Reading my expression correctly, Marcus ground his teeth together before he told me something that fucked me up even more.
“We found records of three calls made to a cell phone here, starting almost three months ago. Remy’s still trying to crack his email account without one of those annoying emails being sent to him telling him a new device has logged into the account, but we got the calls no problem.” I knew the email notifications he meant. They were handy when it was your account, but in this situation, not so much.
“Couldn’t he delete the email before Riley had a chance to read it?”
“That’s doable, but some people get notifications like that immediately on the screen of their phones or computers. If we delete it, he’ll realize that someone’s hacked it anyway.”
Fuck, but he was right.
“Have you traced who the number belongs to?”
“A woman called Shonelle Bell.”
It was a seventeen-hour drive from where I’d been staying to Sadie’s apartment, but I did it with only three bathroom breaks along the way when I’d stopped to refuel. To give him credit, Marcus had kept up with me and had just pulled into the spot beside me in the parking lot for her building.
Jumping out, I sprinted to her front door and knocked on it as hard as I could, not knowing if she was in or at work. If it was the latter, I’d just get back in the truck and drive to Rebels. There’s no way I was leaving it any longer to see her and check for myself that she was okay.
I was about to do just that when the door was pulled open, and I was face-to-face with a very angry MeeMee.
“’Bout time you got your ass back here,” she whisper hissed at me, sticking her leg out to stop Dobby trying to squeeze through a gap his butt would never fit through. “You here to upset my grandbaby even more?”
“Never.” I tried to convey how serious I was through that one word to her. I wouldn’t ever upset her again, not if I could help it.
“Oy, MeeMee,” a deep male voice with a British accent said behind her. “Can you make meatloaf for dinner? The one with the eggs in it and no ketchup on top. I had it at a diner the other day, and I swear they almost ruined it for me for life. Then I thought, MeeMee makes it properly, she’ll fix you right—” the voice stopped talking at the same time a tall guy with dark hair appeared behind me, his expression changing instantly into a scowl. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Uh oh,” Marcus whispered behind me, getting the guy’s attention on him.
He turned to look behind him, then back at Marcus, before doing it all again. “How’s that possible?”
“My grandson’s not bright, which makes me worry about the fact he’s around buttons that can make missiles go flying into the sky,” MeeMee chuckled, then turned around to face who I now knew was Sadie’s brother, Craig. “They’re twins. Obviously, identical ones, unless you look close enough.”
Then, she opened the door wider and motioned with her hand for us to come in, pushing Craig back a bit as she did it. Of course I wanted to get to Sadie, but I also didn’t want to be rude to her brother.
“Craig, I’m Elijah,” I told him, holding my hand out for him to shake. “This is Marcus, Jackson’s twin.”
“Cray-guh,” he said, shaking my hand slowly.
“Sorry?”
“British people pronounce it Cray-guh, not Creg like they do here. It’s the same reason that the James Bond actor’s called Daniel Cray-guh and not Daniel Creg,” he explained, looking sheepish about it.
Looking at Marcus to see if he’d known this nugget of random information, I was relieved when he shook his head to say he hadn’t.
“Sorry, man. I get people mispronouncing my name all the time, too, so I get how irritating it can be. I’ll make a mental note of that.”
I wasn’t being pedantic or sarcastic either, I hated it when people said my name wrong, so if that’s the way his was pronounced, I’d make sure I’d say it.
“Sadie used to get people called her Sah-day all the time, too. It happens, and it isn’t the end of the world, but still,” he shrugged, shaking Marcus’s hand. “Nice to meet you. Wait, aren’t you the guy—” he glared at me.
“I’m the asshole, yes.”
Taking a step back, he pointed toward the couch where I could see Jackson sitting, watching all of it. He wasn’t wearing his trademark grin, though. He looked pissed and worried.
“She’s over there.”
