Series: Peach State Stepbros Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
My wheels skid when I jerk my car into the hospital lot.
I park, then run toward the building. My breath is coming out too fast, too shallow, as I go through the sliding glass doors. The moment I’m there, it hits me that I don’t know where he is—the ER or a room?
“Atlas! Oh, thank God you’re here!” Ellie says, coming through the doors herself.
“Where is he? I don’t know…” Why can’t I finish a sentence? My eyes are darting around, heart feeling like it’s about to explode.
“Breathe. You’re okay. Just breathe,” she tells me, rubbing my back…the way a mom would.
“I can’t… I don’t know what I would do…” I try to stop the words, but there’s no way I can. They just…fall from my mouth. “I can’t lose him.”
Her brows draw together like she’s surprised at the emotion in my words, and I know I should reel it in, but I don’t know how. Not in this situation.
“He’ll be okay. Let’s go find him, okay?”
I nod, and she leads me to the counter, where a security guard sits. “I’m looking for Troy Locklear.”
“Are you family?”
“Yes, he’s my son, and this is his brother.”
I’m not his brother. I’m…his…and he’s mine.
The man looks it up in the computer, gives us two stickers that say guest with Troy’s name on them, and tell us what room to go to.
I try to keep it together as we go to the elevator…as it rises too slowly for comfort. Ellie keeps glancing my direction with a confused look on her face. It’s normal to be concerned about my stepbrother, of course it is, but after our conversation, I’m scared I’m being too obvious. That she can see straight through my fear and knows that Troy is who I told her about earlier.
Finally, the elevator opens, and I practically stumble out of it. We head straight to his room, and I skid to a stop, unable to move, scared to go inside.
Like he can sense me there, Troy’s gaze snaps up, meeting mine. He looks smaller in the hospital bed, though I know that doesn’t make sense.
He frowns. “Atlas?”
Before I can respond, Ellie is going into the room, making me realize I’d left her behind when I got off the elevator. She doesn’t seem to have the same frozen moment as me, going straight to Troy, hugging him, crying and fussing over him.
“What happened?” she manages to get out between tears.
Troy looks at me over her shoulder like he doesn’t want to say, doesn’t know what to do.
“I’m fine, Mom. They only admitted me for observation.”
“What happened?” This time the question comes from me, my voice low and rough, filled with emotion.
“Don’t freak out,” is his reply, and I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or his mom, but it’s not helping.
“Troy?” Ellie’s all concern and confusion.
“I met…I met with Brandon.”
Rage envelops me, swallows me whole, my body temperature shooting up to unhealthy levels. “He did this to you?” I bite out.
“It was an accident. And the hand I did to myself.”
“Brandon did this?” I thought Ellie’s voice sounded small and confused before, but it’s even worse now.
I can’t stop moving, pacing the room while she sits on the bed and waits for Troy to continue.
“No, he didn’t do it. I was trying to keep him from leaving.” When neither Ellie nor I reply, needing more, he continues, “He called me to meet him. I thought it would be different. He said he was getting help. But he didn’t want to go into the restaurant. We sat in my car, and he…” Troy looks down. “He wanted money. A part of me knew that’s what it had to be, but I wanted to believe I was wrong. When I wouldn’t give it to him, he tried to get out, and I didn’t want to let him. It all happened so fast after that, it’s kind of a blur, but he accidentally kicked me in the head during the tussle. My hand…that was me. I was so frustrated, I punched a wall afterward like a fucking moron.”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Ellie’s crying harder now, trying to comfort Troy while I assume dealing with the fact that it was her oldest son who did this. All Troy wants is a relationship with his brother, and this is what happens? Troy, who has the biggest heart. Troy, who just wants to help. Troy, who is in a hospital bed because of it.
“Atlas?” Troy says, making my head snap up.
It’s killing me not to go to him, not to touch him and hold him and make sure everything is okay, but I don’t trust myself to get closer, afraid I’ll out us to Ellie, and I can’t do that without his permission.
“I’m okay,” I say, which is the most ridiculous thing. This moment isn’t about me. It’s about him.