Well that just wasn’t fair. Whatever herissue was, feeling maybe more deeply involved than she should bethis far in, she realized he was right there with her. Part of herstill expected him to be the love-’em-and-leave-’em sort.
Delaying sex hadn’t just been about keeping apromise, it had been about protecting herself. Damn it, evenwithout the sex, she was falling head over heels for him.
***
Hopping out of the cab he’d tipped well totake the quickest route to the hospital, Asher ran into the lobby.There was a glowing, colorful map in front of him, but his mind wastoo unfocused to try to figure out how to find the damn ICU.Scanning the lobby, there were dozens of arrows and hallways. And afreaking Starbucks.
A friendly, arthritic eighty-somethingyear-old saw his clouded vision as he tried to figure out where togo. “Are you here to visit someone?”
Ears buzzing with worry, he managed tonod.
“Do you know what unit? I’d be happy to showyou the way.” The poor volunteer, designated by a clearly markedblue vest, hesitated, unsure whether to splash cold water overAsher’s face or wait him out.
Shaking off the fog that had muddled hisbrain, remembering he was here because he needed to be here, hemanaged to respond. “ICU. Jack Holden.”
With a gentle nod, the volunteer pointedtowards the far hallway. “This way.” Following behind the painfullyslow pace of his new best friend, he tried to not sprint ahead.Wouldn’t help to lose one’s guide, only to get lost around the nextbend.
After an interminable trudge to the ICU,Asher tried not to panic when he saw the staff running in alldirections, a cacophony of life-saving machines beeping in alarm.He was about to ask the man at the front desk to point him towardsJack’s room when Zane approached him from the side and whacked himon the back.
“About fucking time. This way.” Zane didn’twait for his response.
The nurse, however, wasn’t having it. “One ata time.”
Desperately, Zane took a step forward.Towering over the nurse, his scowl could have caused the poor guyto combust, but his tone was all plea. “Call security if you needto, but our friend is dying. One more body in there won’t change afucking thing.”
Taking the nurse’s hesitance as approval,whether it was intended to be or not, the pair stalked back toJack’s room.
Sliding open the glass door, Asher pulled theprivacy curtain to the side to enter the room. His friend lay paleon the bed, hooked up to more wires and tubing than he could makesense of.
Fucking shit, Jack.
“How the hell did he get sepsis? I thoughthis injuries were all healing?” Taking the only seat next to thebed, Asher sat at the bedside and stared at Jack’s pastycomplexion.
Zane stood back with his arms crossed overhis chest. “Heroin.”
“What? You’re fucking kidding. He couldn’thave been that stupid.” Running his hands through his hair, Ashersaw the scattered scabs that marred his friend’s skin where he’dbeen injecting.
Seething, Zane held his post in the corner ofthe room, his jaw clenched tightly. “Apparently, he was thatstupid. I don’t know if he just got hooked after all the damn painpills he’d been taking after… After. Or, if he was abusing becausehe was too lost and depressed.”
“I haven’t seen him in what, two months, andhe lost it that quickly? Wasn’t he planning another surgery soon?”Maybe if he hadn’t been so caught up in himself, he would havenoticed Jack wasn’t okay. Could have said or done something.
Zane shook his head briefly. “Guess hestopped going to his appointments a week or two ago. I think hegave up. Took the most painless way out he could come up with. Notthat it worked out quite how he wanted.”
“Why didn’t he… Why didn’t we… was itsuicide?”
Zane shook his head, his eyes red with fury.“No way to know. Don’t think so, as there was no note and he hadstuff out like he’d been in the middle of something. Whatever,though, we should have realized something was wrong. I should havebeen paying more attention.”
“He’d have dragged our loser asses out of theditch.” It was hard to imagine the gaunt, lifeless figure in frontof him as his colossus of a friend that had pulled him out of anumber of scrapes. “I was too fucking busy putting a band-aid on myscuffed knee to pay anyone else any attention.”
Not caring about the plethora of cordsattached to Jack, Asher rested his hand on his friend’s and gave agentle squeeze. Whispering his apologies for not realizing how muchhe was hurting.
“Too late now. I’ve been out of the navy agrand total of forty-eight hours and have spent most of my freetime at this damn hospital. Fucking depressing.”
Looking up, Asher saw Zane hadn’t moved. Hisjaw was clenching a mile a minute, tense as the rest of him. “Ididn’t even know you were out. You going home?”
Eyes still glued to Jack, Zane managed toshake his head. “Nah. Not much home to go to.” Zane’s parents owneda snooty architecture firm in New York and had never shown muchinterest in their children. His brother was last rumored to besomewhere in Nepal, and his sister lived and breathed Air Forcelife.
Knowing Zane was heading to an early graveright alongside Jack, not from drugs, but certainly somethingself-destructive, Asher couldn’t let another friend go. “Come on upto Washington. Foothills is a good place. I just got on with thepolice department.”
