The Lies That Shatter by A.V. Asher

Chapter Thirty-Three

The bustle of the waiting room of a San Francisco hospital emergency room was grating on his nerves. Alec paced, his body unable to sit still. He had to keep moving.

Mercedes could be flatlining right now. Needles impaling her delicate skin, tubes breathing for her because her brain was dying.

Dying alone.

It was his nightmare reimagined.

Charlotte broke into the waiting area and ran to Luke. He held her tight while she sobbed into his shoulder. He was making little soothing sounds, her heart wrenching cries matching the ones in his soul.

Cressida followed behind Charlotte. A black T-shirt and a small first aid case were in her hand. “Any update?”

Alec shook his head. “Not a word.”

Cressida handed the case and shirt to Alec. “You’re a mess. Go to the loo and wash up.”

Alec looked down at his blood-smeared clothes. There was a tear in his white dress shirt and the sleeve was soaked. A deep throbbing ache suddenly announced itself.

Shit, he may need stitches.

Mason went with him and the two of them looked rather suspicious in the large stall of a hospital men’s room, while Mason examined him. The cuts on his cheek and fingers were closing on their own. But the wound on his arm was another story.

Mason frowned as he examined him. “You need to check yourself in, man. This is deep and I don’t have what I need to stitch you up.”

“No.”

“Alec . . .”

“If I check in, they’ll take me somewhere else to wait. I need to be here.” He looked up into Mason’s dark brown eyes. “I can’t leave her. So just bandage me up, and we’ll take care of it later.”

“Okay.” Mason snagged an alcohol wipe from the kit. “Sorry, man, this is all I got. It’s gonna sting.”

“Aye.” Alec braced himself. It hurt like a motherfucker but he tried to keep his grunts and curses to a minimum. The hospital wouldn’t look too kindly to someone tending to an open wound in the loo.

Once he was bandaged and cleaned up, he joined the others in the waiting room. Ezra had arrived while they were gone. He was sitting forward in a chair, his tattooed hands steepled against his forehead. When Alec and Mason approach, he sat up. He held Alec’s gaze for a moment and then looked away.

Charlotte had her head resting on Luke’s shoulder. She stood and walked to him, wrapping her arms around him. A little sniff let him know she was on the verge of breaking down.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she said.

“Don’t be. I deserved it.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Alec smiled against her curly head.

She pulled back and looked up at him. “Here we are again.”

“Aye. I’m sorry you had to see all of that.”

Charlotte shivered at the reminder. “I just hope we get one more shot at this.”

“Me too.” The way he’d fucked everything up was eating at him.

A woman walked into the waiting room, calling out Mercedes’s name.

“I’m Mercedes Elliott’s sister,” Charlotte said.

The doctor gave her a smile. “You got her here just in time. She’s improving, but we are going to keep her to monitor her heart. As the drugs leave her system, her risk of a heart attack or a stroke will decrease, but we want to keep an eye on her. Her breathing is still somewhat labored, and we are watching her oxygen to make sure she doesn’t have another dip. She’s not out of the woods yet, but she seems to have stabilized for the moment.”

The relief that she was still alive was tainted with the threat of her heart giving out. He didn’t know if he could survive losing her again.

They would be moving Mercedes into a room, but it would take at least an hour. Charlotte looked dead on her feet. Alec touched her shoulder. “You should go home, Charlie. I’ll stay with her tonight.”

Charlotte opened her mouth to protest, but Ezra beat her to it. “No, that’s alright, man. I’ll stay with her.”

Anger flared in Alec. Not happening.

But it was Luke who spoke. “No, Sadie asked Alec to stay with her.”

His cousin’s eyes met his. Luke and the others had probably heard what he and Sadie had said to each other in the back seat.

It took some convincing to make Charlotte go home and get some rest, but she finally relented. After they left, Alec and Declan sat together on the cushioned seat, a silence filling the space. There were no words needed. Alec knew Declan was there. That was all he needed his cousin to do.

Cressida walked in, her eyes on her phone as she sat next to Alec. “I spoke to Nick. He’s on site and the FBI is working it since she’s still technically a witness in a federal trial that hasn’t ended. Tomorrow, he’s going to need to talk to you. He said he’ll hold them off as long as he can, but, because there are two dead men, they have to talk to you.”

“Two?” Alec and Declan said in unison.

Cressida’s brows pinched together. “Calvin, the owner of the speakeasy. They found him in the tunnel on the other side of that little bar she was at. That’s where he gained access.”

Christ. While he was in the storeroom kissing and touching Mercedes, a man was stalking her and killing her friend.

“Also, Shake went with Kristin and made sure she got checked into another hotel.”

“Oh, shit. I completely forgot.” Alec pulled his phone from his pocket. He’d missed three calls from Kristin. He should call her back, just to let her know he was okay. But if he did, she would beg him to reconsider and ask to see him. All of his focus had to be on Mercedes now.