Moving over to where Craig was pointing, I expected to see her curled up in a ball, but instead, Sadie was lying out and had what looked like a flannel over her eyes, with her head on Jackson’s lap.
Some people might get pissed at their brother and misread the scene, but I knew both of them well, so anything hinky never crossed my mind. What it did do, though, was worry me.
Keeping my voice low, I scanned over the rest of her, seeing how pale she looked. “Is she okay?”
“She’s been puking for two days. We think it’s a stomach bug, so she’s been getting rehydration shit, but every time we think she’s past it, it starts all over again.”
Kneeling down beside her, I carefully picked her wrist up and took her pulse. It was slightly fast but not enough to ring alarm bells, but her skin looked even paler against the color of my fingers.
Looking up at MeeMee, I whispered, “What do we do?”
“Parker came to see her and told us what we should give her, so Jackson ran out and picked it up from the pharmacy along with Gatorade. We’ve been getting a couple of spoonful’s of chicken soup with those little stars in it into her, and she’s tolerating crackers, but that’s about it.”
Leaning over my shoulder, Marcus put his hand on her arm and made a noise. “Can someone get her a blanket? She feels cold.”
Chewing on his lower lip, Jackson shook his head. “Every time she gets hot, she feels sick. That’s why she’s got the damp towel over her eyes and forehead. We were hoping that if we kept her cool, she’d get some sleep without getting up to puke every five minutes.”
Copying what Marcus had done, I frowned at how cold she was. There was cool, and then there was cold. “She’s freezing, man. Get the blanket and keep the damp towel on her head to see if it evens each other out. You don’t want her getting too cold. How’s she doing with the fluids?”
Craig made a choking noise from behind his grandmother, getting a glare from her. “She was having problems drinking, so MeeMee here went and picked up some syringes from the shop. She’s been syringing Gatorade and whatever that weird shit is into her, a drop at a time.”
This news alarmed me even more.
“And Parker knows this?”
“Yeah, he’s been coming by to check on her a lot,” Jackson reassured me. “Miss Dahl declined a visit to the hospital, so he’s making house calls.”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
“I don’t get it?” Craig mumbled as he moved to open it. “There’s a doorbell right there, and none of you lot use it.”
I winced at how right he was. The doorbell was there for security as well, and I was the turd who’d forgotten to press it even though I’d noticed it when I’d knocked on the door. In my defense, I was slightly distracted by getting to Sadie, but still.
“Yo,” Parker greeted as he came through the door, stopping when he saw me. “And welcome back. Glad to see you’ve gotten your head out of your ass.”
I would’ve said something back, but I was worried by the fact that neither mine nor Parker’s arrivals had woken Sadie up. She didn’t tend to go into a deep sleep, so this wasn’t typical behavior—which I pointed out to him.
Frowning, he joined me looking down at her. “She really needs to go in and get an IV, and some tests run, Elijah. The dehydration was making the pain in the wound on her shin sore again last night, to the point she was crying with it when I came round, but she just won’t go in.”
Dehydration didn’t make wounds suddenly sore, but the dehydrated muscle and tendon that was
still healing would hurt more. All of it together made me more certain she needed to go to the hospital for treatment like Parker said. Looking at MeeMee to make sure I was doing the right thing, I was relieved when she nodded.
“Craig, you keep the front door open. Marcus, go and start my truck up,” I instructed, tossing my keys to him. “MeeMee, can you make sure Dobby’s all set up in case she’s away overnight, please? And, Jackson, once that’s all done, could you bring MeeMee to the hospital?”
Everyone jumped into action at the same time as I bent over and picked up my little pixie. Her eyes fluttered open as I put her in my truck and secured the belt around her, but she just scowled at me and fell back to sleep.
With Parker behind me and our brothers behind him, I made my way to the hospital, hoping that it wasn’t anything serious. I’d had stomach bugs and food poisoning before, and they made you feel like shit, but with her being as small as she was, I didn’t want to risk anything by leaving her any longer.
