by Lea Hart
“I quit gambling.”
“Forever.”
“That’s the idea. I’m seeing a therapist and going to five-step meetings and I haven’t played in over four months.”
“I wish you luck, Grayson. A habit like that will get you killed.”
“I figured that out.” He lifted his water and winked over the glass. “I think this is the most honest we’ve ever been with each other.”
“I think you’re right.” She opened her iPad and then pulled up her notes. “Are you ready to be briefed on the suit we’re considering bringing if our terms are not met?”
“Absolutely.”
“We’re going to name USADA in the suit, even though we believe the culpability lies with the doping manager.”
“I’d like to make an argument against that, but I know it won’t fly. The one good thing that is going to come out of this is that we are going to do stricter background checks on the people we put in the field. The program with the UFC is new and we still have some bugs to work out. As far as I could tell, they tried to build a staff quickly to meet the demands of the program. There are too many doping managers working part-time and I think that is a recipe for disaster.”
“I agree. Testing five hundred athletes five times a year is a massive program to logistically manage. There are only thirty-two WADA labs, so that puts a lot of pressure on whoever is administering the tests.”
Grayson opened the folder and skimmed through the brief that she had prepared. “I’ll look at this when I get back to the office, but I’m sure you and Nicole prepared an airtight case.”
“We did. We’re not after money. All we want is to make sure the system works. If we didn’t bring suit, then doping managers might get away with this in the future.”
“Understood.” The alarm on his phone buzzed and he checked it. “If we’re done, I need to head out. I’ve got to meet my parents in thirty minutes and I don’t want to be late.”
Bree started gathering her things and grinned. “Lillian will not be happy, and if you’re asking for money, then it’s probably best to be on time.”
“My mother always liked you.”
Bree put everything in her briefcase and then slipped on her coat. “That is a big fat lie and we both know it. She never thought I was good enough for you and always winced when I spoke. My southern accent made her ten kinds of crazy and she probably threw a party when you called off the wedding.”
“That might be a slight exaggeration,” he responded as he picked up his briefcase.
“I’m fairly certain that is not the case.” She waited while Grayson signed the bill and then they walked out together. “This went much better than I expected.”
“I have to agree. We’re certainly going to run across each other and it’s a relief to know that it won’t be uncomfortable.”
“I’m fine, but I think my brothers will always be pissed.”
“I expected that. What about that fighter you were seeing? Is that still happening?”
They walked through the lobby and out the front door and stood in front of the hotel. Bree pulled out her phone and looked at her screen saver. It was a picture from Valentine’s Day. They had taken one at the beach and they both looked incredibly happy. “I hope so because I think I…”
The sharp sound of tires squealing filled the small street and they both turned toward the noise. It was unusual because the traffic usually prohibited a car from picking up any real speed.
A black SUV barreled down the street and Bree noticed the passenger window start to roll down. The car slowed down momentarily as it approached the hotel and an assault rifle appeared through the open window. Bree recognized the gun because her brother had told her what he carried when he was deployed.
The sound of people screaming filled the air and bullets sprayed across the front of the hotel. As she spun around, Bree saw a shaft of sunlight break through the leaves of the tree that separated her from the car. That is the last thing she registered before she felt a hot sharp pain slice through her stomach.
She flew back, her briefcase slipped out of her hands, and she fell onto the sidewalk. Before her eyes closed, she saw Grayson lying next to her on the ground with a large red circle staining his perfect white shirt. As blackness clouded her vision, she said a prayer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Las Vegas
Tuesday, May 2nd
Matt stood next to Bruce on the tarmac of the Henderson Executive Airport in North Las Vegas. They were waiting for the UFC plane to get prepped for their flight. The last three hours had been the longest of Matt’s life, and until he held Bree’s hand and saw her beautiful blue eyes, his heart wasn’t going to take a regular beat. Right now, it was hammering away in his chest like he was about to walk into the cage and face his worst opponent.
Bruce had called him within minutes of receiving the news that Bree had been shot in front of The Ritz-Carlton. He was her emergency contact and had been the first one notified after she was brought into the emergency room.
The flurry of activity had been insane since then, as they both marshaled resources to make sure she was taken care of. He’d called Jeff immediately to see if anyone could get them out of Vegas and into San Francisco before Bree came out of surgery. Amazingly enough, the folks at UFC had made the private plane available for their flight home.
After Bruce had made calls and let his parents know what was going on, he called Kendra and made sure she got to the hospital to oversee Bree’s care. Matt checked his watch and hoped like hell they were going to get a call very soon letting them how surgery was going.
Shoving his hands deeper into his pockets, he tried to remember to breathe. The simple act had become gradually more difficult as each moment passed. His level of worry and anxiety was increasing and he didn’t expect it to diminish anytime soon. He glanced over at Bruce and figured he was about in as good of shape as he was.
Waiting and not being able to do anything was the hardest part. The one bright spot was that Kendra had assembled an army of people to look out for Bree until they could get there. Maggie, Kendra, and Jeff were at the hospital and Nicole was trying to gather information about what actually happened. Her brother was an SFPD detective and she’d been glued to him as the investigation had progressed.
