before had he wanted to hit someone like he wanted to hit Garrett right now. And Garrett knew it, but he just stood there, arms down, making no effort to defend himself.
“You need your family right now,” Garrett said softly. “And Rachel needs you.”
Ethan closed his eyes. “All right. I’ll go. Swear to me you’ll call if she needs me. Sometimes when she wakes up, she forgets . . . she forgets where she’s at. You’ll need to be right there so she doesn’t panic.”
Garrett cut him off before he could go any further. “Go. I can handle this. I’ll watch over her for you.”
Ethan took a breath and then turned away to look for his keys. When he found them, he walked over to the couch, where Rachel hadn’t so much as stirred. For a moment he watched the soft rise and fall of her chest. A crease marred her forehead, and she looked worried even in sleep. He bent down and kissed away the wrinkle.
“Sleep well, baby,” he whispered. “I’ll be back.”
CHAPTER 19
ETHAN got out of his truck, slammed the door then took a deep breath before heading to the front door of his parents’ home. As much as he was looking forward to seeing Nathan and Joe, being away from Rachel, even for a few minutes, had him on edge.
The door flew open as soon as he mounted the steps, and his mother rushed out to greet him, her arms open wide. Though he swallowed her up, it was her doing most of the holding and hugging.
Tears pricked his eyelids, and he sucked in a big breath to hold them back.
“Ethan, thank God you and Rachel are home,” his mom said. She leaned up, cupped his cheek and kissed him even as she wiped tears from her own cheeks.
She reached for his hands and squeezed then pulled him toward the door.
“Nathan and Joe here?” Ethan asked as he ducked inside.
She shook her head. “No, they’re helping Sam and Donovan out. Come in, sit down and let me look at you.”
She parked him in a chair at the kitchen table and stood staring at him, all the love of a mother shining in her eyes.
“You look like hell,” she scolded. Then she sank into a chair across from him and grasped his hands in hers. “How is she?”
He swallowed the knot in his throat. “She’s okay. I left her sleeping. Garrett’s there.”
“How is she really?” she asked softly.
He closed his eyes. “She’s fragile, Ma. Those bastards . . . those bastards kept her prisoner for a year. A year. A year where she needed me, where she went through God knows what.”
He choked back a sob, ashamed to be breaking down in front of his mother, for God’s sake.
She rose and he was back in her arms, her arms wrapped tight around his shoulders, and he turned into her as he’d done when he was a child, his grief muffled by her shirt.
“You should have come sooner,” she soothed. “This is too much for you to stand up under alone, son. There are so many of us who will help you, but you have to let us.”
“She needs me,” he said hoarsely. “I failed her already. I won’t do it again.”
“Are you failing her by taking a moment to see the mother who is worried sick over you while Garrett watches over her?”
“He called you.”
“Yes, he said you were coming. And it’s about time. Did you think we’d storm the castle or not understand if you couldn’t bring her to us yet? We’re so worried for you both, Ethan. I want to see her so bad I hurt. I want to hold her in my arms again. I want to see my daughter. But I can wait.”
“Ethan, you’re home.”
Ethan looked up, then hastily away, as his father entered the kitchen. His emotional outburst was bad enough in front of his mom, but to break down in front of his father was more than he could stand.
That thought fled the moment his father hauled him up and crushed him in his beefy embrace. His father wept openly, his big body shaking convulsively as great sobs tore out of his chest.
“Thank God, thank God you’re home. Your mother and I were so worried. And then Sam and Van came home alone. You’ll never know what it was like seeing them come in the door so dirty and haggard and not seeing you and Garrett. It was as bad as the