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  “Mr. Lee’s condition is less severe, so let’s start there. I haven’t had an update from the OR in about twenty minutes, so I don’t know if there’s anything else. But he has a broken femur, internal injuries, and a ruptured spleen, which is why he’s in surgery.”

  Neil’s stomach clenched. “Is he going to be okay?” He struggled not to scream it.

  “I cannot give you an answer. I don’t know if they’ve encountered any other complications.”

  Neil looked at Wade, who pointed at the doc with his free hand. “You need to listen to her. We can talk later.”

  “Tamsin. How is she?”

  “The other vehicle apparently hit them head-on, the impact focused more on the driver’s side. She was trapped in the wreckage for a lot longer than Dexter was. Her condition is much graver. That’s why, just in case, I’d like to go over these forms with you right—”

  The explosion was imminent. “What are the fucking forms?”

  “Organ donation,” Ed quietly said. “For Tamsin.”

  Now the doctor’s tone sounded wary, her cadence slow. “On both their licenses, they’re listed as organ donors. Considering Tamsin’s grave condition, just in case—”

  Neil snatched the forms from Ed’s hands and ripped them up, slamming them back onto the table. “Now fucking talk to me!”

  “Neil,” Ed said, “please stay calm.”

  “I am calm, but you’re telling me my two best friends are in surgery, I don’t even know how badly they’re hurt for sure, and this fucking ghoul wants me to sign permission forms to fucking harvest Tam’s organs? No!” He jabbed a finger at her. “You tell those goddamned surgeons they exhaust every last fucking option they have!”

  “Mr. Abbott, please, it’s just in case something happens. To prevent any unnecessary delays.” The doctor looked to Ed, perhaps sensing an ally.

  Ed held his hands up. “Neil holds a durable medical power of attorney for both of them. Just like they do on each other and him. He is the final say. And considering the ink is barely dry on all the forms, I don’t even need to look it up, although I can e-mail you the forms. I suggest you move along and talk to us about Tamsin’s condition. As Tamsin and Neil’s attorney, I’m not going to demand he change his mind on this, especially right now when he’s under extreme duress. I’m also Dexter’s attorney, so I’m going to side with Neil.”

  The doctor stared at the shredded forms for a moment. Just when Neil thought he was going to have to grab her and shake the information from her, she spoke.

  “Tamsin suffered a severe head injury, in addition to internal injuries, which are causing internal bleeding. She also suffered fractures in both lower legs, her left arm and shoulder, ribs. I don’t yet know the full extent of her injuries or what the long-term prognosis will be. Right now, she’s listed as critical. The last report I had from the OR, she’d already had to be resuscitated once. It’s my understanding she also went into cardiac arrest after being extricated from the wreck.”

  “I was able to start an IV and get fluids pushed while they were trying to cut her out,” Wade quietly said. “I was trying to keep her BP up. She coded just as we were loading her. Kevin and I got her back. She lost a lot of blood.”

  Neil’s gaze finally focused on the man even as Wade’s fingers tightened on Neil’s shoulder. The tears trailing down Wade’s cheeks horrified Neil, because he knew this was…bad.

  “Dex made me promise to stay with her until we got her here. We shipped him first, in the other rig. They were able to extricate him almost immediately. We had to cut the roof and half the side of the car off to get her out. The other driver hit her at the front driver’s wheel well, and it pushed everything in on her from the transmission and the front driver’s side pillar, the steering wheel. It…”

  Wade closed his eyes as his voice choked. “It took us almost thirty minutes to cut her out. I honestly thought she was dead, at first. I couldn’t find a pulse on her for nearly a minute. Dex was screaming at me to work on her while they were trying to load him on the gurney. As bad as he was hurt, he was worried about her and we had to physically restrain him to keep him on the gurney.”

  How had his life turned into a nightmare? How had he gone from contemplating spending the weekend up at the Toucan to get some, and give Tam and Dex the house to themselves, to…this?

  “This isn’t happening,” Neil whispered. “This has to be wrong. It can’t be her. It can’t be my Tam.”

