“Try it again.”
“No, I’m calling Tino.” Wyatt searched through his contacts for Tino’s number, deciding right then he knew way too many fucking people. “I’m gonna fucking puke.”
Clay looked at him, his eyes wide. “The sick vibe’s that bad?”
“I thought I got shot. What’d you think?” Wyatt snapped when he found Tino in his contacts. He held the phone to his ear, listening to it ring three times before it clicked on. He didn’t even wait for him to speak before he shouted, “What the hell is going on?”
“Where the fuck are you?” Tino shouted back. “We’ve been calling you!”
“Just tell me what’s happening.”
“There’s a helicopter landing at the end of our street; that’s what’s happening!” Tino’s voice was shaking, making it obvious he was crying. He cursed in Italian before he started in again. “She just started bleeding all over the place for no reason! They said she’s hemorrhaging. They said we could lose the babies. They’re not gonna let Romeo go with her, and—”
“Tino!” Wyatt cut him off. “Listen to me. Take a breath!”
Tino stopped ranting and sucked in a sharp breath.
“I am gonna call dispatch and clear the way for you to Mercy,” Wyatt went on as he listened to Tino’s labored breathing on the other side. “As soon as they load her into the ’copter, you put Romeo in that Ferrari, and you drive it like that car was meant to be driven. No one’s gonna stop you. Floor it. You got me, boy?”
“I got you.” Tino choked. “But I gotta hang up. I’m on the other line with Nova and—”
“You do not make any phone calls once you get behind that wheel,” Wyatt snapped at him. “If phone calls got to be made, you let Romeo make them, and don’t listen to the shit Romeo is saying. Your only goal in life at this moment is to get your brother to the hospital. Eyes on the road. Drive safe. Drive fast, and we will meet you there. I know you can do this.”
“Yeah, okay, I can do this.” Tino took another deep breath. “I’ll have Romeo call you when we get into the car.”
“Do that.”
Wyatt clicked his phone off. He made the call to dispatch and then dropped the mic in his lap. He doubled over, taking a moment to fight past the nausea and nerves that were making his head throb. He really needed to get a higher dose of his fucking blood pressure medication. His life had been one major drama after another for a full year now.
“What’s gonna happen with Vaughn?” Clay asked as he drove, his foot leaden to the point that they might actually beat Tino and Romeo in the Ferrari. “You said no one can arrest you, right?”
“But Adam’s got to call the DOJ for this. Usually I would investigate an officer-involved shooting, but there’s no one above me. So it has to go to the DOJ. That’s outside Garnet’s jurisdiction. It’s federal.”
“DOJ?”
“Department of Justice.”
“And they can arrest you?”
“Yeah,” Wyatt whispered as he fought past both his medical problems and Jules’s that were the gift from their parents. “They can arrest me.”
“Will they?”
“I don’t know.” He rubbed at his head as he thought about it. “I didn’t call in the stop. I wasn’t on duty or in uniform. I have a personal vendetta against Vaughn, and what happens if the past comes out? I nearly killed him once before.”
“Yeah, but no one knows about it.”
“There was a witness the first time, and my father conducted the investigation,” Wyatt reminded him. “If the DOJ got involved and Vaughn gave them all the details, they could question Jason Wiltkins. They could question Brett too. He’d have a pretty fucking good case.”
“I’m a witness,” Clay reminded him. “I saw him pull a gun on you.”
“Yeah, but that could be considered self-defense on his part. He has a right to defend himself too.”
“What are you trying to say, Wyatt?”
“I’m saying I’m in some serious shit.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Wyatt’s sister knew a lot of people.
At seven in the morning, Tabitha could not honestly believe how chock-full Jules’s emergency had filled that waiting room. Clay, Melody, Tino, Wyatt, and Tabitha all sat there for the few hours, before a young fighter named Chuito had come in dragging a pretty girl with strawberry-blonde hair named Alaine, who was apparently Jules’s assistant.
Tabitha recognized Chuito from UFC fight footage, but she’d just known him as The Slayer. She suspected Chuito and Alaine might be dating. He had his arm draped over Alaine’s shoulders and was rubbing her arm soothingly.
They’d seen Romeo a few times. The babies were in NICU, but the doctors had assured him they’d be fine. It was just a precaution. He was staying with them while Jules was in surgery. Her uterus had ruptured. Romeo told them it was a miracle any of them lived.
He was still covered in Jules’s blood when he’d walked out, and he had the shell-shocked look of a man who was dealing with so many overlapping problems he didn’t know which one to cry about first. He had to sign papers that allowed them to perform a hysterectomy on Jules if it was medically necessary, and with a sob of emotion he had come to Wyatt and said, “She’ll fucking hate me if they do this to her.”
Wyatt had just shaken his head and said, “Nah, she ain’t gonna hate you. Whatever those docs need you to do to save her life, you do it, and I’ll help ya deal with the fallout.”
Things were very tense to say the least.
“Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee?” Tabitha asked as she rubbed Wyatt’s back. He looked almost as bad as Romeo. In some ways he looked worse. His blond hair stood up in spikes from constantly running his hands through it. His eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles of stress and exhaustion under them, and it was horrible to see. “I can get it for you. You’re the only who ain’t had some.”
“Are you kidding?” Wyatt rubbed at his eyes. “If I drink a cup of coffee right now, I will fucking drop dead of a heart attack.”
“What?” Tabitha frowned at him.
“I got high blood pressure.” Wyatt shook his head as if admitting it was difficult. “I shouldn’t drink coffee at all, but with this level of stress. Jesus, no, I can stay awake.”
“You have high blood pressure?” Tabitha repeated in disbelief as she looked at Wyatt’s strong, powerful body. “You have to be the healthiest fella alive.”
“Yeah, you’d think so.” Wyatt let out a bitter laugh. “Jules and I had the shit luck to inherit both of the things that killed our parents.”
“Wyatt—” Tabitha whispered, because that scared her to death. “Are you taking care of it?”
“Yes.” He turned to her and patted her thigh. “I take medication. I exercise. It’s fine, Tabby. I’m just really stressed out.”
“You should have told me. I’m gonna start cooking different things for you.”
“Thanks, darlin’.” Wyatt sat up and draped an arm over her shoulders. Then he fell back against the seat, pulling her tighter to him and placing a kiss against the top of her head. “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest as she sat there listening to his heartbeat. She placed a hand on the spot where it was thumping hard and fast, trying to will some sort of peace for him.
Neither of them had talked about what happened when he disappeared into the night a few hours earlier. Everything had been so tense and frantic, it didn’t seem that important at the moment. They could deal with it after they found out how Jules’s surgery went.