“IT’S OKAY.” NIC couldn’t move. All he could do was stare at his son and just soak in the fact that Jake was here. Caisey looked ready to argue, but Nic shook his head. He didn’t want to know how he looked, given that he stank like smoke and his face was smeared since he tried to wash off the ash. His hair was probably all over the place and at some point he’d wiped his hands on the front of his shirt.
The ER wasn’t the place to do this and if the kid needed a break, Nic was going to give him one. On a night his mom could have been killed, he didn’t need the added pressure of more emotional upheaval and now that he thought about it, Jake didn’t look so good.
“Is everything all right?”
Gabe caught Nic’s eye and shook his head.
Nic motioned to the room where Jenna was with a tip of his head. “Come on. I’ll show you to your mom.”
Nic didn’t wait for Jake to answer, he just set off walking. Jake caught up and Nic glanced over. The kid’s face was tight like he was holding back a bucket-load of emotion. He wanted to pray that one day they would get to a place where they were tight, but he’d never put much stock in a higher being. Did God still listen, even if you weren’t sure you believed in Him?
Jenna sighed, like Jake had been the one in danger and opened her arms. She was sitting up on the edge of the bed, still in her smoky dress and clutching Nic’s jacket on her lap. The teenager burrowed into his mom’s arms, his face in her neck. His breath hitched.
“I’m okay, honey.”
“Mom, Natalia—” Jake sobbed.
“What?” Jenna’s gaze darted between them. “What happened?”
Nic got nudged aside and Caisey and Gabe came in the room behind him. Gabe looked him over, so Nic nodded so his cousin would know he was fine. They might not have seen each other in years, but their relationship seemed to have slipped back into place. Then Jenna looked up, her face a question Nic didn’t even begin to answer.
Caisey spoke. “Natalia and I went to see her Grandfather. He has a restaurant over on Seventeenth. The guys were in the car down the street.”
Jake sat beside Jenna on the bed, his hand in hers. She glanced at him and then looked back at Caisey. “What happened?”
“Someone attacked the restaurant. Natalia got caught in the cross-fire.”
“Oh, honey.” She pulled Jake close. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
Caisey looked at her friend. “It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to draw my weapon. Gabe said you got caught in a fire, you okay?”
Jenna nodded. “Just a cough. The doctor was coming back with discharge papers so I can go home. But I want to run upstairs and see Grams before we leave.”
“Okay.” Caisey glanced at Nic.
He scratched his ashy scalp, his hair wiry. “Someone decided tonight would be a good night to vandalize my car garage and burn the place down. I don’t think they even knew we were there.”
“Your dad?”
One thing Nic was learning about Caisey, she always got right to the point. He nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.” Nic sighed. “I just wasn’t going to be that man anymore. I don’t want to cow-tow to him just because he’ll retaliate. It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
And wasn’t that the truth. Nic couldn’t believe all he’d missed out on. Now that he could see it, right in front of his eyes see the bond between Jenna and Jake. This was what family meant. Not just Jenna and Jake, but Caisey too, and the unspoken stuff that whipped back and forth between them.
Jake’s eyes were on him. Did the kid know that Nic had made mistakes but he was ready to try? Would Jake let him in, or never get over all the ways Jake had failed? All Nic could do was give Jake all the information he needed to make the choice and hope like crazy he made the right one. Because Nic wasn’t sure he could give up Jenna, not again. Not now he’d seen the woman she had become.
Jenna squeezed her eyes shut and kissed her son on the forehead. “All this in one night? Could it be linked?”
Caisey shrugged. “We could theorize, but I’d have to look into the details to know for sure.”
Jenna turned to him. “When you talked to the police, did you tell them you think it was your dad?”
Nic shook his head. “Like Caisey said, no proof. If it was him, it’ll be tough to find a link. He isn’t going to want anything to get back to him.”
A thick knot in his chest crept up and lodged in Nic’s throat. He tried to swallow. “I’m really sorry.” His eyes strayed to Jake, and then back to Jenna. “I know that barely covers it, but I was a coward. I should’ve known what I had. I thought I was keeping you safe from my dad, but I didn’t realize what I’d be doing to us.”
“Your dad really did all this?” There was no judgment in Jake’s eyes, only question.
Nic sucked in a breath and nodded. “I don’t know about your girlfriend—I’m so sorry about that. But if I had to guess, I’d say yes. My dad probably did this.”
“That’s why you weren’t around?”
Nic nodded. “I didn’t want this for your mom.”
“Why did you come back now?”
Tears welled up in his eyes. “You could say that Caisey knocked some sense into me.” Nic smiled. “Or the change was a long time coming, or Gabe coming back made me realize how important family is. But it was mostly your mom. I was nervous as all get-up. But after I saw her I just couldn’t walk away.”
Jake shifted and looked at his mom. When he looked back at Nic, a small smile played at the corners of his mouth.
The door opened and a doctor came in, his tired face about a decade younger than Nic’s. “Whoa, Grand Central Station much?”
Caisey shifted. “Piccadilly Circus.”
Jenna grinned.
The doctor paused, one eyebrow raised. “Piccadilly Circus?”
Caisey nodded. “My Grandmother raised me on British cultural references. Guess some things get lost in translation.”
The doctor pointed at Caisey with his pen. “That’s funny, because my girlfriend works upstairs and she had an old lady she was taking care of earlier who was British. She passed away, though. Though, if you’re gonna go, go in a hospital. Am I right?”
Nic saw it wash over their faces.
Caisey hit the door at a run, Gabe right behind her.
**
Caisey passed the elevators and made for the stairs, thanking God she’d been here so many times with suspects and victims she knew the hospital layout. She hadn’t known that jerk of an intern though, he must be new.
But not for much longer.
She ran up the stairs, two at a time.
Before she was done, that intern was going to know her real well.
The fourth floor door snapped back on its hinges and she heard Gabe grunt, but didn’t slow down. Nothing would have made her stop. Not until she knew for sure that idiot wannabe doctor didn’t know what he was talking about.
Someone yelled for her to slow down, but she didn’t.
Caisey ran to the door to four-sixteen and hit the handle at full speed. The heavy door opened and she saw the empty bed.
“Case.” Gabe’s voice was behind her.
“Is she Mrs. Lyons’ next of kin?” A pause. Then someone in a white coat was beside her. “I’m sorry. It happened fast and we did everything we could to get Elenor back, but there was nothing we could do.”
People crowded in behind her. She heard Jake’s voice. Jenna started crying. Gabe’s hands touched her shoulder, her arms, but she didn’t move.
“Breathe.”
She couldn’t. She didn’t know how.