Rome's Chance (Reapers MC #6.6)(36)

This had to be some kind of mistake—Mom had been fine when I’d left.

She’d hugged me goodbye. She’d been playing cards with Kayden. She was going to stop smoking and now I had a job and our family was going to be okay, even if she did like her rum and Cokes a little too much.

I flew up the stairs, only to be blocked by a firefighter at the door.

“It’s my mom,” I gasped, desperate for information. “My sister and brother… They’re inside.”

He caught my shoulders, steadying me. “They’re working on her right now. You need to stay out of the way. Do you understand?”

“What’s happening?”

His expression stayed absolutely neutral. “All I know is that they’re taking care of her, and that you need to let them do their jobs.”

“What about my brother and sister?”

“They’re in the living room,” he said. I tried to pull away, to get inside, but his hands tightened. “Hey, listen to me.”

“What?” I asked, trying to see past him.

“They’re scared,” the man said, his voice serious. “You need to be strong for them right now, okay? Can you do that?”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. My thoughts were racing way too fast, but I knew he was right. I needed to pull my shit together. Now. I pushed the panic down through sheer force of will, then opened my eyes and nodded.

“I can do this.”

“Yes, you can.”

He let me go, and I pushed past him through the door. There was another firefighter waiting inside, and I heard noise from the back bedroom. Off to the right, Lexi and Kayden sat on the couch, clutching each other.

“Randi!” Kayden shouted, launching himself across the room into my arms. He nearly knocked me over, but the firefighter put a hand against my back, catching me. Then Lexi was hugging me so tight it hurt. Her entire body shook, and I thought about how hard it must’ve been—finding Mom, calling 911, taking care of Kayden…

“Okay, we need you to move out of the way,” the firefighter said. “They’re bringing her out. You’ll need to follow them to the Grantham hospital in your car. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said, trying to balance Kayden as I backed Lexi into the living room. Then I saw the EMTs coming out of the bedroom, rolling the stretcher carrying my mom. There was one man on each end, and a third walked next to them, carefully pumping air into her chest with some sort of bulb thing. Her face was the wrong color, sort of a horrible bluish gray.

Living things weren’t supposed to be that color.

Time seemed to slow. Lexi’s fingers clutched my arm. I blinked, then realized the guy helping her breathe was Rome. He met my gaze, and while his face was stoic, I saw the weight of understanding in his eyes.

He knows what this feels like, I realized. He’s watched someone he loves fighting for their life…

“Call Tinker and have her meet you at the hospital,” he said, his voice serious.

I opened my mouth. Wanting to ask the question.

Wanting to know if she was already gone.

I couldn’t, though. Not in front of the kids. Then they were out the door. My back sagged, and I lowered Kayden to the floor. Rome was right—we needed to get to the hospital. What had I done with my phone and my keys?

Suddenly Lexi started giggling, like some sort of deranged hyena.

“What?” I asked. She shook her head and pointed to my feet. I looked down, trying to figure it out. Then I saw…

I’d completely forgotten about my shoes.

My feet were bruised and bloody, and they’d left streaks all over the carpet. I hadn’t even noticed. They should’ve hurt, but they didn’t. In fact, I didn’t really seem to be feeling anything at all. Shock?

Huh.

Lexi laughed harder.

“Shut up!” Kayden yelled, then he ran past me toward their room, slamming the door. I heard the sound of something breaking inside. I looked down at my feet again, because holy fucking shit. This was real. This was really happening.

Right here, right now.

“Grab whatever you need,” I told Lexi, trying to get a hold of my thoughts. She was still laughing, but laughter was the wrong word to describe the noise coming out of her mouth. No, this… this was the sound of something so sick and sad and heartbreakingly full of fear that no single word could ever describe it.

This was the sound of our world ending.




The hardest part about getting to the ER was finding my car keys. They weren’t in the apartment, my purse, or the car. Finally Lexi and I started retracing my path using our cell phones as flashlights, and Kayden spotted them in the street, about a foot away from the driver’s side door. The whole search only took about ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

Then we had to drive to Grantham, about twenty miles down the valley. All I could think about was my mother’s face, and that terrible, bluish gray color. Lexi sat in the back with Kayden, holding him. That horrible laughter of hers had faded, thank God. Now she whispered to him quietly, and while I knew he was still crying, he seemed to be under control.

The hospital was small and there were plenty of parking places right in front of the ER. This time I made sure to tuck my keys into my pocket, then Lexi and I each took one of Kayden’s hands and we walked inside.