Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(60)

“Of course I’m still here. Cord and Creed are too. We’re your cousins. We weren’t just going to dump you off and leave you here alone.”

His eyes opened. They were blue. Like mine. Like my brothers. He stared at me with all the wounded confusion of a boy who’d just lost everything. Then he closed them again.

“I am alone now.”

I patted his shoulder, an inadequate gesture.

Then he suddenly shot upright and sat on the edge of the cot. “I can’t even be f*cking mad, Chase. At them. For what they did. I can’t be f*cking mad because she’s dead and he’s going to f*cking prison.”

“You have the right to be angry, Con.”

He coughed, looked away. “You don’t even know.”

“I have an idea.”

“You have a girlfriend, Chase?”

“A fiancé.”

“And you love her?”

“More than anything.”

“As much as you love your brothers?”

I was slow to answer. “Yes. I don’t know what I’d do without any of them.”

Conway’s shoulders slumped and a tear rolled down his cheek. “We were together for a long time. Two years. Of course, she grew up next door so she was in my life long before that. When we were kids the three of us would hang out together but then Stone and I started hanging around with a rougher crowd so she wasn’t around much. That all changed two summers ago. She was the only girl I’ve ever loved.” His voice cracked and he grimaced. “And Stone, he’s the only brother I’ll ever have.”

There were things I could have told him, about how one mistake can reverberate for eternity in ways that nobody could have foreseen. But it would have sounded shallow right now in the face of such treachery and loss. I couldn’t imagine what reasons there could be for one brother to betray another, or for a girl who was clearly in love to turn toward the last person on earth she could have.

Maybe there was more to the story. But all we had right now were the broken shards of its aftermath.

“Conway? Is there anyone I can call for you, anyone you want to see right now?”

He shook his head. “No. Stone was my best friend. And Erin was my heart.”

I put my hand on his head. “We’re here, kid.”

He looked at me with lost, haunted eyes. He didn’t say anything.

A nurse dressed in scrubs printed with pink teddy bears wheeled over a silver cart full of medical stuff and announced it was time to wrap Conway’s hand. Apparently the breaks were simple ones and six weeks in a cast would be enough. The other wounds would take much longer to heal, if they ever did.

The nurse started her efficient business of wrapping Conway’s hand up. He looked a little glassy-eyed and I wondered if they’d given him something for the pain.

“You’ll just have to wait here for a little while longer while it sets,” she told him, gently placing his mummified hand in his lap.

“Conway,” I said, “I’m just going to go talk to the boys for a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

As soon as I returned to the lobby I noticed two things immediately.

Cord wasn’t anywhere in sight.

And Creed looked tense. Downright grim. This hadn’t exactly been the most cheerful day ever but he definitely seemed more disturbed than he was the last time I saw him.

“What did I miss?” I asked, sinking into a plastic chair with a grunt.

Creed gave me a tight smile. “We had a visitor.”

“Oh yeah?”

“The kid’s mother heard he was here.”

I looked around. “Well, she obviously didn’t stay long.”

“No. She didn’t.”

“You two must have had a nice chat.”

“Yeah. She knew who I was right away. Well, actually she called me Chase, but whatever. I told her I was sorry about Stone and that Con was getting treated for the hand he’d broken fighting a Main Street pole. She told me that Conway could pick up his stuff at the Mitchells’ house. She told me to tell him that.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“That’s exactly what I said. Tracy crossed her arms and said she was done with all things Gentry and that those two little punks were on their own. I reminded her that Conway was under eighteen and she should think twice before just kicking him to the curb. She told me if I cared so much then I could keep him.”

“Holy shit.” I shook my head. “What a piece of work.”

“No kidding. When it seemed like she was heading back there to wring him out I stopped her. I asked her not to. I was completely polite about it too. Only used four letter words about sixty times.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me to f*ck off. Said she’d had enough abuse and was leaving. Then she smacked her face on the door. Limped out of here with her mouth bleeding. Good thing there are cameras everywhere. I wouldn’t put it past her to file some kind of bullshit police report.”

“You think she meant it?”

Creed shrugged. “Who knows. She might have a change of heart when the sun comes up. But in the meantime I don’t think he has anyplace else to go.”

“We can help with that until this gets sorted out.”