Fracture (Unbreakable Bonds 6)

And right now, seeing her cling to Jude as she wept into his shoulder, Snow’s heart broke for her. This good woman didn’t deserve this kind of pain and suffering. Snow slowed his steps a little, giving Jude a moment with his mother.

Carrick rose from his seat. A year younger than Jude, he was the quietest of the three Torres sons, though he could throw teasing barbs across the dinner table just as easily as Jude and Jordan when the moment presented itself. He now looked drawn and shaky. His face was paler than normal, his dark eyes rimmed with red.

“What’s going on? Have you heard anything from the doctor yet?” Snow asked when Anna’s crying grew quiet.

Jude’s mana released him, and she stepped over to tightly hug Snow. “We just know that he’s in surgery now and that his condition is critical, but he’s been in surgery for four hours already. Why won’t they tell us anything?”

Snow looked over Anna’s head at Jude, who gave a little shake of his head. The attending nurses wouldn’t come out to provide updates if things looked bad. All their concentration would be on saving Jordan’s life.

“Sit with Jude and Carrick. I’ll go see what I can learn.”

He felt Anna nod against his chest before she returned to the seat. Jude looked up at him, eyes filled with both fear and gratitude. He wasn’t quite sure which would be worse at that moment: sitting in the waiting room and not knowing what was wrong or knowing and potentially having all hope stolen away that his brother would make a full recovery.

Brushing a quick kiss across Jude’s temple, Snow turned and jogged out of the waiting room. He pulled his key card out of his coat pocket and swiped it in front of the reader. The doors started to automatically open and he darted through as soon as he could fit. He was immediately hit with the muted sounds of various beeping and machines that normally filled the background cacophony of his life, but tonight was an uncomfortable reminder that he knew someone who was dependent on those machines.

A pair of nurses looked up and blinked a couple of times at him in surprise from the nurses’ station.

“Dr. Frost? I thought you were on vacation for the next week. We have all your patients covered,” Caroline Conway said as he drew close.

“Jordan Torres was brought in today. He’s in surgery now. My mother-in-law would like an update on his condition.”

His demand for patient information was technically bending, if not breaking, the rules, but neither nurse said anything as he came behind the counter and sat down at an open workstation. He had to try three times to enter his password correctly, his fingers refusing to obey his commands as his anxiety mounted. It took only a minute to locate Jordan’s chart, and Snow’s heart nearly stopped in his chest.Sitting next to his mother, Jude lowered his head and rubbed his sore eyes as they all waited for Snow to return. It had been a damn long time since he’d been on this end of things. He wracked his brain, trying to remember the last time he’d been to the hospital when he wasn’t on shift. A little more than a year ago, his friend Shane Stephens had a bullet graze the back of his thigh. Jude had popped in to check on him at the end of his shift and tease him a bit. Two years ago, Lucas had been shot at his own engagement party/holiday charity ball. The injury had been life-threatening, but Snow had gotten it under control quickly.

Before that? Both he and Snow had spent a short period in the hospital after tangling with Dwight Gratton.

But not his family. Not his brothers. Hospitals and gunshot wounds were the territory of Snow’s unique family and their crazy lives. Not his.

Lifting his head again, Jude stared at the blue-and-white pattern of the carpet in the waiting room. All the family rooms were painted and decorated to give a feeling of calm and peace, but he was sure that the people stuck in those rooms rarely noticed. They were completely lost to their own pain and uncertainty.

When was the last time he saw Jordan? Two weeks ago? No…longer…a month. He and Snow had missed the last two family dinners at his mana’s. Too many long hours at work. When he’d been off, he simply hadn’t had the energy to drag himself over to her house. She’d left more than one meal in his fridge recently for him and Snow.

But Jordan had been Jordan when he last saw him. He looked tired and maybe a little thinner than normal, but Jordan said that he’d also been working a lot of long hours at the construction site. The weather had been a little warmer than usual through most of December, and he’d been pulling some long hours outside while the temperature was on their side. At least, that was what Jordan had said.