Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(52)

After sending another unanswered text, Jesse called again twenty minutes later. “Leo, seriously. Please call me back. I’m worried, okay? Love you.”

He was about to break down and call Eva when the phone rang in his hand, Leo’s number on the display.

Jesse answered, relieved. “Oh, dude, for f*ck’s sake, what the hell?” He knew he’d pay for that lack of protocol later and he didn’t even care. “I’ve been worried out of my f*ck—”

A woman’s voice silenced him in midsentence. “Jesse, it’s me.”

He had to think for a moment because her voice sounded so flat and hollow he didn’t even recognize it at first. “Eva? What’s going on? Where’s Leo? What are you doing with his phone?”

“There’s been an accident.”





Chapter Twenty


Tilly, Landry, and Cris only lived fifteen minutes away. Tilly was his first call, because hers was the first number he could dial from memory without looking it up with his trembling fingers, and he didn’t trust himself to talk to anyone else just yet.

Jesse wasn’t even sure he could walk, much less drive, and he wasn’t too proud to admit it. He was standing outside when Tilly squealed to a stop in her SUV and wearing a baggy T-shirt, no makeup, her hair up in a messy bun, and sporting what looked like Eeyore sleep pants. He ran around to the passenger side and yanked open the door.

“Are those Crocs?”

“Get the f*ck in and belt up.” She floored it before he even had his seat belt on. “Cris and Landry will meet us there. And they’re bringing me clothes. How is he?”

“Surgery.”

She blew through a stale yellow light and hit the horn, swerving around a slow car in the left lane to blast past them as Jesse finally got his seat belt fastened.

“Landry called Ed,” she told him. “He’ll meet us there. So will Ross and Loren.”

“Ed? Ed Payne? Why?”

Tilly didn’t take her eyes off the road as she threaded her way around two more slow cars. “He’s Leo’s attorney. He’ll have all his current paperwork on file.”

“You don’t think—”

She slammed on the brakes and swerved, honking at someone who made a right turn into traffic in front of her from a side street. “Motherf*ckers! You should be in goddamned bed already!” she screamed at them in the rearview mirror.

Jesse held onto the oh-shit handle on his side and prayed he didn’t shit himself as she drove.

“And the phone tree’s already in high gear,” Tilly continued without missing a beat. “We’ll get everyone called and down there. She can try to f*ck with you—it’s the f*cking long, skinny pedal on the right, you goddamned senile *!” she shrieked at a guy slow to take off at a green light.

Holy f*cking shit, she’d never terrified him as much during a scene as he felt right now. It was almost enough to take his mind off Leo.

Almost. But not quite.

Ten minutes later and—miraculously—with no moving violation citations, Tilly pulled into the parking lot near the ER entrance, screeching to a stop in a parking space before shutting it down. She grabbed her purse and keys.

“Sorry I don’t look very professional like this,” she said, “but I was in the middle of giving Landry a blow job. This is what I had on.”

He climbed out and had to run to follow her. She didn’t even look back as she held her keys up and hit the button on the fob, making the horn chirrup behind them.

He was glad she knew her way around the hospital because he’d never been here before. She marched right up to the desk.

“Leonard Cooke,” she said to the desk clerk. “C-O-O-K-E. MVA, brought in a couple of hours ago.”

The woman typed into the computer. “Family?”

“Yes,” Tilly said without hesitation. “Sister.” She hooked a thumb at Jesse. “And his domestic partner.”

The woman gave them a little side-eye but Tilly immediately leaned in. “Hey, gay marriage is legal now,” she warned in a low, threatening tone. “Please don’t make me call Carol Hopkins about you giving his domestic partner a hassle over access. We’re friends who go way back to nursing school. Is he still in surgery? What waiting room?”

The woman jotted some info down on a paper and handed it over. “I need to see ID for security badges.”

Tilly dug hers out while Jesse handed his over. Three minutes later, Jesse was again scrambling to keep up with Tilly. How she managed to outwalk him with her shorter legs, he didn’t know.

“Who is Carol Hopkins?” he asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Tilly said as she looked up at signs, navigating. “I did an ask Siri question on my iPhone to get me a list of staff for the hospital while I was on my way to your place. She’s listed as one of the nursing admins. First name I remembered. You can never tell now with the all the privacy laws what they will and won’t hassle you about. She might not have messed with us, but I didn’t know what kind of buzz saw we’d be walking into with Eva. I wanted to go in forearmed in case she did something stupid, like made a security request to keep you out.”

He would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.

“What if she did that?”