Chasin' Eight (Rough Riders #11)(112)

More medical personnel raced over. A stretcher appeared. Then an ambulance. It never looked right, a ghostly quiet emergency vehicle slowly rolling across the arena dirt. No flashing lights, no wailing sirens, no rush.
The sound of spectators clapping as they paid respect to the person leaving via ambulance partially roused Chase from his stupor. Seemed as if he’d blinked and the next rider was up, and the rodeo was back in business.
He turned and literally ran into Ava. “Let’s go to the hospital. Ryan is probably freaking out. I imagine Jackie is already on her way.” He took Ava’s hand and they weaved through the melee of contestants leaving the event. She didn’t speak until they were in his truck.
“Will Ryan be okay?”

Chase shifted in the seat. “In small events like these, there are no med techs, so they automatically take injured riders to the closest hospital as a precaution. And Ryan is young. Old timers like Taz refuse to ride in an ambulance and find their own medical treatment. But I doubt a youngster like Ryan put up much of a fuss when they told him he needed to go to the hospital.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s explains a lot.”

They made the drive to the hospital in silence. He parked in the emergency lot, and it seemed to take an hour to walk through those emergency room doors.
Inside the hospital waiting room, Jackie paced in front of the windows. Ava hustled over and hugged her. “Any news?”

Time passed in a vacuum of misery.
After she heard the toilet flush for the third time, she curled her palm around the handle, praying he hadn’t started locking the door. The door swung open with a loud squeak.
Chase sat on the floor, his face hidden in his hands. He said, “Get out,” in that dangerously low tone.
She parked herself next to him, hip to hip. When he didn’t bark at her to leave, she placed her hand on his knee, wondering if he’d accept her need to soothe him.
Try.
“You want some water?” she asked.
No answer.
She counted to one hundred. “Chase? Do you need—”

“I don’t need anything. Just go.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t you understand? I don’t need you.”

Ava ignored the sharp pang his words caused. “But I need you.”

Chase slowly lifted his head and looked at her with red-rimmed eyes. “What?”

The stark misery had her reaching for him without conscious thought. “Don’t turn me away. It’s ripping me up to see you like this. I need to help you. Tell me how. Please.”

“You can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Help me. So just go the f*ck away.”

She slowly rolled to her feet. He probably thought he’d scared her off. No way, buddy, I’m sticking. She filled a cup and held it out, waiting for him to take it. She’d stand there all night if she had to.
Finally, he said, “Fuck, all right, give me the goddamn thing,” and snatched it from her fingers.
He could scream obscenities at her if it’d bring him out of his sorrow-filled drunken stupor.
An eternity later, when he figured out she wasn’t going anywhere, he started to talk.
“Watching Ryan these last few weeks, before he…” Chase squeezed the plastic cup so hard water shot out the top. “It drove home the point I’ve had it so f*ckin’ easy my whole life.” He gulped the water, swished it around in his mouth and leaned forward to spit it in the toilet. “I cheated to get where I am today by bein’ Bill Chase.”

“Whatever name you used didn’t get you to the top. Your drive to be the best did.”