Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)(15)

“Sir, he’s gone. It looks like a heart attack. We’ve been trying—”

“Try again,” Declan cut him off.

There wasn’t the pain in his eyes that I felt yet. That would wallop him in another minute. Death knocked like a demon ready to breathe fear, outrage, and shock into our souls first. Then, it stabbed us with that torturous grief.

I sobbed quietly like a wretched child, inconsolable at the loss.

“Get her out of here,” Declan commanded. “She shouldn’t see this. Call his family. He’s going to need their support—and our support—when he wakes up.”

“He’s not waking up.” I shook my head, trying my best to keep my voice steady as I whispered, “Don’t you see he’s not waking up?”

His greenish eyes searched mine as I stared up at him on my knees. His voice cracked as he said, “We have to try.”

And try he did. Over and over again. I watched as the despair took over his face, like he couldn’t handle this. Because death can’t be handled.

He stood stock-still as the medical staff pronounced my father’s death. Yet, his jaw worked, his hands fisted. I saw him trying to bundle up his emotions while he told everyone to get out.

When you were a part of HEAT, you were family, part of the team. It was in the pamphlet they gave everyone when they joined. Declan believed it here with my father. Him and my dad were father and son in every way that counted, and he’d lost him.

I’d cry, I’d mourn the loss of what could have been with my father, but Declan’s grief would be catastrophic. Even if he didn’t want to admit it.

As I walked out of the sauna to allow for the medical staff to do their job, I knew my life was about to change. The only tie I had to this place was my father. And now he was gone.

I’d be gone soon too.

Or so I thought.





7


DECLAN





CARL MILTON PASSED at 8:01 p.m.

Authorities were directed to call his wife.

By about 8:02 p.m., his wife, Melinda, called to ask who was taking over his shares of the company.

I would give the press about ten more minutes until they called with questions. Vultures. Every single one of them. They swooped in on a wounded animal, ready for their feeding frenzy immediately. I may have been wounded, but I wasn’t dead, and I would protect our legacy—Carl was my family for all intents and purposes—at all costs. Even if it meant going up against his wife, the press, and the whole damn empire we’d built together.

Carl had given me a place to call home during my years in the NFL. He’d made me believe in myself more than anyone ever had. He’d accepted my father and mother not just as working-class Greek immigrants, but as equals—treated them the way they always should have been. He gave us all purpose and trusted us with his business.

He was family.

And we didn’t scavenge on family even when they passed.

I knew I had to call my brothers, figure out the staff, the press release … knew I had to do a million things.

All the things Carl was good at. He’d been the charmer, the type who could soothe the press, handle the administrative work, and focus on the business when I didn’t want to. I played ball, I worked out, I posed for a shot with my Super Bowl ring and smiled at people in my face. I didn’t organize things. I didn’t want to.

Yet, now, I’d have to.

I’d need to be the man to make everything work, even if I couldn’t incite my staff to resuscitate the person we needed most. I couldn’t get a heartbeat. I couldn’t bring him back.

I prompted them to try more times than I could count before the doctor called it. Then, I snapped at my staff to get out. I heard an announcement not long after that the gym was closed until further notice, that everyone needed to evacuate the premises immediately.

I stood in that hot sauna as they loaded his large body onto the stretcher. As they carted him away, my life changed before me.

It might have been seconds or minutes or hours when I heard her voice so soft behind me. “You’re going to overheat, Declan.”

The name she never spoke left her lips out of compassion, trying to pull me back from the darkness that was enveloping me.

When I turned, I saw how she bit her lip as she looked at me. Then, she stepped up and wiped at my cheeks, I saw the tears there. Yet, I felt cold, numb, in shock. I blurted out, “Did you close the gym?”

She nodded. “I thought it best given the circumstances.”

Something ugly brewed up inside me. Cold and vicious and hardened from losing the man who’d given most everything to me. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to close down the gym. Not even for a minute.”

“Oh. Well …” She pulled her hand away and fisted it. “We have to mourn him, and we have to take the right steps. We can’t just drive forward.”

“We’ve always driven forward. It’s Carl’s way, Everly.” It sounded callous coming from my mouth. Yet, the woman hadn’t been here. She hadn’t seen how hard we’d worked for this, how much we put in to get here. “We open first thing tomorrow. It’ll be an all-hands-on-deck situation to deal with his passing. So, make sure to look your best. The press is going to have a field day with this one.”

Her jaw dropped as I started to walk past her. “You can’t be … Are you even going to take a moment and stop to consider that my father has died?”