A gunman spraying the front of the hotel on a Monday evening had everybody in the city on high alert. The fact that Grayson Porter had been shot had made the folks in the mayor’s office call in all the resources. The Porter family had a lot of money and influence and they were using it to ensure that whoever was responsible was brought to justice.
The crew from the plane signaled that they could board, so Matt and Bruce hustled across the tarmac and climbed the stairs. It was two in the morning and the pilot and crew looked bright-eyed, which Matt appreciated. Both he and Bruce said thank you as they boarded the plane.
The crew must’ve been briefed on the situation because he and Bruce both received arm pats and sympathetic smiles. It wasn’t anything he could process or react to because he was operating with a thin thread of control. His emotions were right at the surface and he knew the slightest trigger could pull his stability apart.
They were in the first few minutes of a three-round match and he didn’t want to blow his emotional load so early in the fight. The next hours and days were when he and the family were going to need their resolve and stamina.
Bruce and he both chose seats toward the back and stowed their bags. As the flight attendant prepared for takeoff, he buckled up and checked his phone one last time. Seeing his screen saver made his heart lurch against his chest. It was a picture from Valentine’s Day.
Two months ago, before Bree had asked for a break, they had the same picture on their phones. He wondered if she had changed hers or if they both still looked at the same picture every time they picked up their phones. He hoped she hadn’t and saw their happiness as often as he did. It was the thing that had kept him sane. It was the
thing that reminded him what he was fighting for.
“She’s going to come out of surgery and recover completely,” Matt stated quietly.
“Absolutely,” Bruce agreed. “No other option.”
“Absofuckinglutely,” Matt replied. Truth was, he hadn’t let the thought of her not surviving enter his mind for a second. That wasn’t something he could live through because a world without Bree had no place for him.
His fingers tapped over the keyboard on his phone and he typed the same message he’d sent her every day since they parted. I love you, baby, and I’ll never stop fighting. Only this time he added, Now it’s your turn to fight. I’m coming, honey, and I’ll be there before you know it. He powered off his phone and shoved it into his pocket. Then he rested his head against the seat, closed his eyes, and let all his best memories with Bree play across his mind like a movie.
They were at the beginning of their journey and they had a thousand more memories to make. No way was God not going to give them a chance at their happily-ever-after. No fucking way.
***
Bruce and Matt sat in the waiting room of San Francisco General Hospital along with Jeff, Maggie, and Kendra. They had just received an update that the surgery Bree had undergone was successful and the doctors were cautiously optimistic. The next twenty-four hours were the most critical because of the possibility of infection. When the intestines and the stomach were injured, there was a possibility they could rupture and spill their contents, thus increasing the risk of infection.
The doctors had informed them that she had bled profusely at the scene, which had caused some tenuous moments when they had first gone in to repair the damage. Her blood pressure had been dangerously low and they almost had to perform a resuscitative thoracotomy. Luckily, they pulled her out of heart failure before they had to crack her chest open for heart surgery.
They extracted the bullets and repaired the damage to her stomach and intestines after they had her stable. Unfortunately, she’d gotten hit on the right side, which caused the most damage and led to the most complications. Hearing all this information made Matt want to howl like an animal. But he didn’t because that wasn’t going to help Bree.
After they had received the update, Bruce walked away from the group to call his parents. They were waiting anxiously by the phone at the airport in Birmingham because they were on standby for a flight leaving at six.
Looking at the exhausted group, he gave them a small smile before stepping away. The threat of drowning under the flood of emotion he was experiencing made him realize he needed a couple of moments to get himself back together.
Walking out of the trauma unit, he followed the corridor to the end and stood before a large window. He stared into the dark sky and said a prayer of thanks. Thinking about the fact that she almost didn’t survive made his knees almost buckle. He locked his legs together, rested his head against the cool glass, and let the tears run down his face. He couldn’t remember the last time he cried and he figured he was way past due.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Lifting his head, he quickly wiped his eyes and slowly turned around. Kendra was standing in front of him with a large steaming cup of coffee. “Thanks,” he muttered.
“Hell of a night,” she responded as she lifted the top off her own cup. Tilting her head toward a set of chairs, she said, “Come and sit with me. I’m about to fall over.”
He let out a grunt and followed her to the chairs. They both sat quietly for a while, drank their coffee, and stared out the window. When he felt like he had control of his emotions, he looked over at Kendra and gave her a small smile. “That was too damn close.”
“You’re telling me.” She folded her legs underneath her and rolled her head in a circle. “Bree is more like a sister than a best friend. We met freshman year when we became roommates and we’ve been together ever since. I can’t imagine not talking to her every day.”
“I hate to ask a question like this, but I need to know…is Bree going to give us another chance or is she done with me?”
Leaning forward, Kendra patted his hand. “Normally, I wouldn’t respond to a question like that because it would mean breaking the sister code, but considering the extraordinary circumstances, I’ll make an exception.”