It only took us twenty minutes to get to the hospital Parker worked at, and then it seemed like everyone burst into frantic activity around us. Within ten minutes of our arrival, her paperwork had been filled out, she was in a bed and had been hooked up to machines, and they were putting an IV in one arm while blood was being taken from the other.
On his way past me, I grabbed Parker’s arm. “You make sure she’s okay, man. Nothing happens to her.”
Thumping me on the back a couple of times, he promised, “She’ll be fine. We get sick quickly, but we come back just as quickly. Once we get the results of this and the urine they’re going to take from her in a minute, we’ll know what we need to do to get Sadie back to fighting.” Just as I thought he was finished and was going to leave, he added, “I mean, I couldn’t deprive her of tearing your balls off and feeding them to the ugly cat, could I?”
I couldn’t even argue that I didn’t deserve it. I might not have known the full extent of what was going on, but I deserved anything she chose to dish out to me for leaving the way I did, regardless of my reasons.
Just then, Craig stood up and walked quickly toward the door. “Hell no, if you’re doing that, I’m heading out until it’s safe to come back in.”
Looking over at the bed, I saw a nurse with a tube in her hand, fiddling around under the sheet they’d placed over Sadie. Apparently they were taking the urine sample that way. Knowing she wouldn’t want me to see it, I turned my back to face the wall and started going through all of the ways that I was going to apologize and earn her back.
First on the list was begging on my knees. I figured if I went for something most men would normally put at the end, she’d see I had no shame and that I was being genuine.
So I had a plan of what I was going to do, I just didn’t know when I was going to be able to do it.
Chapter Eleven
Sadie
There was an irritating sensation on my face as a voice said loudly, “If you don’t wake up, Dee, I’ll play Baby Shark on repeat. Did you know there’s an extended version on YouTube?”
Then, a hand grabbed mine, lifted it, and my finger was pushed up my nostril. “Uh oh, you got bogeys on your finger. Better clean it off.”
I was fighting to wake up to stop what I knew was coming, but my eyelids felt like concrete was weighing them down, so I was too late.
The finger that’d just been inserted up my nose was pushed between my lips and past my teeth. “Ew, you dirty girl! Your new name’s going to be booger queen.”
My stomach turned, and it felt like every muscle clamped down at the same time, but I didn’t throw up. That was a good and bad thing because I now had snot in my mouth along with a god awful taste that I’d have been grateful to get rid of in any way possible.
Finally winning, I opened my eyes and glared at the arsehole that had tormented me since he shot out into the world. Instead of greeting my brother after not seeing him for a year, I croaked, “Wanker!”
“Ah, there she is. I’m hurt, you know. You were meant to fall at my feet with tears and joy when I surprised you with my amazing appearance, but instead, you threw up and went to sleep with your head in a random man’s crotch. What the hell’s that all about?”
Squinting to get him into focus, I tried to remember what he was talking about, but my head hurt, my mouth was so dry it felt like my tongue was sticking to my teeth, I ached all over, and it was colder than a witches tit in the room I was in.
Come to think of it, where was I?
“Stop upsetting her, Craig,” my grandma sighed as she moved to stand beside him. “Would you like a sip of water to get the booger out of your mouth?”
Just thinking about it made me feel nauseous, so I nodded at her, too afraid to even open my mouth in case I threw up again. This stomach bug sucked balls. I’d had Norovirus a couple of times and food poisoning, too, thanks to the tosser standing beside me, but this one was the worst of them all.
Leaning in, MeeMee held the end of the straw to help me catch it between my lips, and then I had cold, fresh water. Holy shit, this was like crack.
There was a slight tug of war as she pulled the straw back out of my mouth, but it gave me a chance to ask, “What kind of water is this?”
“The wet kind,” Craig snickered, making MeeMee snort.
“It’s from the machine outside, but I think it’s just normal water.”
“Why does it taste so good?”
