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“Graham Wallace. Navy. Serial number⁠—”

“Graham, you're not in the Navy anymore. You're in Tennessee. Vanderbilt Hospital. You've been in a car accident.”

Right. Car accident. Brake lines cut.

Joy.

“My girlfriend. Need to call her. She's waiting for me.”

“We'll take care of that. Right now, we need to focus on getting you stable.”

A needle slipped into my arm.

“Wait,” I slurred. “Need to talk.”

“Graham, we need you to stay still while we work on you.”

“Where’s Joy? I need to see…”

Whatever they gave me made the pain recede to a manageable level, but it also made thinking harder. The world took on a dreamy, disconnected quality.

Someone was calling my name. Not the doctors. A different voice.

“Graham! Jesus Christ, what happened?”

Wes. Wes was here.

“Brake,” I mumbled through the haze of pain medication. “Cut.”

“Cut? Are you saying your brake lines were cut?”

“Where’s Joy?”

“She’s fine. Are you sure your brake line was cut?”

I couldn't form the words. The medication was pulling me under, and fighting it felt like swimming against a riptide.

“Joy,” I managed to whisper.

Then the darkness claimed me.

Chapter 30

I burst through the automatic doors of Vanderbilt Hospital like a woman possessed, my feet barely touching the polished floor as I sprinted toward the information desk. Z and Jax's voices echoed behind me, calling my name, but I couldn't slow down. Not when Graham was somewhere in this sterile maze of corridors, hurt because of me.

Wes stood near the reception desk, his face grim. The moment he spotted me, he stepped into my path with his hands raised.

“Joy, you need to slow down.”

“Where is he?” The words tore from my throat. “Where's Graham?”

“He's still being examined. The doctors are working on him right now.”

“I want to see him. Right now.” I tried to push past Wes, but he gently caught my arm.

“You can't. Not yet. They need space to work.”

“I don't care what they need.” I wrenched free and marched to the reception desk where a middle-aged woman with kind eyes looked up at me. “I need to know where Graham Wallace is. He was brought in from a car accident.”