Chapter 23

I’m numb. I’ve never felt this kind of terror before. I’ve never known this kind of pain. “He’s going to be okay, Lil,” Alessandro says while squeezing me tight in his arms.

My brother came through, did what I asked of him without question. He helped sneak me out of the house undetected. And by the time we arrived at the hangar, the pilots were ready to take off and all of my cousins, with the exception of Lorenzo, were on the jet waiting for us.

“You don’t know that,” I cry into his chest. It’s where I’ve been since takeoff. I haven’t said a word to anyone else. Alessandro led me to the back of the jet and sat next to me. As far as brothers go, I really did luck out.

“Lil, he’s Travis fucking O’Neil. He is going to be okay,” he repeats. “That guy takes harder hits than a bullet every time he’s out on that ice.”

“I’m not ready to lose him, Alessandro. I only just got him. I don’t want to lose him,” I say through hiccups.

“You’re not going to lose him.” My brother continues to rub his hands up and down my back.

I want to believe him. I desperately want him to be right, but I’m not an idiot. I know that just because someone says something with conviction, it doesn’t make it true. And even if Travis is okay, if he does survive this, he’s never going to want anything to do with me again. It’s my fault he was shot. It’s my fault he’s in surgery. And it’s my fault if this ruins his career… If he can never play hockey again…

I check my phone for the millionth time. Gray is supposed to message me as soon as Travis is out of surgery. There’s nothing yet. That can’t be a good sign.

Alessandro shifts me slightly as he retrieves his own phone from his pocket. “It’s Pops,” he says.

“I’m surprised he took this long,” I grumble.

“He didn’t do this, Lil. I know you don’t want to believe that right now, but he really wouldn’t do this to you.”

“I don’t want to talk to him right now. I honestly don’t know if he did this or not, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Travis doesn’t have enemies, other than Dad.”

“Pops, what’s up?” Alessandro answers his phone with a carefree tone while holding me against his side. “Yeah, no can do… sorry.”

I can hear my father’s voice through the speaker when Alessandro pulls it away from his ear slightly. He’s pissed.

Good. Let him be pissed. Because right now, so am I.

“She might be your daughter, but she’s my sister. And you always tell me to protect her at all costs. Remember? To support her. And that’s what I’m doing. I’m choosing her because she needs me,” Alessandro says.

No one ever tells my father no. Not even us. My brother is risking his future with the family business, facing the full brute of my father’s temper… for me.

“You need to give her time,” he says. “And me some fucking credit, Pops. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”

I close my eyes, only to open them again when Travis’s face pops up behind my lids. Can this jet go any faster?

When we land in Vancouver, there are three SUVs waiting for us. Alessandro and my cousin Enzo climb into one with me. The rest of my cousins fill the other two; they’re headed to a rental property while we go straight to the hospital.

My hands shake. I’m so cold, but I can’t seem to get warm. I dig my phone out of my pocket again and call Gray’s number. He should have contacted me by now. The fact that he hasn’t only increases my worry.

“Lil, you land?” he asks after the second ring.

“I’m on my way to the hospital. Is he…?” I swallow down the rest of my words. I can’t voice them.

“They just rolled him out of the operating room. They’ve induced a coma,” Gray says, and I continue to sob into the phone. “Lil, he’s a tough one. He’ll pull through. He just needs a little time to heal.”

“What if he doesn’t?” I ask. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Let’s not talk about what ifs and focus on the facts. He’s out of surgery. He’s fighting, and trust me when I say that guy is not going to give you up so easily.”

“I’ll see you soon.” I choke down the rest of my tears and hang up. Then I take a deep breath and look over at my brother and cousin. “He’s out of surgery and in an induced coma.”

“Okay, that’s good. He’s out of surgery,” Alessandro says. “And an induced coma is different from a regular coma. It means that the doctors can wake him up when they think he’s ready.”

“I know.” I wipe at my cheeks. I need to pull myself together. I really hope everyone is right. I need him to be okay. I can’t fathom a world without him in it. I can’t think of Travis not being here.

I also can’t get my head around why this is happening. My brother is adamant that it wasn’t our father, but I just can’t think of anyone else who would want to kill Travis. He’s not from our world. He doesn’t have enemies lurking in every corner. And the only threats he’s faced came directly from my family.

