A Mended Man (The Men of Halfway House Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to me, Jess. I don't care if you recite the ABCs or count. I just need to hear your voice."
    They jerked the gurney into the small elevator when the doors slid open.
    "I fought back," Jessie said, slowly gasping each breath.
    "I know you did."
    "I … I hit him … with the angel."
    "The angel?" Aidan brushed his thumb along Jessie's hand, not sure if Jessie could even feel the caress with all his injuries.
    Jessie closed his swollen eye, his breath slowing. "The one … you gave me," he said, his voice growing fainter with each passing breath. "The one … you said … would watch over me … after Hunter went away and I started working on my own."
    Aidan leaned over to whisper in Jessie's ear. "Please, Jess … I need you to keep fighting," he said, battling with the tightness in his throat and the pain in his chest.
    "Aidan … "
    "Yeah?"
    "My head … it … hurts … and my … left … " Jessie said, each syllable more faint and slurred as he spoke.
    One of the EMTs grabbed a stethoscope just as the elevator doors opened and they rolled the gurney to the ambulance. "He's got a pulse. It's thready but there. We need to get to the hospital. Now."
    They all climbed into the back of the ambulance—fuck 'em if they thought he was staying behind. He sat on the bench seat, still holding Jessie's hand, refusing to release him as the EMTs continued to check and work on Jessie's injured body. In a matter of seconds, Jessie had tubes, wires, and entirely too many things connecting him to a series of bags, bottles, and machines.
    Aidan tried to level his breathing and stave off the emotions choking him. In the midst of the frenzy surrounding him, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting all the sounds fade around him. He leaned forward and buried his face into Jessie's hair, then did something he hadn't done in years.
    He prayed.
     

 
    Aidan paced the waiting room, cursing and mumbling under his breath with his cell phone pressed against his ear. "Ty?" he immediately said when the ringing stopped on the open line. He screwed his eyes shut, finally taking his first semi-deep breath after handing Jessie over to the doctors at the hospital emergency room.
    "No, it's Cole. Ty's doing an interview. What's going on?" Cole Renzo, his brother's partner, asked, his voice alert and direct.
    Aidan ran his hand through his hair. There was no way in hell he could put up with Cole's crass sarcasm or twisted humor right now. What the hell had possessed him to call them knowing they were in Orlando doing an annual auto show? "Never mind," he said, his voice strained.
    "Fuck you. What's going on? Are you okay?"
    Aidan's throat tightened. Okay? He was far from okay. He felt as if someone had ripped out his heart and lungs and left him on his own to figure out how to breathe.
    "Is it Jessie?" Cole cautiously asked.
    Aidan nodded then realized Cole was on the phone and couldn't see him. He cursed under his breath. "Hospital. It's bad," he managed to say in a tone he hoped sounded somewhat steady.
    "Which one?"
    After a few more seconds and even fewer words, they finally disconnected the call.
    He paced the waiting room, repeatedly cursing, bartering with anything he could think of in hopes of changing the shitty hand of fate he always seemed to be dealt. He mumbled under his breath to himself, avoiding the odd stares from the people sitting in the hard plastic chairs in the room. What the hell was taking so long? He finally sat on one of the plastic chairs, crossing and uncrossing his legs. The TV mounted up in the corner of the room aired some stupid late-night rerun of some crap show that had ended years ago. They should have let it fade away in the sitcom graveyard. He stood and paced again, taking a deep breath and shoving his hands into his pockets. He looked toward the floor, trying to avoid the worried faces of the strangers in the waiting room.
    He stopped when he saw the blood on his shirt. Jessie's blood. He clenched his jaw,