charge.

  Well, she had, by herself, and Jesse was damned fine with that unanimous decision.

  The doctor spoke in low tones. “He’s going to remain intubated and sedated until we know for sure how he’s doing.”

  Tilly took over, asking questions and getting medical jargon answers that Jesse had no idea what they were talking about. He felt some tiny measure of relief that Eva looked as lost as he felt.

  They were led to an alcove with a sliding glass door, the curtains pulled. Jesse reached out and slipped an arm around Eva’s waist.

  He didn’t even mind that Eva held onto him.

  He wanted to drop to his knees and sob. Tubes, everywhere. Leo’s handsome face bruised, swollen. IVs, monitor leads—Jesse was afraid to even touch him.

  A nurse stood by a rolling cart with a computer on it and was inputting notes. After a quick conversation with her, Tilly stood behind them, her arms around their shoulders, her head between theirs.

  “Okay,” Tilly whispered. “I’m going to be honest, this is very touchy. He bled out during surgery to the point they lost his blood pressure and pulse and had to revive him, pump several units of blood and fluids into him, but they got him back. It’s too soon to know if there was any brain damage. He’s going to be in the hospital for…a while, at the very least. We’re looking at a couple of weeks, easy.”

  Eva choked back a sob. “Is he going to…” She didn’t finish.

  Tilly understood. “I can’t tell you if he’s going to make it, because they can’t tell me if he is. Best-case scenario, he heals up fine, no complications, and then he goes home. There can be bleeding, infections—but don’t focus on that. Focus on what is. He’s alive, now.”

  They spent a few minutes there with him before returning to the waiting room. “Laurel can’t see him like this,” Eva whispered as they walked.

  “I think she should,” Jesse said. “She’s going to want to see him and demand to see him until we let her.”

  “He’s right,” Tilly said. “She’s old enough to understand he’s injured. Right now, it’s worse for her not seeing him. She can’t put abstract concepts like this together at her age. She’s going to need to see him, at least for a minute. If something happens, she needs the chance to at least tell him she loves him, just in case.”

  Eva hugged herself. “I can’t… I just can’t. I can’t do it.”

  “I can,” Jesse said. “Let me bring her back. Please? Me and Tilly.”

  Eva looked like she wanted to argue, then slumped against the wall. “Okay,” she softly said.

  Tilly ushered them back out to the waiting room. Laurel had made it into Cris’ lap, where he was showing her something on his phone.

  “Can I go see Daddy now?” she immediately asked.

  Tilly knelt in front of Cris. “Uncle Jesse and I will take you back,” she said. “There can only be so many at a time in there. It’s a very small room and there are other very sick people around who need it to be quiet for them to get better. Just like Daddy needs it quiet.”

  “Okay.” Laurel reached for Jesse. He didn’t miss how it seemed like she had almost regressed a little in age, the way she was acting.

  Then again, wasn’t he, too? Leaning on Tilly like this?

  If he wanted to be a stepdad, he needed to step up.

  Holding Laurel, he carried her back, Tilly keeping an arm around his waist for support.

  “Now, honey,” Tilly said, “Daddy is sleeping. He’s going to need to sleep a whole lot because he had surgery. They’re giving him medicine to keep him asleep. That’s to keep him from feeling any pain, and so he can get better. He has some bruises from the accident, and there are wires and stuff that run to machines that tell the nurses and doctors how he’s doing. So don’t be scared. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  They stopped outside the curtained doorway. Tilly made Jesse look her in the eye. “You okay?”

  “No, but I don’t have a choice.”

  She palmed his cheek. “I’ll give him a good report when he feels better, I promise.”

  He managed a half-assed smile.

  “Aunt Tilly,” Laurel said, “are you really a nurse?”

  “I am, sweetie. I have the degree and everything.”

  “I thought you worked for that movie guy.”

  “I do now, but I was a nurse before.”

  “How’d you go from being a nurse to working in movies?”

  Jesse couldn’t hold back his snort.

  Tilly shot him a glare, but smiled at Laurel. “It’s a really long story, sweetheart. I was a nurse, then I met Landry and married him, and Nick was friends with friends of mine, and then I went to wor
k for them.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Tilly seemed to have the magic touch when it came to satisfying Laurel’s questions the first time around.

  Jesse sighed. I swear, one day, I will get the hang of talking to this child.