He shot her a text, letting her know he was fine, and he’d call her the next day.

They sat for a moment in silence until Declan’s voice broke through his thoughts. “This feels different, doesn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Alec said.

“With the exception of Jason going batshit crazy and destroying our safe house, all the attacks or threats against Sadie have been covert, hidden where only a few people could intervene. This attack happened right out in the open, with five members of our security team there to witness it.”

“It’s sloppy as fuck,” Alec said.

“Is it? Or is it personal?”

Alec sat back in his chair. “It could be. Let’s assume our pal Adam has been in charge since the events in London. Cooper would have been pretty happy that Sadie was dead and let him keep his job. But now that she’s back, maybe Cooper’s found someone else to do his dirty work.”

“Maybe it’s not Cooper at all,” Cressida offered. “Maybe it’s Jason.”

Alec frowned. “Could be. But Jason literally gets off on hurting her. And me,” he added. “He would have wanted to be there himself.”

“He’d never have gotten close to that bar. Not with all of us in it. But he could have watched from the security cameras if he figured out how to hack them. They’re all over the place.”

“Were they?” Alec said. Well shit.

Cressida shrugged. “There were quite a few in the main bar and the sidebar. They should have a good view of what happened to Sadie.” She tilted her head. “Why?”

“You may want to avoid any footage from the storeroom off the westside tunnel.” Alec grimaced. “I didn’t see a camera there, but I was a little . . . distracted.”

Declan snorted.

Cressida’s mouth dropped open, and her brown eyes sparkled. “Were you and Sadie shagging in the storeroom?”

Alec’s cheeks flushed. “Not quite shagging.”

“Well, good for you,” Cressida said, giving his arm a squeeze. “That place was cool. I’d shag someone in its storeroom if I had the chance.”

The echo of Mercedes’s whimpers ricocheting around the brick room filled his mind. Was that the last chance they would have?

“I’m heading to a vending machine. Can I get you anything?” Cressida asked. “Water?”

“No thanks, Cress,” Alec said.

Declan’s face was soft as he smiled at Cressida. “I’m good. Thanks.”

As she walked away, Declan’s gaze followed her, and Alec could see that what was once a flirtation had become much more. “What’s going on with the two of you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what is going on with you and Cressida?”

Declan shrugged. “Nothing. We’re friends.”

“Are you sure about that, mate?”

His smile slid away. “There’s nothing between us.”

“But you’d like there to be?”

Declan’s brow furrowed, and he stared at his hands. “Aye, maybe.”

Alec nodded. At least he wasn’t imagining things. “So what’s stopping you?”

“Lots of things.”

“Like what?”

“She’s too young for me.”

Alec scoffed. “She’s twenty-six. It’s not like she’s a teenager. Next.”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you don’t like people from the office dating each other.”

“Since when did you start listening to me? Try again.”

Declan was quiet for a moment. “She’s my friend. If I fuck it up, I’ll lose her.”

“Well, that one is pretty valid.” Alec laid his head back. “If she’s worth the risk, take it.” Declan looked at him in surprise. “Life is too fucking short, mate. Do something about it now. Before she moves on.”

“I thought it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with someone at work. That was your problem with Mariah, remember?”

“Aye, I remember. And if what you feel for Cressida is nothing more than I felt for Mariah, then keep your pecker in your pants.” Alec sent Declan a warning look. “Or I’ll beat your arse.”

“You could try,” Declan shot back.

“I’d rather see you take a chance rather than watch you lose out on the opportunity. Otherwise, you’d end up fucking miserable like me.”

A silence filled the air until Declan broke it. “You talked to Sadie, then? You told her?”

“Aye.” Alec stared at the bland beige wall, lost in the pain of the moment.

“I take it, it didn’t go well?”

“She walked away from me.” Tears pricked the back of Alec’s eyes. “She’s been hurt too much and doesn’t want to try again.”

“She’ll come around.”

“I don’t know, she was pretty determined to go to New York with Ezra in the morning.”

“Yeah, but she didn’t ask Ezra to be here when she woke up. She wanted you.”

A nurse came through the double doors. “Ms. Elliott’s room is ready. She’s sleeping comfortably now. You guys should go home and get some rest.”

“We’re her security detail,” Alec said. “I’ll be posted next to her bed tonight.”

The nurse looked him up and down, then nodded. “Alright then, come on. I’ll show you to her room.”

“You go ahead,” Declan said. “I’ll check on you in a bit.”

Alec followed the nurse to Mercedes’s room. The sight of her in the bed turned his gut. She was so small and frail. He wanted to gather her up in his arms and hold her, but he was afraid to wake her. Instead, he moved a chair next to her bed and took her warm hand in his. He stroked and kissed it, mesmerized by the rising and falling of her chest. The rhythmic beeping of the monitor letting him know her heart was still working.

Exhaustion overpowered him. Alec lay his head on her bed with her hand resting in his and slept.