The Billionaire Next Door (Billionaire Bad Boys #2)(61)

“She’s going,” Tag stated. He needed her. More than he’d imagined.

“Tag.” Rachel gave his hand a squeeze. “Maybe it’s best not to bombard him.” Sincerely, she continued. “It’s okay if I don’t go in. I came here for you.”

I came here for you.

She’d said it in Hawaii, and at the time the meaning had been so very different.

“I’ll go in with you,” Reese said. Merina was wiping her eyes with a tissue and visibly trying to pull herself together. He addressed Rachel next, sincerity in his eyes. “Merina can take you home if you need to leave.”

“She’s fine,” Tag bit out. But he turned and saw Rachel wasn’t fine. He wasn’t fine. None of this was f*cking fine.

He bent and kissed Rachel softly. The way her arms wrapped around his waist told him all he needed to know. She was barely hanging on, and she’d done this for him.

“Dimples,” he said against her hair, keeping his voice low. “If you need to go, I get it.”

She nodded against his chest, squeezing him a little tighter. He let her go, sent her a tight smile, and left it at that. Her wide blue eyes confirmed she was better out here with Merina than in Eli’s hospital room.

Tag followed Reese down the hall.

Eli’s room was private, dim, the only light coming from the white swirling snow outside the window. Reese walked to the far side of the bed, leaving the chair closest to Eli available.

Eli’s face was dotted with cuts, some deeper than others, but mostly shallow, surface. His right arm was bandaged from elbow to fingers—all five of them sticking out of the cast, his left arm lying on his left leg over the blankets. But it was his right leg that weakened Tag’s knees and sent him straight to his ass on the chair by the bed.

Beneath his brother’s knee, the sheet was flat.

Tag covered his mouth as he mumbled, “Jesus, Eli,” into his hand.

Eli turned his head to take him in, dark blue eyes cold and distant, brown hair grown out some from the buzz cut he’d worn for years, his beard scraggly.

“Just Eli is fine. No need for formality,” he said, his voice a dry chafe. The humor didn’t hit its mark.

Eli licked his lips and reached for the plastic cup at his bedside, shifting his weight and moving his leg—what remained of it—beneath the sheet.

Tag’s eyes went to Eli again, his only thought how it was the same knee Eli had injured during a game of backyard touch football that had turned into tackle. Eli had limped for a month and bitched at Tag for causing his injury.

Hand stroking his own beard, Tag sent Reese a nod of thanks for accompanying him. Reese nodded back. No way did Tag want Rachel in here. Merina was right to suggest she not come in.

“It was a bomb,” Reese said, arms over his chest.

“Grenade,” Eli corrected, eyes going to the muted television overhead. “Benji and Christopher.” His mouth compressed as he shook his head. “Didn’t make it.”

Eli may have been in a hospital bed looking at a TV, but he wasn’t here. Tag could see by his vacant stare that his mind was back on a moment of tragedy he likely felt responsible for.

Tag reached out and took his brother’s arm above the cast, squeezing as hard as he dared to bring him back to the present. “But you did,” he managed, voice shaking, eyes filling with dampness.

Only then did Eli lock gazes with him. His own chin trembled when he said, “Not all of me.”

“Enough of you.” Tag’s voice was a raw whisper.

They had a brief staredown.

Wordlessly, Eli reached out with his unbandaged arm, grabbed a fistful of Tag’s sweater, and hauled him against his chest.

Then Tag held on to his older brother and cried like a baby.





Chapter 18



Rachel let Merina drive her home from the hospital. A huge part of her had wanted to stay for Tag, but one look around the room at his family confirmed he had plenty of support.

During the drive, Merina explained how Eli had lost his lower right leg, lucky considering two other soldiers hadn’t survived the blast. Merina and Rachel shared an awkward moment of silence before Merina admitted, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings by suggesting you not go in. It was a hard way to meet him for the first time, that’s all. And I’ve been with Reese for a while.”

Rachel understood, and told Merina as much. She hadn’t wanted to make Eli feel any additional discomfort, either. Per Rachel’s request, Merina dropped her at the Andromeda instead of her apartment. All Rachel wanted to do was talk to her friend, have a drink, and, now that she realized she’d gone two hours past dinnertime without food, have something to eat as well.

“Hey, toots!” Bree said as she filled a shot glass and delivered it to a customer. By the time she put the tequila bottle back on the shelf, she was frowning. She knew Rachel had been at Tag’s place, and now she was alone. “What’s going on?”

“Change of plans.” Rachel hoisted herself onto a barstool and plunked her purse in front of her.

“Oh, no.” Bree already had a wine bottle in hand—if that wasn’t friendship, Rachel didn’t know what was. “Did something go south?”

“Yes, but not like you think.”

“Miss?” called one of the patrons at the bar, and Bree gave Rachel the “give me a minute” look.