Sing You Home by Ava Hunter

Seth steps into the waiting room to find Jace sprawled out across the row of chairs. By now, after a sleepless night, they’ve commandeered the family waiting room. Coffee cups and candy bar wrappers litter the floor.

Jace sits up when he sees Seth. Wipes sleep from his eyes. “How is she?”

“She’s okay,” Seth responds. Drained, he rubs his brow, unable to shake the image of Sal’s tear-stained face, Sal gasping for air, as the truth of her present settled on her like a lead weight. Damn if his heart didn’t break then and there. “Confused as hell.”

Seth doesn’t know what else to tell Jace. More like how to say it. He’s still reeling from the conversation himself. To think about Sal, about what she was telling him, even in her most disjointed statements, makes Seth physically ill. If it’s what he managed to cobble together . . . someone took Sal and kept her. Kept her from Luke, from her family.

The thought’s enough to make Seth want to kill most any man.

Especially this fucker Roy.

He’ll tear him apart with his bare hands. He’ll get in line right after Luke.

Seth stifles his anger and shakes his head. “It’s good you didn’t go in. She’s overwhelmed. Her memory, it’s shot to shit. Not to mention—”

The sound of commotion in the hallway.

Stunned, Seth watches as Luke slams through the double doors, flanked by Mort. His older brother has a look on his face that tells him he’s gonna raise hell any second.

Seth’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He glances at Jace. “You got a hold of him?”

Jace stands, his eyes as wide as saucers. “No.”

Seth sucks in a breath. “Shit.”

For a long moment, Luke’s eyes scour the hall. When his gaze lands on Seth, Luke’s face goes through a myriad of emotions. Fear, relief, annoyance. He strides forward, his boot steps loud and heavy in the quiet hallway.

The next thing he knows, Luke has Seth in a crushing bear hug.

When Luke finally pulls back, he gives Seth a quick once-over. “Where the hell have you been?” His older brother looks worn and weary. Not to mention mighty pissed off. Luke reaches out to grip Jace’s shoulder. “Are y’all okay? Are you hurt?”

Seth winces, realizing Luke’s overprotective big brother mode is in overdrive. Something that hasn’t eased up since Seth’s overdose, and it only got worse with Sal’s plane crash.

“We’re fine,” Jace says quietly, understanding the reason Luke’s so anxious. “How’d you get here so fast?”

“We took a plane.” Luke says it like it’s nothing.

“Yeah, and you still owe me for that,” Mort interjects, head down, as he fires off a text on his phone. His pinkie rings glimmer in the fluorescent hospital light.

“You took . . .” Seth blinks slow at the admission of something he thought Luke would never do again. He laughs to himself and paces around the hallway. Even Jace is frozen in disbelief. “Luke took a plane. Luke’s out of the house, fucking finally, and he took a goddamn plane.” Seth holds his arms out and exhales hard. “What else you got for me? Because this has been one crazy-as-fuck day.”

Luke jabs a finger in his chest. “Greyson’s manager saw y’all on the beach surrounded by ambulances. You’re in a hospital.” His eyes search both Seth and Jace. “I don’t see any broken bones or blood, so you better have a goddamn good reason for scarin’ the shit outta me.”

Jace’s mouth opens and closes.

Seth stares at his brother.

They’re both thinking the same thing. How the fuck do they spring the news that Sal’s alive? There’s no easy way. No sane way, at least.

Luke won’t believe them. Not at first.

“Spill it,” Luke growls impatiently.

“I’ll tell him.” Seth glances at Jace. “He takes a swing at me, though, I expect you to step in.”

Jace snorts. “You fuckin’ wish.”

Seth levels up and goes toe-to-toe with Luke. He grips his brother by his lapels and says—

“We found Sal.”

At first, the words don’t compute. Then his brother’s urgent voice is saying, “Did you hear me, Luke? We found Sal.”

Found Sal?

Luke squeezes his eyes shut at the memory. The plane crash. Sal reaching over, reaching for his hand, her mouth moving around his name, and then she screamed.

Gone.

She was gone in a blink of an eye.

Then Luke’s brain pulls itself together. He understands what Seth means. His worst fear finally realized. All these months later, they pulled her out of the ocean. Jace and Seth—they’re here to identify the body.

Warm nausea comes in waves. “Christ, no,” Luke moans, thrashing his head, wanting it to be a dream.

Jace says something in an inaudible voice to Seth.

“Not like that,” Seth says as if suddenly understanding Luke’s train of thought. “Not how you’re thinkin’, Luke.” Seth gives him a shake, his voice fierce and steady. “Sal—she’s alive.”

A low curse comes from Mort, standing near the vending machines.

Luke snaps to attention. His hands curl to fists. “That ain’t fuckin’ funny.”

“It ain’t a joke,” Jace’s quiet voice breaks in. He stares at him with sad, sympathetic eyes. “He’s tellin’ you the truth.”

Luke struggles to pull away, to take a swing, to rage, to do anything but listen to his brother’s next words, but Seth only holds him tighter. To make him understand.

“Listen to me, goddamnit. You know how I feel about Sal. Would I lie about this? Would I hurt you like this?”

The answer’s obvious. No way. No fucking way.

His brother has a catch in his voice Luke knows all too well. The same tearful tone he used the night he called Luke to tell him that Sal had been in a car accident and had lost the baby.

It’s serious. It’s real.

Luke’s heart pumps like a kick drum. So loud he can hear it in his ears. Disbelief, hope surge upward to fistfight for the win. He doesn’t know what to believe. He wants to believe it all, but hope’s a dangerous wish. For months, his world had been ended.

And now—now he just got the jumpstart of his life.

“I’ve seen her. I’ve talked to her.” Seth’s deep voice jolts him back to the present. “It’s her, Luke. Livin’ and breathin’. It’s Sal.”

Sal.

Her name hits him like a bullet.

Luke goes down.

The world blurring black at its edges, Luke hits his knees, doubles over and reaches for his heart.

“Whoa . . .” Steady hands grab onto Luke, surrounding him, stilling him.

“Easy,” Jace says as he and Seth haul Luke into a chair.

Luke sits with his head in his hands for a long moment. He closes his eyes as he struggles to get a handle on his emotions. Finally, when his breathing’s evened out and his heart pumps steady, he raises his face. He meets Seth’s eyes with determined ones of his own. “I want to see my wife. Now.”