  Tilly led the way inside. Laurel clung tightly to him as he shifted her on his hip for a better grip. If nothing else, he would get a hell of an upper body workout from carrying her around.

  And he’d carry her as long as she’d let him and wanted him to and he was physically able to.

  Laurel rested her head on Jesse’s shoulder. “Can I talk to him?” Laurel whispered, apparently taking Tilly’s warning about being quiet to heart.

  “Of course you can, sweetheart,” Tilly said. “Just whisper.” They stood on Leo’s right. Tilly slipped her hand under Leo’s and gently lifted it enough so Laurel could stroke the back of it.

  “Daddy, I love you,” Laurel softly said. “Please sleep good and get better quick.” She patted his hand.

  Jesse also reached in and touched his hand. “I love you, too, Leo,” he said, fighting back the urge to call him Sir. “You’re going to be fine. I promise, I’ll take good care of Laurel and Eva. Tilly’s helping us.”

  He knew he didn’t imagine Tilly sniffling and blinking back tears. “You get better, you hear me?” Tilly said. “That’s an order.”

  Jesse struggled not to laugh, knowing if he did it’d turn into tears and he couldn’t cry.

  Not now. Not like this, and not in front of Laurel. Not yet. He needed a good, hard, cleansing snot-sob of a cry, and that had to be either alone or with Tilly.

  Not here. Not in front of Laurel.

  To Laurel, he was her stepdad, and he needed to be strong for her.

  Because he knew that was what Leo would want.

  And, no matter what, he would do what his Sir wanted, because he was always Sir’s good boy.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Tilly was leading them back to the waiting room when they ran into Cris on his way into the unit.

  “Come now,” was all he said to Tilly before turning and heading back.

  Tilly ran, passing him, heading for the waiting room.

  “What’s wrong?” Laurel asked Jesse.

  “I don’t know, sweetheart.” He couldn’t run with Laurel on his hip. He also knew whatever crisis it was, Tilly could handle it far better than he could at that moment.

  When they reached the waiting room, there was an older couple there who Jesse didn’t recognize. From their position in front of where Eva sat, he suspected her parents.

  And they were in the process of arguing with Ed, Landry, and now Tilly, while Eva sat there looking stony-faced and hollow. Actually, Eva looked terrified, come to think of it.

  Fuck.

  Jesse stopped just inside the waiting room entrance, knowing he might need to turn around and take Laurel back out again. But the older woman saw him and headed over to them with a grim look on her face and her arms outstretched.

  “You. Give her to me. Right now.”

  Like hell he would.

  Laurel clung to him as he turned his left side away from the woman, where Laurel was resting against his hip, her arms clinging around his neck.

  “No, Gramma. I want Uncle Jesse.”

  “He is not your uncle! You come here to me right this instant.”

  “No! Leave me alone I want Uncle Jesse!” Laurel screamed, silencing the entire waiting room as well as nearly blowing out Jesse’s left ear drum.

  He didn’t care. He would gladly go deaf in that ear—both ears—if it meant taking care of Laurel.

  He stared her down. “Lady,” he softly said, “if you try to take this child from me, you and I will have us one. And it won’t be pretty.”

  “I am her grandmother, you fa—”

  “Whoa! No! Hey!” A chorus of protest from nearly everyone—including Eva, he was glad to see, who finally stood—silenced the old bat and drowned her out.

  The man shoved past Tilly and Eva and headed toward Jesse. “Laurel Ann Cooke, you come here right this instant.”

  Jesse was ready this time, able to press his ear against Laurel’s shoulder before she started screaming. “Don’t you touch me! No! No! No! I want Uncle Jesse!”

  Laurel actually kicked out at the man as he tried to take her from Jesse, her foot hitting the man in the chest and nearly catching Jesse in the nuts on her backswing, but he wouldn’t let go of her.

  They’d have to pry her from his arms, even if he passed out from lack of oxygen first from the choke hold she now had on him.

  “Mom! Dad!” Eva finally yelled, getting their attention. “Leave her alone! She needs to be with Jesse.”

  They turned on her. Her father stormed over to her. “You listen to me, young lady.” He glanced around, seemed to actually see the ocean of angry, unfriendly faces staring at him, and returned his focus to his daughter. “Now, you and Laurel are going to come with us. Leo is your husband, and you have the right to order all these people out of here. You can get the divorce finalized and they can take care of him and you can come home with us, where you obviously belong. Put an end to this nonsense for good.”

