𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 | 𝘩𝘢𝘸𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦

17

grayson

'how is she?' 

evie's voice snapped me out of my trance, from where i'd been staring at the same spot in the carpet for a consecutive three hours now.

we were in the nearest hospital there was, because quinn's shoulder had almost completely dislocated and had been hanging on by a thread when we were both shoved in an ambulance designed to cater for high-profile individuals. my injuries were considerably minor compared to hers, considering she had to get x-rays determining if some of her organs were moved or slightly deformed because of the tighter-than-life bindings, and the doctors had to fix her shoulder, and stitch the cut on her cheek, and those were only some of the many things-

'grayson?' came nash's long, slow texas drawl. 'evie here asked you a question.'

i blinked once, and cleared my throat. still, my voice came out slightly cracked. 'she's fine. nothing fatal. they're fixing her shoulder right now.'

evie let out a sigh of relief as nash pulled her into his arms. 'what happened, gray?'

'in short, quinn got kidnapped by some guy working for my father, my father and jessie are working together, and oren and his team are now working on disposing of my father's body and coming up with a cover-up story. i found her, almost died, brought her back from her hallucination of me dying, and-'

'wait.' evie's voice was so sharp it made everything screech to a halt. 'you brought her back?' she pried herself from nash's arms and took one small step forward. 'h-how? with pills, right?'

i shook my head. 'we were miles away from any sort of pills.'

'but there's- there's no way.' she let out a choked sob. 'there's- that's impossible-' backing away, she didn't look at me anymore. 'need some- air-'

nash watched as she ran off, but instead of following her, he stayed. 'now, little brother, tell me the details.'

i sighed.

the words came flying out of my mouth before i could even register what i was saying. that jessie had violated quinn's privacy with the microphone in her room and could be removed from hawthorne house for that. that sheffield grayson didn't give a damn if i was his son or not. that quinn and the gunman had conversed in korean. that quinn thought i was dead...

i finished, and nash was silent for a moment. his voice was low and sultry as he spoke.

'if there's one thing you shouldn't do, is submit the evidence of jessie's privacy violation to lee-lee at the end of the month. you should keep it as leverage. when jessie does something really psycho, i mean. compared to this.' he mused. 'but good work, little brother.'

i scoffed. 'if i did a better job we wouldn't be at the hospital right now.'

nash shook his head. 'no, gray. you brought that girl back from whatever hell she was seein'. that's noble all right. that's special, that is.'

i scoffed, again. 'yeah, and you would know.'

nash shrugged. 'i'm just sayin'. evie told me things. did you know her schizophrenia started after her momma died?' i stiffened. 'see, i knew it. you ask her 'bout that, little brother. not my place to say this crap.' he stood up and walked away, in the direction evie had left in.

i called after him. 'tell oren to find that goddamn camera and sweep quinn's room thoroughly, at least three times. and tell him to make it snappy.'

nash only whistled in response, but i took it as a yes.

i sat for a little while longer, then stood up and walked to her treatment room. the metal of the doorknob conformed smoothly with my palm, the coldness of it shocking me out of whatever daze i had slipped into.