by Aliana James
“Okay, okay. Please calm down, Tyler,” Alec said as he held his good arm. Alec looked at Travis. “Press the button for the nurse.”
Travis reached over and pressed the button. He looked at Tyler’s leg and then at his arm. His arm was in a cast to his shoulder. That side of his body had taken the brunt of the beating. His eye, purple and yellow, made it hard to even look at him.
A nurse came breezing in the room. “Is he in more pain?” Travis nodded. “Okay.” She grabbed the IV pole.
“Not safe.” Tyler mumbled again.
The nurse looked at Travis. “He’s been saying that over and over today when he’s in pain. Your parents were here earlier and tried to calm him.”
Travis hadn’t spoken to his mom since yesterday. His father didn’t want to speak to Tyler, and it surprised Travis that both of them visited.
“The pain medicine should kick in soon.” The nurse patted Travis’s shoulder as she walked toward the doorway.
Out of nowhere, the monitors started beeping and the nurse turned. She glanced at the monitors and press the call button. A voice came over the speaker.
“I need some help in here!” she yelled.
A nurse and a doctor ran into the room and pushed Travis to the side.
“His blood pressure is too low.”
“It dropped after I pushed the additional dose of morphine that you ordered.”
“Give me a dose of ephedrine.”
They watched as a nurse sprinted out of the room and grabbed a bag and a syringe. She inserted the syringe in the IV and hung the bag. The doctor, stethoscope in hand, reattached the IV drip and then leaned in to listen to Tyler’s heart.
A hand landed on Travis’s shoulder. He had forgotten Alec was in the room.
“Tyler will be okay,” Alec said.
He blinked as tears welled in his eyes. Tyler had to be.
Travis
“I wish you’d let me help with all of this,” Alec said. He shook his head as he studied Tyler. The automatic drip of the pain medicine made it easier for Tyler to rest. Antibiotics hung from the IV pole and the beeps of machines chimed as the wires ran over and under the blankets.
“Are you in danger?” Alec blurted out. He sat up and stared at him.
“Sorry,” Alec said.
“I’m not sure,” he whispered.
Tyler chose that time to stir and shift in his bed. He grabbed at his IV and tried to get up out of bed before screaming in pain. Alec grabbed Tyler’s good leg and Travis grasped his hand. He looked at Travis and then Alec.
“What happened, Trav?” Tyler whispered and then clutched his chest as he coughed. He poured water into a glass and guided it to Tyler’s lips.
“Take your time.” Tyler took a sip and while most of the water ran over his chin, some entered his mouth. He spotted a straw and opened it, and Tyler looked at him in thanks.
“Who are you?” Tyler asked as Alec moved to the side of the bed.
“It’s Alec, Tyler,” he answered.
He shifted so Alec sat on the other side of the bed. “What happened, Tyler?”
Tyler’s eyes grew wide, and they darted around the room in a panic. “They’re gonna kill me. Sorry, Travis.” Tears started to fall and Tyler shook his head. He winced. “I should have listened to you,” Tyler mumbled.
“Are you gambling again?” Travis asked.
The machine that dispensed the pain medicine chirped. He looked up and then back at Tyler.
“Why, Tyler? Why did you go back?”
“I wanted to pay you back…!” Tyler cried out. “You work too hard. And I got fired so I couldn’t even give you any money.”
He tried to reconcile what Tyler said with what his mother told him. What had he been doing all this time?
Tyler rested back in the pillows, the lines on his face easing up as the pain medicine started working.
“How much do you owe?” Alec asked. Travis glanced up at him and then at Tyler. It looked like he had fallen asleep.
“Forty thousand,” Tyler answered, eyes closed.
Travis gasped in shock. Shaking his head, he walked over to the window, put his hands in his pockets while tears fell from his eyes. Tyler snored softly.
He signaled for them to leave the room. As they passed the nurse’s station, he told them they’d be back soon. Alec’s quiet footsteps echoed behind his and he didn’t say a word as they moved to the side of the hallway to let a custodian with a large cart pass.
They were back at the coffee shop. Only twenty-four hours earlier, he sat here with Alec and spilled everything. Now he wanted—what did he want? Tyler owed forty thousand dollars. In charge of his parent’s finances, he was aware of their limited funds. His funds were nonexistent. Alec’s offer danced around in his head.
This time, Alec grabbed two brownies to go with their coffee. They slid into their seats and Alec pushed the cup toward Travis.
“What are you going to do?” Alec asked.
Travis shifted in his seat and glared at Alec. God, he forgot how persistent Alec was when he wanted something. His brother lay upstairs in pain and broken, and all Alec thought of was himself.
“When are you going to let up?” Instead of taking a sip of coffee, Travis put his cup on the table. “I didn’t think you were this selfish.”
Alec’s eyes grew large, and he sat up straight. “Wait, what? What do you mean selfish?”
“You’re still hung up on your grandfather’s ultimatum and the insane offer you made last night, aren’t you?” Travis grabbed the brownie and tried to unwrap it. Frustrated, he threw it back on the table. “Tyler is upstairs, hurt and scared and God knows what else, and you’re obsessed with taking care of yourself.”