“And…” he almost shouted.
“She’s not done with you…not by a long shot.”
He set his coffee cup down and leaned back with his arms on his head and dragged in a couple of deep breaths. Dreams really did come true. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and saw Bruce walking toward them. “Everything okay?”
Bruce waved and grinned. “Yes, the doctor came out and said they were sending her into recovery, and hopefully we can go in and see her in a couple of hours. I sent Jeff and Maggie home and told them we would keep them updated.”
Matt collapsed into the chair and bent his head. “Okay, good news.”
Bruce sat next to Kendra, slung his arm around her shoulder, and kissed her head. “For the first time in hours, I feel like my head isn’t going to explode.”
Kendra rested her head on Bruce’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “I’m so relieved.”
Matt watched Bruce run his hand up and down Kendra’s arm and felt like he was intruding on a private moment. There was something happening between the two of them and he wanted to give them space. “I’m going to take a walk,” he said quietly to Bruce before he moved away.
He strode down the hall toward the elevators, and as he passed the nurse’s station he saw one of the women motion for him to stop. When he stepped over, she gave him a warm smile. “Any news on Bree Andrews?” he asked.
“Are you Matt Hall?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, we have you listed as her fiancé, so I can give you updates.” She looked down at her computer and nodded. “She’s stable and in recovery. It’s probably going to be several hours before they let you in. I just wanted to get your cell number for her file so we can contact you if we need to.”
He rattled off his number and tried not to act like an idiot. He was freaking ecstatic that they assumed he was her fiancé. Bruce must’ve told them or maybe Kendra. Whoever it was deserved a big thank you. It was going to make his ability to see her and be with her that much easier.
There was no way he was going anywhere until she went with him. They were going to be peanut butter and jelly…stuck together. “I’m going to get some fresh air and then I’ll be back.”
“All right. We will let you know if anything comes up,” the nurse responded.
Turning around, he strode toward the elevator and punched the button. As he waited, he thought about his and Bree’s first elevator ride and smiled to himself. He probably fell then and had been falling ever since. God’s grace had given him a chance to make sure he let her know how much he loved her. That was something he was going to be telling her every day from here on out. The last several hours had reminded him not to waste a second because you never knew how much time you had left.
***
Tuesday Evening
The Andrews family had just left, as had Kendra, Maggie, and Jeff. Matt sat next to Bree and held her hand. In a way, he’d been waiting for this moment all day. She was in the critical care unit, worse than a regular room but better than intensive care. Which everyone had said was a good sign. Twenty-four hours had passed since she’d been shot and she was breathing on her own. There had been no sign of infection and the doctor had told them they had passed the critical phase of her recovery. Granted, she was going to be in the hospital for at least a week, but there were more smiles among the nursing staff than worried expressions.
Running his hand over her face, he kissed her gently. She didn’t react and he didn’t expect her to because she was heavily medicated. The nurse had told him that she didn’t expect her to regain full consciousness until the morning. She had opened her eyes intermittently throughout the day, but that had been the extent of he
r communication with anyone in the room. He looked up at the machines that were monitoring her heart, her breathing, and just about every other pertinent fact about her body. One line on the monitor even measured the volume of blood in her body. The last thing anyone wanted was for internal bleeding to start. They’d had a bout of it hours after their surgery and had gone back in to repair a tear in her intestines.
“Rest, honey, and let your body heal,” he said quietly. “I’m going to sit right here until it’s time to take you home. Everyone was here today checking on you. You have a lot of love and prayers coming your way and I think they’re going to help. Nicole has been working on finding out what happened for the last twenty-four hours. She’s been relentless and isn’t giving anyone a break over at the Northern District. That’s the one overseeing the investigation, and lucky for us, that’s where her brother is stationed. Whoever did this is going to be brought to justice.”
He took her hand in his and then lifted it to his mouth. Pressing a kiss against her knuckles, he felt okay for the first time since walking out of her house. This horrible tragedy had made him more firm in his resolve to fight for what they had. Bree was going to recover and they were going to be together. No matter what. “You’re never going to be able to get rid of me, Bree. I love you too much to ever let you go again.” Resting his head against the side of the bed, he closed his eyes and hoped like hell she wasn’t going to give him a hard time about it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Thursday, May 4th
Bree sat up in her bed and wondered if she had landed in a florist shop. There were arrangements on every flat surface in the room. When Matt got done with his shower, she was going to ask him to distribute them to the elderly care unit. These were too many flowers for one person.
Looking out the window, she admired the picture-perfect day. The sky was bright blue and there were puffy clouds drifting along. Ever since she woke up yesterday, her heart had felt full. Matt’s smiling face greeted her when she had finally regained consciousness and he had covered her in kisses and I love you’s the moment her eyes flitted open. They had a couple of moments alone before he let the nurses know and then all hell broke loose. With her family, friends and coworkers, and the hospital staff, the room had not emptied out until eight. After that, Matt had stayed and they had some sweet moments before she passed out from exhaustion.