  Wade finally released Neil’s shoulder and pulled a small, clear plastic bag out of one of the cargo pockets on his uniform pants. He gently pressed it into Neil’s palm.

  Neil started sobbing at the sight of Tamsin’s day collar and her engagement ring inside.

  He shook his head. “No. No, it can’t be her.”

  Ed switched seats, moving around the small table to sit on his other side. “Neil, Hope’s already calling everyone to get people here to be with you. You’re not alone. You have to be strong for them. You and I need to go through her paperwork and—”

  “You keep them alive!” he screamed at the doctor. “You keep them both alive! I’m not going to let you let her die so you can take her organs!”

  “Sir, please, that’s not what—”

  “Ed, tell her.”

  Ed wrapped his arms around Neil, as did Wade from the other side. “Shh, it’s okay. We’re here.”

  Neil’s hand tightly clutched the plastic bag, his fist pressed against his chest. He rocked back and forth, sobbing, no longer caring about the doctor’s presence. Part of his mind, the one that was so good at adulting and being in charge, could process that the doctor was only doing her job and chiding him for taking it out on her.

  That was the same part that damn well knew Tamsin—as well as Dex and himself—had DNR orders in Ed’s files, in case the worst-case ever happened.

  Some mythical, far-future, hopefully old-age-induced condition.

  Not…now.

  Not his baby brat.

  Not his Tam.

  If there was a chance, any chance, of her surviving, he would damn well make sure they did whatever it took to keep her alive.

  * * * *

  The doctor tried to talk to him, but Neil wasn’t processing. At some point, he ended up in the waiting room with Ed and Wade and there were already a bunch of their friends there, including Nate and Eva and Cherise, who in addition to being Wade’s fiancée was also Nate’s little sister. Neil let Wade and Ed and Nate process information and feed it back to him in digestible chunks, short words.

  Summaries.

  Cris arrived, with Bob in tow, and got Tilly on the phone from where she was filming on location in Jordan. Ed coordinated with her, and she promised to keep her phone handy for texts or calls if there were questions. Wade had to go back to work, but others took his place.

  The hours ticked by, friends making sure Neil had coffee, a phone charger, taking over and answering questions for newcomers who arrived to sit with him. Dexter emerged from surgery to recovery, and from there he’d go to the surgical ICU and Neil would be able to see him, even if Dexter wasn’t awake yet. He’d have to have another surgery in the next day or so for his left leg, but the internal injuries were not as serious as they’d first thought, other than his spleen. He was still listed as being in serious condition, which was better than critical.

  Processing all this proved impossible. Neil didn’t want to open the bag and touch the necklace or the ring.

  If he didn’t touch them, that meant he could still deny this was happening, right?

  Around two a.m., Neil was finally able to go back and see Dex for a few minutes, Nate and Cris accompanying him.

  Neil walked around the bed, to Dex’s right side, trying to see his friend there through his injuries and the medical equipment he was hooked to. He’d have a hell of a shiner, his left eye nearly swollen shut, his face bruised and scraped and scratched.

  He had an IV in his left hand, wires everywhere. Monitors and ala
rms and a ventilator.

  When the nurse tried to update Neil, he tuned out.

  The last shattered hopes he’d had that this was all a horrible mistake fell from his soul, slicing deep into him. He couldn’t deny this was Dex.

  As Cris and Nate handled the talking and absorbing of information, Neil reached down and gently clasped Dex’s right hand and squeezed.

  “Don’t leave me, man,” he whispered. “I can’t lose both of you. I’m going to need you to get through this. I can’t do this without you.”

  He leaned in, nuzzling his face next to Dexter’s ear. “Please, fight. Please stay strong. I love both of you, and I need both of you in my life.”

  After pressing a kiss to Dexter’s cheek, Neil straightened and reluctantly released his hand.

  Cris held a plastic bag that Neil realized contained Dexter’s personal effects. His wallet, watch, keys, phone, belt, shoes, plus loose change and a few stray bills.

  No clothes, which he assumed meant they’d cut them off him.