Alec reached out and picked up Travis’s brownie. He unwrapped it, grabbed a napkin and placed it in front of Travis. He waited until Travis picked it up before he spoke.
“First off, I didn’t mention the offer. You said several times you wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to ask if you had a plan, that’s all. And while you’re yelling at me, I might as well offer to pay the forty thousand. Consider it a loan. At least then no one else will injure Tyler.”
Travis leaned back and studied Alec. Coffee in hand, he looked so freaking calm. Alec was being Alec: he saw a problem, and he fixed it. That was him.
If he took a moment to understand it, his anger was for himself. He should have forced Tyler into gambling rehab a long time ago. Maybe it was his fault, for being so damned gullible. For believing Tyler when he said he wouldn’t gamble again.
“Sorry. I—”
Alec interrupted him. “No apology necessary. I get it. It was stupid and selfish to dump all of my issues on you. I thought it would help both of us.” He paused. “The whole Bennetts protect Bennetts thing that I’ve heard since birth, I guess.”
“Bennetts protect Bennetts?”
“Yeah, if you were a Bennett…” He shrugged. “We would protect you. Tyler. Family resources and all that.” Alec broke off a chunk of his brownie and popped it into his mouth.
Family resources. Huh. Bennett family resources rivaled those of a small country. Kane’s department alone must cost a fortune.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do but appreciate the offer of the forty-thousand-dollar loan. I need to talk with Tyler to figure this all out.”
Travis didn’t want to pay off anything until he was sure that Tyler knew this was the last time. Travis’s life was out of control. There were days he forgot where he needed to be or what day of the week it was.
Alec gathered up their garbage and stood. “Are we good?”
Travis stood and slapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah.” He couldn’t stay mad at him. Alec had stuck with Travis through everything in the last thirty-six hours. They walked to the elevators.
Once inside, Alec spoke. “I can talk to him, tell him I’m giving you a loan. See if he accepts?”
“Not sure, but I’m willing to try anything at this point.�
��
Alec
They arrived at the twelfth floor, got off the elevator, and started walking to Tyler’s room.
“That coffee went right through me,” Travis said as he gestured toward the restroom.
Alec nodded and continued to walk toward Tyler’s room. He was skeptical that Travis would accept his marriage suggestion, proposal, whatever it was… it was off the table. So he offered the forty-thousand-dollar loan. Now, he needed to figure out how to do more.
If they had a chance of catching whoever did this, Kane would find it. Travis had to get over his issue with him.
Alec’s offer to pay the forty thousand was a good start. There wasn’t any other quick way to come up with that chunk of cash. A custodian rolling a huge cart nearly crashed into him.
“You should watch where you’re going!” Alec yelled at the guy’s retreating form.
He needed to speak with a social worker about the best direction for Tyler’s care. Tyler’s level of pain was high, and the staff monitored him for infection.
A nurse ran past him followed by a doctor. Then, two seconds later, a page with some code blared through the speakers. Someone wasn’t doing well. The personnel scrambled to aid with the code.
“Excuse me!” someone yelled as they flew past him pushing a cart.
As he passed the nurse’s station, several were on the phones, worried looks painted on their faces. Tyler’s nurse, Julia, grabbed his arm as he rounded the corner.
“You’re Tyler Andrews’ family?” she asked, out of breath.
“Yes, what’s going on?”
Someone called her away, and he sprinted the remaining distance to Tyler’s room. There was blood everywhere, on the floor, on the hands of the nurses. Bile gathered in his throat. The machines beeped angrily as several people moved around Tyler.
“Crash cart!”
“Give me another round, straight in the IV!”
On top of Tyler, a male nurse performed CPR, frantically pumping his chest up and down while another nurse helped him to breathe.
“We have a pulse! Get him to surgery now!” the doctor shouted as he whipped off his stained lab coat and threw it to the floor. They turned Tyler’s bed, and Alec jumped out of the way as they whisked him down the hall.
Travis. Oh God.
“What happened?” Travis asked.
“It’s Tyler…”
Travis ran into the room.
“Stop!” he yelled.
Travis stared at the pool of blood on the floor before he looked up at Alec.
“We need to find out where they took him.”
“Is he dead?” Travis whispered, completely in a daze.
“No,” he answered. That nurse saved his life. He hoped they fixed whatever caused that much blood. He pulled Travis out of the room.
Security guards and police officers filled the space in front of the nurse’s station. What the hell happened? If it were a medical issue, there would be no reason for police. A nurse gestured toward Alec for them to follow her. “You are the family of Mr. Andrews?”
Travis opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Alec put his arm around his neck and looked at the nurse. “Yes, his brothers.”
“I’ll need you to follow me. Your brother has a gunshot wound and is in surgery. I can bring you to the waiting room and someone will come out and speak to you as soon as they can.”
Chapter Eight
Alec
Alec paced back and forth in the waiting room. Travis gave up trying to get any information on Tyler’s condition. He was in surgery and someone would update him as soon as they had information.
It had taken everything he had to calm Travis. While Travis sat, he paced. Too wired to sit, too wound up with questions and emotion and worry.
