My throat closed, and my gut twisted in fear. I couldn’t lose him to our shared weakness, not when we were this close to being stronger than it.
“Please, please, please. Please be okay. Just stay with me, Lucas. Do you hear me? I need you. We all need you.”
I broke, and the tears spilled from my eyes as I pulled him close, his head falling to my shoulders.
“Yes, I’m aware. He’s alive. But I need an ambulance here immediately. We’re at Liberty Greene Apartments, number 307.” That fucker’s monotone voice as he said the words grated on my every nerve. I wanted to kill him, my rage at the world directed at him and anyone if they thought they could be above us, if they thought this wasn’t an emergency.
He didn’t understand.
Even if Lucas had slipped, this wasn’t his fault. It could never be his fault. Didn’t people get that? That we struggled every day to come back from something that clawed within us to get out.
Cade’s boot tapped as he glared at us while he waited for whatever the dispatcher was saying. “I can check for a pulse, but he’s alive.” He waited a moment. “Because he hasn’t yet turned the color I know so well.”
His admission was a reminder I needed for later, one I’d filed away. Cade had seen dead bodies before—he’d killed before. I knew from working undercover what the Armanelli name meant. And even if they were reformed, even if he and his brother didn’t want to do anything bad, they still could.
“Well, I’m not going to be in the ambulance, that’s for sure,” he said like he was affronted. “His friend is here. She’ll need to be checked also. They were together, and she’s hyperventilating.”
I wouldn’t correct him about anything.
“I’m not sure what she’s done.” Cade eyed me suspiciously, and I accepted the fact that not even he would ever consider me as anything but a flight risk. Even if I believed in myself, I’d always be the first one they looked at as an addict, the one who may have grabbed the drugs and risked her life. “But I’m sure she’s not on drugs. Just her friend.”
His assessment had my jaw dropping.
He continued, “Also, this won’t be logged. I need to talk with the chief. You can tell him it’s Cade Armanelli.”
“What are you doing?” I whisper-yelled at him. “Just hang up. I need your help.”
“There’s nothing to help with. He’s out cold right now.” Cade lifted a brow like I was stupid.
“He could die!” I screeched.
“Dollface, your friend will be fine.” He pulled a lock of my hair. “His breathing isn’t shallow enough for death. A coma at the most. It’s not your fault, and we’ll get through this, but I have to talk with the chief.” He shrugged like it was no big deal and then turned around to speak with the chief of police for some unknown reason. “Yeah. It’s Cade. You need to check the cameras of this building. They’re not secure anymore.”
I held my friend as Cade walked out of the room. I rocked him back and forth, back and forth. I cried as I sang a song my mom used to sing to me as a kid. Maybe he’d be comforted by it, or maybe it was a comfort for me, I wasn’t sure.
As the paramedics rushed in, I held his hand until they wouldn’t let me anymore. I rode in the ambulance because Cade demanded I be let in after he threw his name around.
The shift in treatment was immediate. They administered Narcan to reverse the drug overdose as I stared on and then took him back to the ICU, but the doctor came and gave me information on him immediately. There were no wait times, no brush-offs, and no checking of my credentials. This was the Armanelli treatment, and I was very aware that it was different from what a normal person walking in would experience.
But Cade was gone. He didn’t ride in the ambulance with me. Instead, two men in suits walked up as I left the ambulance. One introduced himself as a friend of Cade’s and said he would be staying with me until Cade returned.
“What do you mean?” I huffed. “I don’t need someone here with me.”
“Tough, Ms. Hardy. We will be with you for the near future.”
A nurse told me they would give him fluids and run tests and that I could wait in the lobby. So I sat in the waiting room, staring at a screen, not sure who to call or what to do. Lucas didn’t have much family that he kept in contact with, and I didn’t want to tell anyone he’d OD’d. He could do that when he was ready.
And he would be ready. Because he was going to wake up.
The only person I could think to text was Cade and not for any other reason than to get rid of his goons.
Me: Your men here are unnecessary.
Cade: Look at them as company.
Me: I don’t want company. Lucas wouldn’t either. We need privacy.
Cade: Privacy for what?
Me: He’s fighting for his life in there. Do you even care?
Cade: Well, I sent my men there, didn’t I?
I scoffed. He didn’t understand that sending a stranger to witness someone’s private agony wasn’t helping.
Me: You saw him lying there lifeless and didn’t even come to the hospital.
Cade: His vitals are strong. They’re running bloodwork to see what happened with the drugs. He’ll be fine. The doctor’s charts say so.
Me: Did they call you?
Cade: No.
Me: Then how do you know?
Cade didn’t respond to the question, and he didn’t have to. He’d probably breached the hospital system to find that out. I envied how good he was, and my heart melted a little that he’d checked.
Me: If you want to see how someone is doing, you can come to the hospital to see, Cade. You don’t have to hack the hospital system.
Cade: I’m working.
Me: Fine. I’ll see you at work on Monday, then.
I silenced my phone and shoved it back in my pocket. I needed to be present for my friend.
Not more than an hour later, though, I heard a voice I wasn’t expecting. “Here,” Cade grumbled as he shoved a box of candy canes in my face.
“What?” I whispered, my heart racing even as my eyes started to tear up. “What’s this?”
I knew what it was. It was Cade making a freaking gesture.
It was him bringing what he knew both Lucas and I needed most of the time. He acted like he didn’t watch us, like he didn’t care about others, but there was so much in him that was good, and this was proof of it.
“What’s it look like? They’re candy canes,” he said as if I were the most dense person he’d ever come across. Then he shook them in front of me, an invitation to take them.
I grabbed them and hugged them close. I was still in my black dress and felt ridiculous in that moment. My hair was a wavy mess, and my clothes were utterly wrinkled from a night out and sleeping on a couch.
My jaw dropped when Cade lifted a bag he had in his other hand and pulled out a baggy T-shirt of mine that had Boyz II Men on it, my favorite mom jeans, and flip-flops. “You should go change.”
“How did you get my clothes?” I murmured.
“Do you really want to know?” He rolled his eyes and then rubbed them like he was tired of everything. “Go change, dollface.”
I snatched the clothes and ran to the bathroom before I could burst into tears in front of him.