“This one you have to,” he sighed and shoved the phone into my chest.
I glanced at the caller ID. “Bastian, I don’t care about the deal.”
“That hit was the FDA.”
The words registered slowly, nailed themselves into me like a torture device. The pain was real, the recognition of it excruciating, and the desire for revenge stronger than everything else.
“Be clear,” I commanded. As I stared at my brother, seeing his tight jaw, his tense neck, his eyes burning with the same rage that was in me, I knew. I knew what Bastian’s next words would be.
“The FDA’s guy, Young, put a hit on her so the commercial wouldn’t work. My guys are doing some digging. I’m not sure if they pulled this because of a grudge against my family or solely because of greed. We’re lucky she hesitated on that sidewalk.”
His words rocked me as I stood in that hospital room with the woman I loved, her family and friends buzzing about. I loved her and I had almost lost her to the stupidity of the business. Like a steel anchor hitting the bottom of the jet-black sea, the importance of my place within my city and business dropped to exactly where it needed to be. “Do what you have to do. I want Mr. Young to know who owns this city.”
“Is that you or me?” Bastian asked snidely.
“Partners, Sebastian. I’ll offer you that. That’s all.” I stared at Vick and knew I needed a partner if I was going to give her everything anyway. And I would give her everything.
“Done.” With that, he hung up.
After the call, doctors and nurses filed in and out.
Brey and Jax went to look for a few more chairs. Harvey tried to make small talk. My woman was a statistic to him. He couldn’t run a commercial if she wasn’t in good health. I wanted him gone but didn’t want to aggravate Vick’s already drained mother.
I kept my mouth shut.
I pulled a chair up to Vick and took her small hand in mine. I didn’t say a thing. I didn’t have to. With my hand in hers and my other rubbing up and down her arm, she had to know I was there. I was never one to make idle talk with her. I wouldn’t now.
I’d be her rock when she needed me most.
36
Vick
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
This time the sound wasn’t a memory. And it wasn’t just the thumping I’d started to hear, not the real, raw sound of my blood pumping through my heart on its own.
Mechanical.
High.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
I was back. Somehow, I was back in the hospital. The place I absolutely hated.
The pace of it quickened, and I tried my best to breathe in and breathe out, to slow my racing heart. I heard my mother talking. I heard Harvey.
I needed to be okay.
Okay with whatever the doctors were going to say was wrong with me. Okay that I wasn’t as healthy as I wanted to be. Okay that I was a girl in her twenties contemplating the fact that death might be closer for her than for an eighty-year-old.