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Instead of answering, I took a turn going way too fast and squealed to a stop in front of the emergency room entrance. I left the car running as I jumped out and ripped open the door for Boone.
He passed her body to me and I felt just how limp she was in my arms. My heart sank as crippling fear nearly kept me standing frozen. It was only Wells shoving me towards the door that got me moving. I ran into the emergency room and saw Boone already speaking with a couple of nurses. The waiting room was full of people, but the nurses spotted Memphis and came running over.
Everything moved so fast after that. Wells and I had to wait while Boone used his ins with the different doctors and nurses to stay in the back with Memphis. Sitting in the waiting room with a ton of people shot my already frayed nerves so Wells and I waited outside.
“Car’s gone.” Wells rubbed his hand down his face and looked at the blood smears without saying anything.
I didn’t respond. My head was being split in two by a headache unlike any I’d ever experienced before. Worry and fear for Memphis and the confusion and anger from finding her brother in our house, touching our mother’s things, twisted me up until I couldn’t figure out what I should do.
“She didn’t deny any of it. Right? Did I miss it? Maybe I just didn’t hear her deny it.” Wells rubbed at his knuckles and looked over at me, feeling like my younger brother more than ever.
A deep ache radiated out from my chest. “She didn’t deny anything.”
“I don’t understand.” He looked out at the night around us. “Which part is fake? The kid she’s carrying isn’t fake. The sex isn’t fake. Her feelings…her feelings can’t be fake. I mean, she cares about us. Nothing anyone can say will make me believe otherwise.”
I squatted against the brick wall behind me and let my head rest against it. “I don’t know.”
“Her brother…that kid isn’t okay. None of this is okay.” Pushing away from the wall, Wells pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. “I know a few people from a long time ago who became rehab success stories. I’m going to find out the places they went and start looking into it. The second you see Boone, just shout and I’ll be back.”
I lifted my hand and watched him walk away. My younger brothers were taking control and I was crumbling against a dirty sidewalk in downtown Chicago.
When my phone rang, I fumbled it out of my pocket and cracked the screen before managing to answer it. “What?”
“Charlie Brennan has been charged and arrested. A cop buddy of mine will keep me updated about any changes when he goes before a judge.” Jake swore. “And I’ve got one high as a kite kid brother who thinks he killed his sister and won’t stop hitting himself. Tell me she’s okay.”
I swallowed around a lump in my throat. “I don’t know. Boone’s in the back with her. Wells is calling around to find a rehab for Jackson. It won’t take long once he picks one.”
“That shit stain Charlie has a rap sheet as long as my dick. He’s mostly a petty criminal, but he’s bad news.” Jake sighed, and I knew he had more information that he was hesitating to share. “Her other brother, the one not locked in a bathroom right now, he’s doing time at a prison in Georgia for theft. He’s been in for a few years and has another several to go. I saw she’s only called one number the entire time she’s been here. She calls her brother weekly. Every week at the same time, down to the minute almost. She had something set up at the prison before she left to come here. She paid to have a certain amount of money put on his books each week. It’s not much, but it’s more than most guys ever get.”
“Why are you telling me this, Jake?”
“Because I think you need to hear her out before you make any decisions. I listened to that asshole for far too long before the cops took him away and he tried to paint Memphis out as this career criminal, but it’s bullshit, boss. She’s a good woman. She’s still taking care of her fuckup brothers while seemingly doing anything she can to survive.” After hesitating for another moment, he cleared his throat. “I don’t know a lot of people who would give up five years of their life, Remy, especially when the only big purchases she’s made in years have been for her brothers. She’s not greedy. She didn’t sign up to be bred for five years for herself. Even the most basic of checks that I ran while sitting here showed that much.”
“I’ll call you if anything changes here.” I hung up the phone and pulled my arm back to throw it at the brick wall as hard as I could. Watching it shatter into a hundred tiny pieces made me feel marginally better.
55.
***Boone***
“She’sokay.Braddockcame by and checked her over. They’re both safe and healthy, but he said she needs to rest and take it easy. No more stress. When I laughed in his face, he thought maybe I’d hit my head, too.” I cracked my neck and considered the benefits of getting hammered right then and there. “They’re going to keep her overnight for observation. I called Jake and asked him to call in a guard to sit outside her room, just in case, but he’s going to do it himself.”
Remy nodded. “Figures.”
I looked Wells over and saw that he’d at least cleaned the blood off his face. His knuckles were fucked, but he didn’t seem to care. He saw me looking and shook his head. “I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about my knuckles or anything else that could lead to talking about feelings. I found a rehab center for Jackson. They’ll pick him up within the hour. Someone needs to be there to sign off of it.”
It wasn’t a great time to be impressed with Wells’ ability to find a bed in the city on such short notice, but I was. Rehabs filled up fast and sometimes people were just left to die on the streets without help because there just wasn’t enough space for them. “Private, I’m assuming.”
He nodded. “It’s only the price of a small country, but who cares when you’re supporting your surrogate’s druggie brother, right? Do you think that’s the con? It was brilliant, if so, because that rehab just bent me over and didn’t say please. What the fuck is rush pricing? This isn’t a couch. Jesus, this night is never going to end. I’ll go. I set it up and I’ll know all the details.”
I winced at the word con. I wasn’t ready. “One of us should stay here until Jake’s here to take watch.”
Remy patted his pockets and then swore at the mass of phone pieces on the ground. “We have to call her other brother.”
I shrugged. “That’s fine. Should we wait until morning, in case he’s sleeping like a normal person?”
“Well. Considering that he’s currently in prison and I’m going to have to piss a prison warden off to do this, maybe he’ll enjoy it.” Meeting both of our confused expressions, Remy laughed bitterly. “Yeah, Jake started looking through some stuff. Memphis calls her little brother in prison once a week. He’s in for theft, in case you were curious. So, just a great family all around.”
I felt myself start to defend Memphis and turned away as grief hit me. I didn’t know who she was. The person Charlie was talking about wasn’t anyone I knew. How could she lie so easily?
