Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(59)

He went to texts and pulled them up. Sure enough, there was a thread there from a contact marked Freddie.

He showed it to the trooper and deputy, who quickly frowned. “And a call to him not too long before the accident,” the trooper said. He read Freddie’s number off to the deputy, who wrote it down. “We’ll have the phone’s location tracked. We’ve got law enforcement going to his address in Nebraska to see if anyone knows where he is right now. Who is this guy?”

“He’s Mason’s ex. Mason broke up with him before he moved back to Florida. Months ago, now.”

“When Mr. Lange moved back to Florida?” the deputy clarified.

“Right. I know he’s told both of us that Freddie kept bugging him,” Cole said. “He’d told the guy a lot of times that he wasn’t going to be anything but friends with him.”

“I think we have motive,” Tilly snarked.

Cole shot her a glance, but the black look on her face shocked him.

She looked like she wanted to mow the guy down herself.

“It looks like it,” the deputy said. “Guy can’t take a hint and goes off the deep end.”

Most of the others arrived then, including Landry and Cris, who’d apparently run home to get the man and drop their daughter off with friends. Neither Cole nor Kim had any appetite to finish eating their food. They all sat quietly waiting for word from the OR. The officers left their cards and information and a case number, promising to call when they had any new information. After Cole unlocked Mason’s phone and changed the settings so it didn’t require a log-in, the officers took it as evidence, promising to get it back to them as soon as possible.

Kim sat curled up in Cole’s lap, her head resting against his shoulder, her feet in the chair next to him. He held on to her, afraid to let go.

“What about his parents?” Tilly somberly asked. “Do you have their information?”

Cole forced his brain to engage through the hazy curtain of shock and anger and grief threatening to engulf him. “Probably on his phone. I’ll have to go to his place and see if he’s got it written down anywhere. His dad’s local, but his mom’s in Miami.”

He realized he was stroking Kim’s hair, an unconscious gesture, not even so much to comfort her as to comfort himself.

It was two long hours later when a tired-looking doctor in scrubs came out to get Cole to talk to him. He took Cole, and Kim and Tilly—who Cole had snagged by the hand—into a consultation room off the main waiting room to talk.

“How is he?” Cole asked, terrified of his answer. Kim had a death grip on his left hand, and Tilly had reached over to take his right, squeezing it with both hands, stroking his hand, comforting.

“His condition’s serious,” the doctor said. “I’m concerned mostly about the swelling…” Cole checked out after that, letting Tilly take over and ask the questions. The prognosis was literally up in the air because they couldn’t tell what the long-term effects of Mason’s injuries would be. And no way to begin to tell that until he woke up.

Which wouldn’t be for several days, at least. Not until the brain swelling went down from the head trauma. He had a skull fracture, and when Cole saw that Tilly was paying attention and grokking the details, he tuned the rest out. He was doing good not to throw up already.

The details would shove him over the edge.

And then there were still the risks of complications from Mason’s punctured lung and the surgery to remove his spleen and stop other internal bleeding. His left wrist had fractured, as had his left clavicle, but those were minor compared to everything else. Miraculously, he’d only sustained bruises on his legs, no fractures, breaks, or joint injuries.

Once the doctor finished talking and answering their questions, he led the three of them back to the surgical ICU, where Mason had been taken.

The man was barely recognizable, tubes and monitor leads and—

Cole closed his eyes and swallowed, hard, not wanting to lose his dinner.

I have to be strong.

It was Kim’s soft, choked sob that realigned his world. He pulled her into his arms as Tilly crowded in close on her other side and wrapped her arms around both of them.

“Be strong,” Tilly whispered. “Remember, he might be able to hear you, even though he’s sedated. Tell him you love him. Tell him we’re all here for him. Hell, order him to get better. But don’t give up.”

He stared into Tilly’s eyes and took another deep breath.

“It’s okay,” she silently mouthed to him. “I’m here.”

Only when Cole was sure that he wouldn’t throw up did he finally untangle himself from the two women and move over to Mason’s bedside. He stood on Mason’s right and slipped two of his fingers under Mason’s palm, lightly stroking the back of Mason’s hand with his other.

Leaning in, he brushed a kiss against Mason’s cheek before pressing his lips to the man’s ear.

“I love you, Mase. Please come back to us. We don’t care how, but we both need you and love you.”

After Kim got to lean in and kiss him, too, Cole and Tilly led her back to the waiting room.

That’s when Cole realized both Kim and Tilly were still wearing collars. When he tried to take Kim’s off, she clamped her hands around it and shook her head.