  Ed stepped forward. “It doesn’t work like that, sir. As Leo’s attorney, I can attest to the fact that Eva is still Leo’s wife only because the final judgment hasn’t been issued yet. Leo is the one who filed for a divorce from her, and he’s already changed his will and filed paperwork giving a durable power of attorney, including medical issues, to his domestic partner, Jesse Morrow.” Ed pointed to Jesse.

  “So technically, no, your daughter has no power here. I can get an emergency hearing with a judge and obtain a court order validating that, if you want, but it’s going to cost your daughter a lot of money to get her attorney out of bed and in front of the judge to defend it. Or do you want to keep being an ass in front of your granddaughter and instead act like a reasonable person?”

  Someone must have called security, because two uniformed guards showed up in the waiting room.

  Tilly, Landry, Ross, and Ed herded Eva and her parents, followed by the security guards, toward a consultation room just off the main waiting room. When Jesse started to follow, Tilly turned and stayed him with an outstretched palm.

  “Stay here,” she mouthed, pointing at the chairs.

  The door closed behind them. Inside, Jesse heard raised voices immediately start again. Eva’s father, if he had to guess.

  June walked over. “Don’t worry,” she said, looking grim. “We’ll get this handled.

  Laurel looked at her. “Aunt June, please don’t let them take me from Uncle Jesse. I need him. He’s my other daddy.” She laid her head on his shoulder, his heart breaking at her tone of voice.

  June stroked the girl’s hair. “We’ll do our best, sweetheart.”

  Jesse kissed Laurel’s forehead. “I’m here for you, kiddo. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Uncle Jesse.” She pressed her face against his neck and tightened her grip on him.

  A thought struck him. “I need to call Leo’s guys at work,” he told June. “They’re going to need to know about this. And I need to call my boss. Holy cra—ud,” he said, remembering to censor himself.

  He walked over and sat down next to the bag of Leo’s things, angling himself so he could shift Laurel into his lap and sort of shield her body with his should her grandparents come out and make another run at her. There was Leo’s phone, right on top of the stuff in the bag.

  “Could you hand me that, please?” he asked June, pointing.

  “Sure.” She fished it out and handed it to him.

  He unlocked it and thumbed through the contacts list. He found Carl’s number first and called him. Carl assured Jesse he’d call the others and they’d shuffle things around to keep the shop running for Leo.

  “Can I come down and see him tonight?” Carl asked.

  Jesse glanced around. By his best guess, out of the thirty or so people currently in the waiting room,
at least twenty of them were there for him and Leo. “Yeah,” he said. “That’d be fine.”

  “Eva’s asshole parents there?”

  He was glad Laurel couldn’t hear the man. “Yeah. Ed’s talking to them and Eva now.”

  “I’ll be right down. Gimme about thirty minutes to change and get over there.” One of the security guards emerged from the consultation room, closed the door, and headed into the medical unit.

  “Thanks.”

  Jesse hung up and tucked Leo’s phone into the back pocket of his jeans. He’d have to call Leo’s parents, too, at some point. That would be awkward, considering he’d never even met them.

  He also needed to contact his job, and that was something that would require less brain cells or nerves, so he chickened out and tackled that first. He called his boss and let him know he wouldn’t be in tomorrow, and maybe not for several days, and why. Fortunately, the man was understanding and sympathetic.

  The guard emerged from the medical unit with the female doctor in tow. The voices in the conference room went silent when they opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door after them. Moments later, the voices rose in volume again.

  Then Ross stepped outside, the voices’ volume briefly flaring until the door closed behind him. He was on his phone and headed to the far end of the waiting room.

  Loren got up and followed him, leaning in close for a moment before hurrying back to the others. “He’s on the phone with Pat Donnelly.”

  Tony pumped his fist. “Yes.”

  “Who?” Jesse asked.

  Tony had settled into a seat directly across from Jesse. The man wore a pleased smile. “He’s a close personal friend of…ours.” He used his right index finger to circle the room, indicating their group.

  Meaning the Suncoast Society.

  “But who is he?”

  Tony smiled and put a finger to his lips, nodding toward Laurel.

  Whoever the man was, Tony didn’t want to say a lot in front of Laurel, obviously.

  Ross ended his call and headed back into the conference room.

  “Shouldn’t I be in there?” Jesse asked, reluctant to let go of Laurel.