  Neil held a hand out for it and then clutched it to his chest with both arms, hugging it tightly.

  Desperately. “Where’s Tam’s things?” he hoarsely asked. “I want them.”

  “I’ll find out for you,” Cris said, going to talk to Dexter’s nurse.

  Nate kept an arm around Neil’s waist as he helped him back out to the waiting room and into a chair, taking over and updating everyone.

  Cris returned a little while later with a bag containing Tam’s purse, phone, and keys. Neil loosened his grip on the bag of Dexter’s things and, choking back a harsh sob, tucked Tamsin’s bag inside Dex’s.

  Chapter Seven

  Dex didn’t understand why everything.

  Fucking.

  Hurt.

  Or why he was lying in a bed in…a hospital? ICU, by the looks of it. It wasn’t a regular room, just a small cubicle big enough for a bed and monitors and a recliner chair and little else, with sliding glass doors on the front. The door was slid open only enough the nurse could duck in and out, and the blinds had been pulled for privacy.

  He struggled to wake up. The only thing he could equate it to was trying to swim through thick cotton gauze that kept sucking him back down. Part of him wanted to escape the pain and return to comforting darkness, but then a thought slammed into his brain.

  Tamsin!

  Snippets flashed through his brain, of the wreck, the aftermath, screaming her name and trying to reach for her, Wade having to physically hold him down on the gurney while he still tried to get to her, making Wade promise to stay with her.

  The blood on her face.

  Her closed eyes.

  When he tried to sit up, another wave of pain from what felt like every part of his body overwhelmed him. A nurse appeared in his line of vision.

  “Hi, Dexter. I’m Allison, your day nurse. Are you hurting?”

  “Tam,” he hoarsely croaked. “Where is she? How is she?”

  An alarm went off and she reached up, behind him, to silence it. “I don’t know who that is, I’m sorry.”

  “Tamsin Mulder, my fiancée. MVA. She would have been brought in not long after me.”

  He hoped.

  He prayed.

  “Oh, of course. Let me check, but I need you to please lie down for me, okay?”

  Knowing she wouldn’t go check until he did, he complied. She made a couple of adjustments to his monitors and headed out of the cubicle.

  Wasn’t like he could get out of bed. One of the worst pains was in his left hip and thigh. When he pulled back the sheet and the hem of his hospital gown, he spotted the fresh surgical incision, maybe a day old, if that.

  Fuck.

  Instead of her returning, a few minutes later Neil raced into the cube. His face looked drawn, haggard, and Dex could tell he hadn’t shaved for at least a couple of days.

  This had to be fucking bad. Neil always shaved.

  “Oh, my god!” Neil leaned in and kissed his forehead and Dex didn’t even care.

  He groped for Neil’s hand, squeezing it tightly. “Please tell me she’s—”

  “Two beds over.” Tears spilled down his cheeks as he clutched Dex’s hand. “They’ve got her…in a medically induced coma.”

  His heart faltered, new pain consuming him, this time emotional and mental. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “I…I don’t know. They don’t know yet. It’s day-by-day right now.” Neil reached behind him with his free hand and pulled a stool over that the nurses sat on while writing reports. Dex wasn’t inclined to let go of his hand either.

  “She’s got a bad head injury and it’s too soon for them to evaluate her.” Neil wiped at his cheeks with his hand. “It’s bad, but she’s hanging in there. Her vital signs are stable.”

  “What day is it?”

  “Monday. Afternoon.”

  Another emotional gut-punch. Last he’d known, it’d been Friday. “How bad am I?”

  Neil ran down a list of his injuries. He’d had two surgeries already, and they weren’t sure if he’d require any more or not on his leg. They’d kept him sedated after the initial surgery, before tackling his leg, to give him a chance to stabilize.

  “They might move you to a regular room in a couple of days.”

  “I want to see her,” Dex said. “I want to be with her.”

  “We can’t move you right now.” Neil fished his phone out of his back pocket and called up a picture before showing him the phone. “I just took that a few minutes ago.”

  One more impact, this one a meteor hitting him right in the balls. He barely recognized her.

