I turn to face him quickly, frowning at the way he looks before he shakes his head and picks it up.
“Yeah?” There’s several seconds before his jaw locks. “I told you it’s not your place, Mom.” My eyes stay on the road, but my ears are straining to hear what she says to him. Whatever it is has his entire body tensing and anger vibrating off him. “No… Mom… Fuck! Don’t do that.” His hand slaps off the dash. “No, you’ll make it worse.”
I pull into the hospital lot, finding a space close to his car before he says, “I’m at my car, I’ll be there in twenty.” There’s some talking over the line that I still can’t make out. “I know, Mom.” His body seems to deflate. “I tried to help… I did.” His head bobs as I turn the engine off and wait. “She said she didn’t need help… what am I meant—fuck!” He pushes out of the car and I go scrambling after him. “Keep her there, don’t let her leave until I get there.” He ends the call, his face full of anger, but when he turns back to face me his mask slips back into place.
“Luke?”
“Let me know how Lexi is,” he growls before spinning around and jogging over to his SUV. I stare at it for several seconds, watching him speed out of the lot.
My fingers itch over my jeans pocket, wanting to call Ty and tell him about the phone call with his mom and the way he reacted to whatever she was saying. I have no idea what they were talking about, but my spidey sense is kicking in and I’m just now realizing that there’s something going on with him.
Luke has always been a closed book, much the same as I am. But we all know tidbits of information about his past: about what he did for his mom when he was a teenager. Is something going on with her? Does he need our help? Should I—
“Evan?” The sound of Pop’s voice has my head whipping over to the entrance of the hospital where he stands.
Whatever is going on with Luke will have to wait, because right now all I want is to make sure Lexi is okay.
I jog over to him, not waiting for him before I head back toward the same waiting room we were sitting in last night.
“This way,” he says, placing a hand on my back to slow me down and tilting his head to the side.
I come to a stop outside a closed door, seeing a man in scrubs talking to someone on the bed. He says something and then places a tablet under his arm and spins around, walking toward the door and opening it.
He acknowledges us with a nod of his head before he walks past us.
“Go on,” Pop encourages, waving his hand to the room.
I take a deep breath, closing my eyes briefly before opening them back up and stepping inside.
My eyes find hers right away, the hazel orbs pulling me in like the vortex of a tornado. There’s nothing I can do to stop it. My feet move forward and as soon as I’m close enough, I lean down and press a soft kiss to her lips, leaning the palm of my hand on the side of her bed.
A giant lump makes its way up my throat, blocking out any speech that tries to come out as my other hand slowly works its way up to her cheek, holding it gently as I pull back.
“Lexi.”
She doesn’t answer, caught in my eyes and the tear that leaks from the corner at seeing her like this. Her face is a multi-color of bruises, dried blood caked around a cut above her brow.
My thumb slowly skims above it as my anger runs through me again.
“I’ll never let anyone touch you ever again.” I crouch down at the side of her bed, taking her hand in mine when she lifts it and wipes my tear away as I asses the rest of her body.
Her other arm is covered in plaster, I see bruises over every inch of skin that I can see and I only dread to think about the ones that are covered by the blanket around her.
“I didn’t do it,” she blurts out, her voice hoarse. My gaze springs back up to hers. “I promise, Evan. They weren’t mine.”
“I know, baby.” I smile up at her. “I know they weren’t. We’ve all been trying to figure out what’s happening. The whole team is on it. We’ll fix this, baby. I promise.”
A noise sounds from her throat, a half sob, half gurgle before she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She whispers something but I can’t make out what.
“What? I can’t—”
“I’m with child!” Her eyes widen. “I mean… I’m pregnant… I’m...” She shakes her head. “With child? Really? What am I? Living in the eighteenth century?” A smile kicks up her mouth as she looks past me. I stand up, my hand slowly slipping for hers as my breaths stutter in and out of me. “I blame all those new English period dramas they keep showing. Although, I don’t think I could wear the kind of—”
“Lex?” My voice is gruff, I don’t sound like me. Did she just say—
“Can you imagine all those corsets?”
What is she talking about?