Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,21
mask and the hair covering as he approached. It was in his movements, a sense of regret that had Gage’s heart squeezing.
“Walker family?”
No. Please no.
Gage got to his feet, shaking his head. It hadn’t been long enough. They hadn’t had her back there long enough to fix her broken, battered body.
“Is Kylie gonna be all right?” someone asked.
No.
Gage didn’t look away from the doctor. He saw the sorrow and remorse before he heard the words.
No, no, no.
And then the doctor said the words that would irrevocably change the world as they knew it.
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”
*
Oh, Jesus. Fuck.
Travis tried to take a breath, but someone had replaced the oxygen with shards of glass that rattled around in his lungs, scraping him raw. The pain was unbearable. He could hear the godawful sounds coming out of his throat, but he was helpless to stop them.
God, no. This couldn’t be happening.
Travis stepped toward the doctor.
“We got her prepped for surgery,” the doctor was explaining, “and that was when we realized one of her ribs had pierced her aorta. There was nothing we could do.”
Before he realized what he was doing, Travis fisted the front of the doctor’s scrubs. “Go back in there,” he growled low in his throat. “Go back and fix her.”
A firm but gentle hand was on his. It was the doctor’s and he wasn’t attempting to push Travis off of him.
“I’m so sorry,” the doctor said softly.
Dead.
She couldn’t be dead.
No. Fuck, no.
Someone pried his hands off the doctor’s shirt, urged him back.
Not Kylie.
Travis stumbled, trying to breathe but it hurt.
It should’ve been him, not her. Travis would’ve given his life for hers in a second.
His body was racked with shudders as the sorrow tore through him. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.
He stumbled back until he hit the wall, then slid to the floor, his legs unable to hold him up anymore. Tears flooded his eyes, made it impossible to see. He was aware of the people around him, moving, whispering, someone still talking to the doctor, others trying to console one another.
Didn’t they know it wouldn’t work?
Didn’t they realize that the light had vanished, that the heat from the sun no longer existed because Kylie was dead? Without her in it, the world would be a cold, dark place.
Travis was vaguely aware of guttural cries. It was enough to draw his attention to where Ethan and Beau were attempting to hold Gage up. Travis could feel his husband’s pain, but try as he might, he couldn’t muster the energy to console him. Not right now.
“Travis?”
He turned his attention to the man squatting down beside him.
“Reese and I will find her,” Brantley declared, his voice low and hard, his eyes glittering with rage. “We won’t stop until we do.”
Travis wanted to tell him he’d heard that before, that Brantley’s promises meant nothing. If they’d found her before now, Kylie wouldn’t be dead. If they’d found that bitch and put her in the ground, Travis’s world wouldn’t be flipped off its axis right now. His kids wouldn’t have to live out the rest of their days without their mother.
He didn’t say those things, though. He couldn’t. Right now, the coldness had frozen his vocal cords, made it impossible to speak, to feel, to move.
It was all he could do just to breathe.
*
Trey Walker stood on the periphery of the room, watching, listening.
He could feel the sadness, the heartbreak as it penetrated every person around him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d witnessed something so tragic. They were lucky in that they didn’t experience loss often. The Walkers were strong, if not in body then in spirit. There were exceptions to the rule, of course, but most of the deaths he’d dealt with had been after the person had lived a long, fruitful life.
This was not one of those instances.
Kylie Walker hadn’t lived nearly long enough. She was far too young, just a few months older than Trey if he recalled correctly. Thirty-six years old. To have been taken like this … stolen from the world without warning, without a chance for anyone to say goodbye … it was heart-wrenching.
As he stood, Trey watched as family members hugged one another. Kaleb was holding his wife, Zoey, against his chest as she cried. Ethan and Beau were holding on to Gage, giving him as much support as they could. Kennedy was sitting in a chair, her head in her hands, a tissue clutched by her face. Sawyer was