Chapter Eighteen
When Jamie took his cell phone out of his gym bag and started to get dressed after his shower he was utterly exhausted. He lit the screen and was startled to see that he had fifteen missed calls. All of them were from Evan. His heart leaped into his throat. He hoped that Taryn and the baby were okay.
He dialed him back, and asked, “Is everything okay?”
“No. You need to get your ass to Saint Bartholomew. Cora was shot tonight. She’s in surgery right now.”
“Oh Christ,” he said, his heart in his throat. “I’ll be right there. Is...is she going to be okay? Did they say?”
“I don’t know, bro. Just get here.”
Jamie moved like a zombie, drying off and getting back into his normal clothes. He drove to the hospital at speeds way higher than were allowed. When he got out of the car, he had absolutely no memory of the drive.
He ran into the emergency room and saw a huge swarm of people. Evan, Taryn, and Donnie were closest to the door. When Taryn looked up at him, she started sobbing uncontrollably.
Jamie felt a sharp stab in his gut until Evan said, “Calm down, Jamie. It’s crazy pregnancy hormones. We don’t know anything yet.”
“Tell me what you do know,” Jamie said, his voice shaking.
Taryn mopped her face and said, “The hospital called Theo and said that she’d come in with multiple gunshot wounds. That she had a collapsed lung, a nasty concussion, and quite a bit of blood loss.”
Shaken, Jamie pulled Taryn into his arms and said, “She’s gonna be okay. She’s gotta be okay.”
She cried against him for a few more minutes and then said, “Sorry. I totally got snot on your shirt,” as she tried to mop the tears off of her face.
Jamie rolled his eyes and said, “What’s a little snot between family?”
He moved away to pace. The last couple of days had been torture. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if...Fuck. She had to pull through.
Sitting in the corner of the ER, he saw a very shaken Thomas sitting there with a pregnant woman. He was covered in blood. He felt a chill go down his spine as he realized it was probably Cora’s blood.
He looked up from his chair and said, “I am so sorry, Jamie. She called me but I was following up on a call from another tenant about vandalism. She set off her panic button on her car, but by the time I made it back to the front of the building, the shooter had taken off. If I had been with her, then—”
“If you had been with her, then it’s likely you both would have been shot and you never would have found her in time to get her to the hospital. Not your fault unless you shot her, buddy.”
Seeing how shaken the security guard was, Jamie made it his mission to calm the guy down, so he asked, “Who’s this?”
The woman stuck out her hand and said, “Jene Thomas. I’m his wife.”
Jamie shook it and then squinted his eyes at Thomas. “Wait. I thought your first name was Thomas.”
His lips quirked and he said, “Thomas Thomas. At your service. My parents had a shitty sense of humor.”
Jamie winced and said, “Yeah. That had to be rough growing up.”
“When I filled out in middle school, people stopped fucking with me. My elementary school years were kinda shit though,” he said, shaking his head.
He heard the entrance to the ER pop open, so he turned to watch Theo rush in. His eyes were red-rimmed and he said, “Has there been any news on my baby?”
Jamie reached out, put his hand on Thomas’s shoulder and said, “Not your fault. I’m just glad you found her.”
With a final look at his wife, he said, “Jene. It was a pleasure meeting you. If you’ll excuse me.”
He stood up and headed toward Theo, who nodded anxiously at Taryn. When he spotted Jamie, he broke down again.
Jamie ignored the stinging of his own eyes and tried to steer Theo to a chair. He was held immobile in a crushing hug as Theo sobbed like a baby on his shoulder.
He had managed to hold it together for the most part, thus far, but when Theo said, “I can’t lose her. She’s my baby. Why would anyone want to hurt my baby?” Jamie lost it.