“Here and now, brother,” King said sternly.
The words did what little else could have. It was a familiar motto that King and I had been forced to use on each other when times had become particularly rough. There had been so many opportunities for the two of us to go down that path… the one Ricky and Clara had chosen. We could've numbed our emotions with drugs. We could've used alcohol to forget all the hands that had reached for our bodies when we’d been kids, whether in anger or something more sinister. But whenever one of us had felt that desperation to stray, the other had said that simple line.
Focus on the here and now.
I swallowed hard and shook out my hands because the muscles in my arms felt tight, probably because I’d fisted my fingers at some point and hadn't released them. I shifted my gaze back to the room and saw Micah slowly lift his uninjured arm toward Christopher. Something in his expression seemed to break something loose inside of Christopher because just like that, the boy’s shoulders sagged, and he stumbled forward until he practically fell into his uncle’s embrace. I saw Micah flinching in pain as Christopher’s skinny arms went around him, but Micah did nothing but squeeze the boy as hard as he could with one arm while he continued to hold on to Rory with the other. The sight of the broken little family that had deserved so much better had me looking at my brother. “I need to make some phone calls. You’ll keep an eye on them?”
King merely nodded.
I shot Micah one last look and was surprised when my eyes connected with his. Both kids were now hugging him, their faces buried against his chest. But his eyes were on me, and I couldn’t make sense of the myriad of emotions that I saw in them.
I didn't want to make sense of them.
Here and now, Con. Here and now.
I drew in a deep breath and focused on just that. The fact was that my efforts to help Brady’s family after I'd hurt the man had done nothing but cause harm instead.
Well, that changed now.
I didn't care how much more Micah hated me when all of this was done, but I wasn't going anywhere.
As I turned away from the room, I pulled my phone from my pocket and sought out a quiet spot in the hospital to start making the calls that I needed to make sure that Micah and the two little kids in his charge would never know the kind of fear they'd been living in ever again.
Despite the late hour, it ended up only taking about half an hour to make the preliminary calls that I needed to make. I sent my brother a text to let him know I was heading back to the room. He responded almost instantly, telling me he’d taken the kids to the hospital cafeteria to get some ice cream. I figured he’d likely done it for Micah's benefit. No doubt, all the emotional and physical strain had gotten to Micah, and he was getting some much-needed rest. I hated knowing I was about to blow his world off its axis all over again, but all it took was the image of Ricky holding Micah against that wall as he snapped the younger man’s arm to have me tightening my jaw and striding forward. As much as I wanted to play peacemaker, Micah and I were beyond that. I understood that now. So I had to play hardball. I had to be the asshole. It wasn’t a role I enjoyed playing, but that didn't mean I wasn't any good at it.
As I rounded the nurse’s station, I came to a halt when I recognized a guy being rolled past me in a wheelchair. I had the benefit of a corner wall blocking me from Ricky’s view for the moment, so I was able to take in his swollen, black-and-blue face. Even if I hadn’t recognized him, his raspy voice as he yelled at the young woman pushing his wheelchair about needing his pain meds was all too familiar. I could see that girl was nearly in tears as she endured Ricky's verbal abuse. Although I knew I should leave it alone, all the hate and anger I’d been directing at myself had me stepping in front of the wheelchair just as it began to pass the hallway I was standing in.
“Watch the fuck where you’re—” Ricky began to say as he lifted his head to berate me. I enjoyed watching his puffy eyes go wide as his voice instantly cut off. I hadn't given much thought to the possibility of Ricky ending up in the same hospital as Micah but the sight of Ricky’s reaction to me confirmed what I’d already suspected.