Lo asked.
I tried not to fall apart as I told them how he looked.
“He’s gonna be fine,” Redeye assured me with a hug. “I know him—he’s gonna be just fine.”
Lance handed me a tissue from one of the boxes on the tables, and I wiped tears away from my face. It didn’t seem to matter—they wouldn’t stop. After a few minutes, I managed to catch my breath and calm down a little.
“What did you say to them?” I asked Redeye.
“What do you mean?”
“They weren’t going to let me see him. Why did they change their minds?”
“I can be very convincing.” He grinned at me.
“I’ve noticed,” I replied. I sniffed and wiped my nose. “So what did you say?”
“Well…” Redeye chuckled, “some people just don’t quite understand the situation staring them in the face. They need someone to hold up a mirror just to let them know they’re breathing. Once I explained that you were the one he took the bullet for, and that I’d be happy to call a press conference over the whole thing, they saw things my way.”
“What happened to them?” I turned to Lo. “What happened to Chris and Corinne?”
“Mo and I kept them covered until the police could take them,” Lo said. “I think he’s talking to the station now.”
Lo nodded toward the doors of the waiting room where Mo was on the phone.
“I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon,” Lance said.
“Fucked with the wrong people,” Redeye said. “That’s what they did.”
“You said it,” Lance agreed.
Mo walked back up to us.
“They’re being held without bond,” he said. “With all the other stuff they’re wanted for, this is apparently just icing. Considering they were caught on the scene and everything, they’re expected to plead guilty.”
“Hunter will be glad to hear that,” Lance said.
I tried to find some sense of joy that Chris Marc and Corinne Harper were behind bars and not going anywhere for a long time, but I just couldn’t. I kept seeing the image of Aiden on the floor of the kitchen, covered in blood.
I didn’t know how long we stayed there in the waiting room. Lance tried to talk me into going to the cafeteria for something, but I wouldn’t budge. He ended up bringing me back a sandwich and some coffee, which I tried to consume out of politeness but just couldn’t stomach. The sandwich got a little hard, and the coffee went cold before anyone came out to talk to us again.
“Chloe Ellison?” a nurse called from the doorway.
We all stood up.
“You can come back now. He’s awake.”
A collective sigh escaped us all. I handed Aiden’s baseball cap to Lo before I was led down a different set of maze-like corridors to Aiden’s room. The setup surrounding Aiden was similar to what I had seen earlier, minus the mask around his face. Instead, there was one of those oxygen tubes taped below his nose.
“Here we are,” the nurse said pleasantly.
Aiden opened his eyes and looked over at the door.
“Hey, you,” he said. He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.
I bit down on my lip, trying to hold back the tears. I would have thought they would dry up eventually, but the supply was apparently endless.
“Hey, yourself,” I responded. I sat down in a chair that looked exactly like the one in the recovery room and picked up his hand, wrapping my fingers around his. I felt myself relax as he squeezed back.