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Bree laughs from behind me, and I flick my eyes over to her in a glare. She shrugs her shoulders. “What? You’re not capable of staying still for twenty-four hours, much less causing the nurses no hassle. I mean, not unless they plan to drug you.”
“That can be arranged,” the nurse deadpans.
“We have a deal. Give me five minutes with my brother, please,” I say to the nurse, giving her my best innocent look as I flutter my eyelashes. Obviously, I’m not flirting, but if I can use my good looks to get what I want, of course, I’m going to take advantage.
“That won’t work on me, pretty boy. I will be back soon,” she says with a grumble, as she wheeled me over to the other side of Liam’s bed. Once she’s got the breaks on, she tells Bree to call her if I need anything, letting me know she doesn’t trust me to ask for help if I need it.
It takes all my energy not to swear at her as she walks away. I promised Teigan I’d be nice to all the hospital staff, no matter how much they annoy me, or the pain gets to me. It’s not even been a few hours and already that promise is testing my patience.
I look over at my brother and my heart races. I reach up and mute my beeping monitor, as it gets louder the longer I stare athim. Even though he’s my baby brother, I’ve never seen him this way. He’s always been the most grown up and sensible out of all of us.
When I was a teenager, dreaming of running away and starting a new life with Teigan, he was the one planning how to save all our siblings, to get them away from the life, so that they’d be safe.
He’s always been far more grown up than his years, but looking down at him now in the hospital bed, he looks so young. There’s a breathing tube coming out of his throat, and he’s covered in wires and tubing—even more than I was.
Although his skin looks pale, there’s also something so peaceful about the way he’s lying there. Without all the tubes and wires, he could just be sleeping.
“How's he doing?” I ask Bree, as I reach over and swipe the strands of black hair that are hanging low over his forehead.
He’d hate me doing it, as he likes them flopping over his head in that way, but it’s more for me to have something to do. Some way to connect with him.
My eyes are fixed on my brother, watching the rise and fall of his chest, so I can be sure he’s alive, as Bree replies.
“He’s doing okay. He’s still in the medically induced coma, so the machine is breathing for him. They’ve done some preliminary tests that suggest his brain is still functioning, so when the time comes, they hope he will be able to wake up, and not have any cognitive complications. But, at the moment, it’s a waiting game.
“When they’re sure he’s well enough—strong enough—to handle being woken up, then they will try. They will give him so long to start breathing on his own, and if he doesn’t, they will put him back into the coma for a short time before they try again.
“They’ll do this a few times, and hopefully, he will wake up. If he doesn’t, that’s when they will look into why. If I’m beinghonest, I stopped paying too much attention at that point, as I know he will wake up. If it were up to me, I’d bring him around now, as I’m fucking certain he’s strong enough, but the doctors want to wait, and so I agreed.”
I let out a sigh as I pick up Liam’s other hand, holding it in mine. I ignore how cold he feels, and focus instead on the fact we’re both still here enough to have this chance. “When will they try?”
“Probably first thing in the morning,” Bree mutters.
I turn to face Bree, and for the first time I see how exhausted she looks. I can only imagine how difficult it was sitting in the hospital room, waiting for news. I don’t envy any of them for that.
“I’m so sorry for the way things went down, Bree. If I could’ve protected him, I would have,” I say firmly, hating how thick my voice sounds from the emotions I’m trying to hold back.
She shakes her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Liam pushed me out of the way and took a couple of bullets that were meant for me. Something I hear you did for Teigan. I guess we just have to get used to the fact Doughty men are so possessive, they literally would take a bullet for their women.”
I chuckle, but the movement makes me cry out in pain as I clutch the wound on my stomach. Bree’s eyes narrow on me, and she looks concerned. I wave her off. “I’m fine, so don’t look as worried. We look after our women.”
“The women can look after themselves, asshole,” Bree mutters, and I have to bite my lip so I don’t laugh.
“I agree with that. I just wish I could have saved him too,” I whisper, but Bree just shrugs me off. She knows I don’t just mean in this fight. I abandoned him years ago, when I shouldn’t have. I should have been a better brother, not just to him but to them all.
“He will probably say the same about you when he wakes up. You men have a fucking hero complex, and you want to save everyone, but you can’t,” she replies.
“Actually, I only wanna save the people I love. I really don’t give a shit about anyone else. The hero stuff is all Liam. I’m definitely the villain of this family,” I add, and Bree laughs.
“How's Teigan? She was a mess while we were waiting for you to come out of surgery. We all were,” Bree tells me, though I already knew. I could see her pain written across her face from the moment I woke up.
“I know. I hate that she had to worry about me like that. I hate how much you have to worry about this asshole too,” I mutter, nodding at Liam.
Bree just shrugs. “It’s the life we live. I’d love nothing more than to be sure something like this won’t ever happen again, but that would be a foolish way to think. Our life is full of violence, and every so often, that will spill over onto us. I just have to hope, when it does, that we all make it out alive.
“It’s the responsibility I’m faced with every time I make a decision involving the lives of others. Those that don’t survive, their blood is on my hands, and I take that into consideration when I’m making the plans. I never go into a battle without first having looked at all the other alternatives.”
I’m not sure if she’s saying it for me, or because she needs to hear it herself. “I know you look at all possible alternatives, Bree. This isn’t on you. Just like it’s not on me or Liam for jumping in front of the bullets. The blame lies at the feet of the man who shot the gun, knowing he could kill people. He’s the one responsible for the carnage, nobody else. If The Sheriff weren’t already very dead, I’d take great pleasure in killing him slowly,” I reply, my anger over his easy death bubbling away under the surface.