The narrow room housed a row of chairs along one wall that faced a television. Because of the late hour, the television was off and the waiting room empty except for the two of them. Open on one end, they had a view of the sign-in window across the hall and the double doors at the end of the hall.
Travis’ parents, Sarah and Henry, were on their way, coming from Brooklyn into Manhattan. They would have more questions than him, since his brain repeated the same one: how did this happen?
The doors at the end of the hallway opened and Kane walked into the hall. He’d sent him a quick text and Kane didn’t respond. It wasn’t a surprise to see him here now.
Kane shook his hand. Travis sat slumped over in a chair.
“How’s Tyler doing?”
He turned and studied Travis. “Not good. His parents are on their way.”
Kane took his arm and stirred him into the hallway.
“What the fuck happened?” Kane asked.
“I don’t know. They rushed him to surgery. The only information I have is that a person shot him. We went for coffee and were on our way up to check on him.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
Kane walked away, pulled out his phone, and barked orders. He shoved his phone back in his pocket.
“My guys will look into it,” he said. Alec didn’t doubt it. Kane was not one to stand by and let things happen around him.
“So… are you two—” Kane asked.
“No.” He cut him off and shook his head. “Not the time or the place.”
“Just wondering,” Kane answered as he patted him on the back. He sat next to Travis, who glanced at him, his eyes red and nose running. He shook his head at whatever Kane asked.
It killed him to watch Travis in so much pain. He wished he could fix this for him, wished Tyler was okay, wished for an update. Only one hour since surgery started.
He sat on the other side of Travis.
“This is all my fault…” Travis cried.
“I’m sure it’s not,” Kane said.
“You don’t understand. I should have kept better tabs on him. Do you know he lost his job over a month ago?” Travis said.
“How did you find out?” Alec asked.
“My mom told me on Saturday. She knew,” Travis replied.
He met Kane’s eyes over Travis’s head. Henry and Sarah didn’t help the situation. Their way of dealing with Tyler was to ignore he even existed.
Kane mumbled something in Travis’s ear and gestured for Alec to meet him in the hallway.
“I’ll be right back,” he told Travis.
He followed Kane around the corner. “I don’t want to walk too far in case he gets news.”
“I will see what I can find out,” Kane said.
“Now?” He asked. At almost nine o’clock, most of the day shift already left after being questioned by the police. They weren’t near Tyler when the attack happened so the police didn’t have many questions for them.
“Yeah, I’ll be in touch.” Kane turned and stalked through the doors.
Patience was not his strong suit. Alec glanced at his watch as he sat next to Travis. He figured there would be at least another hour before they got an update. The least he could do is keep him company. He had stopped crying.
“Hey, I saw a restroom around the corner if you want to duck in and wash your face,” he suggested.
Without a word, Travis got up and left the waiting room. He needed to do something for him, to find some way to make everything better.
Travis
His parents were en route to the hospital and dealing with them might be the final straw for Travis. He’d wait and let them decide what to tell Gracelyn. His brain stopped functioning long ago. He’d only slept eight hours in the last three days.
Someone had shot his brother. In the freaking hospital. Who does that? The mafia? What the fuck? He had sworn Tyler was dead when he saw the amount of blood on the floor. It made him sick to his stomach thinking about it. And the pain. Tyler, already in a severe pain from the assault, now had to deal with this.
He couldn’t think about Tyler dying in surgery. Life without his brother wasn’t possible. The phone call to his parents used up the remainder of
his brains cells. It had taken everything he had to convince them to come without explaining what happened.
Alec’s arms wrapped around him as he sat next to him in the waiting room. A warm cup pressed into his hand.
“Drink this.”
He pushed it away. “I can’t have any more coffee. My stomach can’t handle it.”
“Not coffee.” Alec pushed it back. “Hot chocolate.”
Travis wanted to speak to Alec, to lean into his warmth and ask him all the questions that had been running through his mind for the last day and a half. One was very important.
“Why are you still here?” he blurted out. Leaning forward with the cup of hot chocolate in his hands and his elbows on his knees, he glanced back and waited for Alec to answer him.
“Because I wanted to be.” Alec drank from his cup and got up to throw it out.
Before Travis could ask another question, his parents came through the doors. He noticed the worry on both their faces, his father’s limp more pronounced from the long walk.
“Dad, here. Sit,” he told his father as he handed Alec his cup and walked over to hug his mother.
His father waved him off. “What was so goddamn important that we needed to come all the way back tonight? We were here earlier, Travis. Spoke to the doctors who told us he would be fine.”
Tyler had used up all of his chances with their father.
Before Travis answered, his father turned to Alec. “Alec? How have you been, son?” He grabbed Alec and gave him a one-armed hug.
“Good, sir.”
His father frowned. “I told you to stop that sir thing a long time ago. How’s your grandfather doing?”
His father and Alec’s grandfather met one time, years ago at their college graduation. They ended up sitting next to each other during the ceremony and his mother told him much later they met in the hotel bar that evening for drinks. Now that he thought about it, Alec’s grandfather had asked about his father the last time he saw him.