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Ten thousandth gut punch. She’d been in pain, so sick, and asking for me—and I wasn’t there. I’d been out trying to catch a hail-Mary pass and failing spectacularly.
“How is she?”
Dr. Reynard’s face clouded. “Not so good. She’s in the final stages of renal failure. Getting another UTI put stress on her renal system that it just couldn’t handle.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked sharply. Then I winced. “Shit, I’m sorry.” Then realized I’d just cussed again. “I’m sorry. So, does she finally get moved to the front of the list? Can she get a transplant?”
And then came The Look.
The same fucking look I’d seen on a hundred doctors’ faces—first when my mom was dying and then later when Reba was a teenager and we found out she had the same kidney disease Mama finally died of.
The Look that said, oh so sorry, the doctor felt bad, but there was Nothing They Could Do.
I started shaking my head. “No,” I said. I took the doctor’s forearm and steered us away from my sisters, to the corner of the room. “No. My sister deserves that kidney. She deserves to be at the front of the list. Tanya didn’t tell me much, but she told me Reba collapsed. She f— She freaking collapsed. My mom died of this. I cannot go tell those girls over there that they’re going to lose their sister, too. Don’t you dare make me go tell them that. You’re a doctor. Fix my sister!”
Dr. Reynard looked at me more compassionately than most doctors bothered with. And I got it, I really did. She was working a night shift in a regional hospital in Nowheresfuck, Georgia. Still, still. If she wouldn’t help me, who the fuck would?
“It’s still possible the antibiotics will kick in and she’ll recover from the UTI, and I’ll do everything I can to see if I can bump up her priority status on the list, but there are very strict guidelines and simply so many people in need, plus so few donors—”
I turned away from her, sick to death of the words I’d heard a thousand times before.
Just in time to see Sully running into the waiting room, his heavy footfalls echoing even as he came to a stop, looking around.
His eyes landed on me about three point two seconds after I’d seen him.
He’d come.
He’d left the Oleander and risked everything he’d stayed for, whatever the hell had kept him there enduring all that he hated, he’d left it all.
For me.
I fled across the room and flung myself into his arms.
22
Portia
They wouldn’t let me in to see Reba all night. All excruciating night long I had to wait to see my beautiful baby sister.
The only way I survived it was Sully.
Once he had me in his arms, he didn’t let go. He kept hold of me in some way, even if it was grasping my hand in his while I haltingly introduced him to Tanya and LeAnn. They were curious—Tanya looked outright suspicious of him in his fancy tux the Elders had given him—good Lord, had that only been earlier tonight when he’d tromped so confidently down those stairs naked by my side? It felt like a lifetime ago.
So yeah, Tanya all but glared at him all night as he stayed by my side. LeAnn looked at him like he was a knight in shining armor come to save us. She’d watched too much old school Disney growing up—completely all my fault.
I knew better. Sully couldn’t save Reba any more than I could.
But he’d done what he could—he’d come. He’d sacrificed whatever it was that being in The Order of the Silver Ghost had meant to him.
He was here.
For me.
I even managed the impossible. For about an hour, I fell asleep against his chest while we waited for the morning visiting hours.
And when I woke up, it was to stare up into the most incredible brown eyes. The morning sun was finally streaming through the window, and his eyes were glowing translucent with the light.
For once he didn’t look troubled. For once he didn’t look angry.
He was watching me intently, and he looked full of… some emotion I couldn’t name. I’d never seen it on his face before.
But as my eyes blinked him into focus, he lifted one of his big, brutal hands and caressed my face with the gentlest touch. So gentle it sent a shiver throughout my entire body.
“Why didn’t you tell me, beautiful?” he whispered, a deep, tender bass to his voice.
I answered as honestly as I could. “You never asked, not really. You just assumed.”
His eyes closed briefly, and his head dropped before he nodded. Then he pulled me close and kissed me on the forehead. So, so sweetly. I’d never felt his lush lips so soft before.
It felt wrong to feel so good in his arms when my sister, my sister—