Did my announcement that I was moving in with Travis push my father to his breaking point?

I knew he wouldn’t like it. And I knew he would be over the top about letting me go. But, at the end of the day, I really thought he would be able to put my happiness above anything else. I thought he would let me have this. I was wrong. My whole life has been scripted. Controlled. He’s used to dictating where I can go, who I can be friends with, and who I have to avoid…

Why would that be different now?

The SUV stops at the entrance to the hospital, and Alessandro grips my hand in his as we walk in a few seconds later. Everything is a blur as my brother leads me through the winding halls. He stops to speak to someone and then we’re guided to a room.

The lights are too bright, the sounds of machines beeping deafening, and the smell…

Why do hospitals have to smell so bad?

I drop Alessandro’s hand and step closer to the bed. Closer to Travis. People are talking but I don’t know what they’re saying. It’s all background noise as I stare down at the love of my life lying lifeless in the bed. A bunch of tubes and wires attached to his body. And the room starts to close in on me.

I hear my brother yelling before my knees give out, and I start falling. Blackness creeps in as someone’s hands grab at me.

“Travis.” I sit up with a jolt.

“Shit, Lil, slow down,” Alessandro says, grabbing my arms.

“What happened?” I look around the room. Enzo and Gray are both staring at me with concern on their faces. “What happened? Where is he?” I ask again, while trying to push out of my brother’s hold so I can stand.

“Liliana, you passed out. Travis is fine. He’s right there. You need to sit down,” Alessandro says.

“He’s okay?” I whisper.

“He’s fine. He’s right there. I spoke with his doctors. He’s going to be fine, Lil,” my brother assures me.

“Promise?”

The moment he hesitates, I know my brother is talking out of his ass. If he believed it, he’d tell me as much. But I know he won’t make me a promise he can’t keep.

“Lil, I promise the doctors are confident that he’s going to be okay.” Alessandro chooses his words carefully.

The door bursts open, and Travis’s parents rush into the room. I take one look at his mother and guilt consumes me. “I’m so sorry,” I choke out, the tears streaming down my face all over again.

“Oh, sweetheart, this is not your fault,” Frances says as she tugs me into her arms. She’s comforting me when I should be the one comforting her. Her lips press to the center of my forehead. “He’s going to be okay.”

I nod my head, but I’m not sure I believe her either. Frances squeezes once more before releasing me, and I watch as she approaches the hospital bed, silent tears falling down her face when she looks at her son. I position myself at the bottom rail. Alessandro follows me. His hand closes around mine as I stand here and look at Travis. This is my fault. He’s in this bed because of me, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now.

“When is he going to wake up?” I don’t know who I’m asking, but I ask it anyway.

“The doctors are going to wake him up tomorrow. They want him to rest overnight,” Mr. O’Neil says.

I nod my head. Tomorrow. He’s going to wake up tomorrow.

When Alessandro’s phone rings out, breaking the silence, he excuses himself from the room. Enzo follows him out, and Gray steps up to my side. His hand replaces my brother’s as he gives my palm a comforting squeeze.

“He wouldn’t like you holding my hand, you know.”

“I know,” Gray says. “But you were my friend long before you were his.”

“You should go home to your daughter.”

“I’m not leaving you, Lil. That’s not what we do. You never left my side when I needed it. I won’t leave yours either,” he says.

He’s talking about when Kathryn ran away. I knew she left. I was the one who helped her disappear in the first place. Even though she never told me why until recently.

I hated watching him mourn her. I hated watching his heart break over and over again, when I knew she wasn’t really missing. That she chose to leave him. But she was my best friend, and for whatever reason, she was adamant that he couldn’t know where she was. I kept her secret. All those years, I kept her secret and did my best to help Gray move on. Not that he ever really did. The fact that he doesn’t hate me right now is a miracle. Because if the roles were reversed, I’m not sure I’d be as forgiving.

“I need to know who did this,” I whisper to Gray.

“We’re going to find out,” he says. “I promise we will find the person who did this.”

“And if it was my father?” I keep my voice low. The last thing I need is for Travis’s parents to overhear me and realize this is my fault.

“It wasn’t your family, Lil. Your father isn’t going to start a war with us.”

Gray’s wrong, though, because I know my father would go to war with anyone when it comes to his kids. His family. And taking me away is the biggest threat there is.