“I’m calling security,” the woman said.
“Loch, man, you have to listen, or you’ll be banned from seeing her period.” Nox was trying to reason with him, but he just couldn’t move.
He was compelled to stay with her. It was so much more than him just being a stubborn asshole. His entire life was lying half-dead in this hospital bed, and there wasn’t jack fuck all he could do about it.
“Oh shit.” Asher’s voice joined the fray. “Here they come, amigo, let’s go.”
“No.” He refused to waver.
“Lochlan.” His brother’s voice held warning.
“Sir, you can’t be here. Let’s go.” A guard stood on either side of him, each prepared to drag him out.
“Don’t, Loch. She may be out of it, but she’ll know.” His brother was right, he knew he was. It wasn’t going to make leaving any easier.
Standing, he was about to go with them until her fingers grazed his hand. “Lochlan?” Barely a noise to cross her lips, but he heard her.
“I’m here, Sage.” He dropped back down, gripping her hand in both of his.
“You’re really here.” Her pain-filled sigh had him worried.
Ignoring the guards still trying to remove him from the room, he asked the nurse, “Can’t you give her something?”
“She’s maxed out. Now you need to leave.”
“Leave?” Sage’s eyes widened at the thought, and her body went rigid as she tried to sit up.
“Shh, Angel, lay back down. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Mierda.” Asher was back to cursing when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Sage’s eyes grew wide with panic, and he knew leaving her wasn’t an option. “If you want me gone, you’re going to have to arrest me. I won’t leave her side.” Appealing to the nurse, he told the woma
n, “She’s new to all this.” Hoping his prediction was correct. After all, he’d been to her compound. He didn’t think any of them had left very often, if at all.
“What do you mean?” she asked him.
“I live on a compound.” Sage’s voice was weak. “I’ve never been here before.”
“How old are you, Miss Marlowe?” The nurse came over, sitting on the other side of the bed.
“Seventeen,” Sage told her shyly.
Nodding, the woman told them, “Your parents have already been in touch with quite specific instructions that no one is approved to be in here with you. No visitors, period.”
“Please don’t make him leave me.” Sage’s grip on his hand tightened as much as her feeble strength allowed.
“I’m inclined to listen to you over them now that you’re awake. I can see how much this gentleman’s presence means to you.” Relief swamped Lochlan. “However, Mr. Hogan, she needs rest. Which means you need to go home, get some rest yourself, and come back tomorrow refreshed. We should have her in a regular room by then. We have security on every floor; she’ll be safe.”
“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed, her assurance of safety the only reason he was willing to leave, “but I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
Sage’s sad eyes followed him from the room as Nox pulled him along. He couldn’t risk getting banned completely when he’d been offered an olive branch.
“I need to talk to Ma,” he told Nox, grabbing the keys Asher offered him for his Mustang.
“What for?” His brother was confused.
“I can’t let her go back there, Nox, they’ll end up killing her at some point. And she’s seventeen so she can’t stay with me. Not yet.”