“More than likely because you’re dehydrated,” a voice said from the doorway, and I saw Parker standing in it, looking slightly worried. “Glad to see that you’re awake, Sadie.”
That’s when it all clicked. I could blame my dehydrated brain—which felt like it’d shriveled to the size of a pea anyway—for it taking me as long as it had to put the pieces together. I was in the hospital.
Holding my hand in the air, I watched the tube attached to the thing inside it lift up. “What happened?”
“You weren’t doing so good with Gatorade and Pedialyte, so we brought you in. I’ve just had the results of your tests back, though, so I’d like a moment to discuss them with you,” he explained, then looked at my brother and MeeMee. “Alone, if that’s okay?”
“They’re fine to stay. I’ll tell them anything you found, anyway.”
Wincing slightly, he nodded. “If you’re definitely sure?”
What the hell kind of question was that? “Why wouldn’t I be sure?”
Craig crossed his arms in front of him and glared at Parker. “We’re staying.”
Sighing, he closed the door behind him and walked over to the side of the bed that didn’t have anyone standing at it. “Okay, so, well, all of the tests came back fine, so it’s nothing deadly. But it appears like you have something called Hyperemesis Gravidarium, and it’s made you so sick that you’ve become very dehydrated. There were high levels of ketones in your urine—”
“Like in the keto diet?” Craig asked, looking at me in confusion. “You don’t need to bloody lose weight. Why would you be doing that?”
Blinking at the question, I looked back at Parker. “But I’m not doing the keto thing. I need carbs to fuel me, and if you tried to take away anything sweet and cakey from me, you’d be taking your life into your own hands.”
Holding his hands out in front of him, Parker shook his head rapidly at the glare coming from my brother. “No, it’s the pregnancy that’s doing it.”
It felt like hell had frozen over, and now I was floating above my body in another realm. In fact, I was so far away from my body that the sound of an angry, “What the fuck?” didn’t even register.
However, what did register was the noise made by flesh hitting flesh as Craig launched himself at the man who’d disappeared without a word two months ago.
“You knocked my sister up?” he roared, resorting to pushing Elijah when he blocked his punches.
Shaking myself out of it, I grabbed Parker’s hand and got his attention. “I’m not pregnant. I can’t be pregnant. I’d
know, wouldn’t I? Women feel these things, and I don’t feel anything.”
A crash from the corner stopped him replying because he had to move to break the two men up as MeeMee stood watching it all with amusement.
“Cut it out, shitheads. See those two nurses out there?” Parker pointed through the small window in the door at something. “She has a phone in her hand to call security. Now, you either stop it and support Sadie, or you fuck off.”
“Amen, brotha,” MeeMee snickered, holding her fist in the air.
Her words worked better than Parker’s because both men stopped and looked at her in amusement and shock. It was enough to remind Elijah about the news that’d just been dropped in my lap, like Dobby with a furball.
Pushing Craig away from him, he stalked over to the side of the bed that Parker had been standing at. Leaning over me, he pushed the hair out of my face and scanned over me intently, stopping on my belly.
Fuck, I had something in my stomach. A little thing that was going to grow, kick, then come out screaming and shitting everywhere. What if it was like the movie Alien, and it just burst out?
For the moment, I couldn’t even think about what’d happened with Elijah and how he’d been missing. I needed answers about what was going on with me.
“Parker,” I called, but it stung my throat, so I looked at MeeMee, who immediately reached for the glass of water and handed it to me. After a few mouthfuls, she took it away and gave me a look that said not to argue.
This time when I spoke to him, my chin had started to tremble, and I was this close to bawling my heart out. “I don’t understand. Isn’t throwing up like this bad for it? Why did it happen? How pregnant is pregnant? What if it’s not okay?”
Leaning on the end of the bed, he looked sympathetically at me. I appreciated him hugely at that moment because he was meant to be an ER doctor, and here he was, taking the time to help me out.
Great Sass: Providence Family Ties Series Page 13