  He didn’t bother hiding his tears from Neil. “Oh, my god,” he whispered.

  Neil fumbled tissues out of a box on the ledge behind him and handed him a couple before taking some for himself. “Yeah.”

  He looked up and realized Neil was wearing her day collar around his neck. On it dangled her engagement ring.

  Neil realized what he was staring at. “I’m sorry. Wade got them and gave them to me when I got here.”

  “Did Wade stay with her?”

  “Yeah.” A sad laugh escaped him. “He said they had to hold you down, strap you onto the gurney, and force you into the ambulance. You were trying to fight them to stay with her.”

  “What happened? I remember dozing off and then the wreck. It’s all sketchy.”

  Neil was many things. A lovable goofball, a serious businessman, a strict and sadistic Dom.

  Never, in the going on two years that he’d known Neil, could Dex ever remember seeing homicidal rage on the man’s face before. “Thankfully they took the fucker to another hospital. Cops told me he lost his leg. He was drunk. Ed’s already working on the civil lawsuit for us. He was driving a company vehicle, and it’s not his first DUI.”

  That was cold comfort, but at least it was something.

  “So he hit us? Tamsin wasn’t at fault?”

  “There were witnesses in both directions. He crossed the line and hit you. He’d been weaving in and out for about a mile. The guy behind him had just called FHP to report him when the accident happened. That’s why 911 responded so fast. He was on the phone with the dispatcher when it happened.”

  Dex’s gaze returned to the phone. “Please let me see her.” He realized he was still tightly clutching Neil’s hand, hadn’t let go.

  “Buddy,” Neil gently said, “we can’t. You can’t get up yet. Your gut’s been sliced open and you’re one spleen lighter. Although the plate and screws in your leg probably makes up the difference.” He forced a smile Dex saw right through. “I’m not trying to be a dick, but if you hurt yourself, I’m going to go Dom on your ass.”

  The sound of Neil’s voice cracking broke Dex’s heart. “I need you right now. She’s going to need both of us. I have to get you healed up and back on your feet, and if you pull stitches loose or something, it’s only going to delay your recovery that much longer.”

  The nurse walked in with a syringe and head
ed for the pump attached to his IV. “I have your dose of pain meds.”

  He nodded, finally returning Neil’s phone to him. Then he grabbed one of the tissues Neil had laid on his chest and dabbed at his eyes, wincing at the pain around his left.

  Once the nurse left, Dex asked Neil, “How bad do I look?”

  Neil hadn’t put his phone away yet. He thumbed the camera, switched it to rear-facing mode, and handed it to him to look.

  Holy…shit. “How’d I get the black eye?”

  Neil choked up again. “They aren’t sure. They think maybe you and Tamsin bounced off each other, even with the seat belts. The worst of her head injury is on the left side, from where her head hit the side pillar, but she’s got a goose-egg on the right. The air bags could only protect you so much.”

  Neil took the phone back and then thumbed through it to show him. “Wade texted me those. One of the guys took them for him at the scene and sent them to him.”

  The air whooshed out of him. “Holy…fuck me.”

  The car wasn’t even recognizable. In the first picture, they were still trying to get her out, Wade’s ass visible through the passenger side as he and Tamsin were covered by a protective blanket while guys from their station worked to cut the roof off. The small SUV that hit them was visible in the background, the driver’s side destroyed, the door off the car, looking like it’d been cut off.

  “Wade said it took them about thirty minutes to cut her out.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Dex forced himself to look up, into Neil’s blue eyes. “Tell me.”

  More tears trailed down his cheeks. “Wade said she coded as they were loading her in the ambulance, but they got her back. Then she coded again during surgery. She lost a lot of blood. There was some brain swelling, and they had to do a second surgery Saturday to help relieve that. I can get the doctor to come talk to you. I’m…” His words trailed off, like he was lost, struggling.

  As Neil tried to regroup, Dex realized Neil wore the same clothes he remembered seeing him in on Friday. He added that to the fact that Neil—who never so much as went to the grocery store without shaving—looked like a drunk on the bad end of a three-day bender.