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“Great first impression I’ll give to your mom,” I mumbled to myself.
“What?”
“By almost getting her son killed,” I said, eyes flooding again, and I didn’t even try to blink them away.
“Hey, no,” Lucky said, shaking his head. “Don’t think like that.”
“It’s the truth, though. If not for me—“
“Our brother would’ve likely been dead at the docks a while back,” Milo cut me off. “Don’t shoulder shit that’s not yours to carry. This was our problem even without you.”
That was only partially true, but it felt useless to argue with them. If not downright cruel. They were trying to comfort me when it was their brother on an operating table, fighting for his life.
So I just kept my mouth shut as we made our way to the hospital, letting my fingers toy with Judah’s curls as he fought, and ultimately lost, his battle with sleep.
He was still out cold as I pulled him out of his seat, pressed him to my shoulder, and followed Lucky and Milo as they speed-walked into the emergency room, where we were directed up to the surgery floor.
“Ma!” Lucky said, striding toward a woman who was wringing her hands in a seat with two younger women at her sides.
I recognized Sofia immediately. And her sister looked a lot like her.
All three of them had been crying, their faces splotchy and eyes red.
“No updates yet,” their mother said as she stood, letting herself be pulled into a big hug by her eldest son.
Milo made his way to his sisters, wrapping them up.
Whatever strength they’d found to stop their tears up until then evaporated in the strong arms of their son and brother, all three women crying hard.
I sank down in a chair as far from them as I could get, wanting to give them their privacy, not wanting to pester them with my own grief as another wave of tears started to flow.
I ducked my head and pressed my lips together, trying to keep my sobs in as not to wake up Judah, who was still dead weight against my chest and shoulder.
“Oh, honey,” a warm female voice said, making me look up to find Aurelio’s mom, Adrian, standing there, her eyes soft. “Oh, he’s going to be okay,” she said, squatting down to press her hands onto my knees.
“It’s my fault,” I said, sniffling hard enough to startle Judah. “I’m so sorry!”
“No, no, none of that,” she said.
Then she was reaching for Judah, lifting him from me, and pressing him to her own shoulder for a second, seeming to soak up that little bit of comfort, before passing him to Lucky, and coming to sit next to me, her hand grabbing both of mine.
“Listen, honey,” Adrian said, fingers rubbing my hand. “No one here, or in the whole family, is blaming you for this. Besides, from what I hear, you might be the very reason I am in a hospital, not a morgue right now.”
“How… who…” I said, sniffling, trying to pull it together.
“I told her,” another voice said, making me turn to see the guard, Damon, coming walking in, his shirt still stained with Aurelio’s blood, dried to a dark red. “Aurelio roused in the car for a bit,” he said, voice low in case anyone was listening, since our story was about a random crime that had nothing to do with me. “He said She saved me.”
“Warren was going to shoot him. Again,” I added, pulling one of my hands from Adrian’s, so I could wipe my cheeks, as the others came closer. “I just… I flew at him.”
“And made it so that fuc—guy,” Milo said, mindful of Judah on Lucky’s hip, “can’t ever be a problem again.”
Adrian’s hand squeezed mine again, a quiet little reassurance.
“How’d it go with the cops?” Lucky asked Damon, voice barely more than a whisper.
“They bought it, hook, line, all that jazz. Just gotta make sure we get to Aurelio before they do to fill him in. Any updates?”
Sofia glanced back at the digital board. “Still in surgery,” she said.
