“I’ll back you up. I want a dog, but I can’t see Michael going for it. He’s one of those men who likes cats. Just weird if you ask me.”

Now it was Riley’s turn to chuckle. Jack had a couple cats that roamed the ranch looking out for vermin. They weren’t house cats, they didn’t come in for petting and love, but Riley had caught Jack once holding one of the cats, a tabby, and talking to it about rat-to-feed ratios.

“I… ask Jack… ’bout get… a dog.” His words didn’t sound so good now.

“Can’t you just go out and buy a dog?” Tom sounded curious.

“We decide things together,” Riley said. “All of us.” And it worked. Him and Jack, Hayley and Max, the twins. Even though the twins weren’t all that involved yet and Max had his own unique perspective on life.

“So tell me more about making Jack marry you.”

The story slipped out in among moments when sleep threatened to pull him under. But Tom wouldn’t let him sleep, and in the growing darkness in this room that smelled of dust and mold, they stayed alive. Together.

When the earth moved and an explosion rocked the ground they were lying on, Tom grasped him close and swore succinctly. Was this the bad guys destroying where they were, or others who would get them out of here? The movement hurt like a bitch as he dug his feet into the ground. Nausea forced him to breathe.

Despite the pain, though, all Riley could think was that somehow, one way or another, this was going to be over soon.

He just hoped he lived to see his family again.

Chapter 12

Jack pulled Hayley into a hug and sat back on the sofa, and Eli sat opposite, watching him for signs of a breakdown probably. Carol hovered at the door, having taken care of the twins and Max, and the Feds sat at the table with cell phones silent and laptops open. Robbie had left a while back; he, Vaughn, and Liam still had chores, and horses waited for no kidnapping.

Someone gave him a whiskey, Eden. She placed it in his hand, then resumed her seat curled up next to Jack holding his other hand. Sean and Riley’s mom were in the kitchen making food, and Riley’s dad was on the phone to the legal department at Hayes.

“We can get ten within an hour,” Jim announced to the room. The Feds glanced up at him, and Carson typed a message in on his laptop. What message he sent, Jack couldn’t even think about. Sean came in bearing plates of food, Beth not far behind, and Jack saw Donna, Josh, and Steve. The whole family was here.

Josh immediately crossed to Jack and slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Anna is upstairs with the kids. She has Lexie and Connor with Carol. She’s there if we need her.”

“Need her?” Jack looked up at his brother blankly. What did he need? Everyone had him organized. Every single person in this house had a reason to be here. They loved Riley, they wanted him home, but all Jack wanted was space to be scared. No one was letting him be scared.

Carson’s cell rang, and he answered it immediately. He stood up abruptly, his chair clattering away from him. “We have Riley and Tom. They’re okay.”

Jack sat up so hard he had to catch Hayley as she slid a little.

“What?”

“Is Daddy okay?”

“What happened?”

So many questions. Carson held up a hand, and everyone fell silent. He was smiling. “The team we had down there has secured Riley and Tom. They’re being taken to a hospital in Nuevo León.”

“I want Riley here, in the US, in Dallas,” Jack said. “And Tom, I want them both here.”

Jim laid a hand on his arm. “I’ll organize this,” he said.

And Jack was happy to let him.

* * * * *

Riley was really beginning to lose his shit. He was constantly being told to sleep, then woken up, then told to sleep again. All he wanted was his family, and yet they moved him and he swore that they were flying, that he was experiencing some kind of out of body experience. Not since the barn fire had he felt so damn helpless. He heard talking, efficient no-nonsense summaries of his injuries, and he even got told that Tom was fine. But when Riley attempted to move his head, he couldn’t get a fix on a nurse or Tom or any one of his family, or hell, indeed anything tangible.

Every so often he had flashes of memory, of the moment he’d pulled a trigger and killed a man, and he felt sick, allowing sleep to pull him away to a place where he didn’t have to think about it. The traveling, flying sensation stopped, and he opened his eyes to a white room with a ceiling of gray squares.

“Hello there.” The voice was soft and female. ”You’ve arrived at Dallas Mercy. How are you feeling today?”

“Where’s my family?”

“Can you tell me your name?”

Now this was Riley officially losing his shit. “Riley Campbell-Hayes,” he snapped. Instantly he was contrite, but the nurse or doctor or whoever it was didn’t call him on his tone. He was poked and prodded, and light shone in his eyes until he was ready to snap again. “Where is Jack?”

Silence. Riley strained his head to see who he was talking to, but all he saw was a door shutting. Then just as quickly, it opened and he saw something that just made him want to cry. Jack. Looking strong and solid and all his.

“Riley.” Jack crossed to him, leaned over the bed, and held him close, talking at him about nothing and everything, about Hayley who wanted to come in, and the twins, and Max who didn’t understand and wasn’t that good. And how Sean helped to make sandwiches and Riley shouldn’t be so hard on him.

“Stop!” He managed to interrupt Jack in full flow.

“Riley?”

“Shh, just hold me.”

Jack slid hands under him and held him, and all Riley could do was hang on and inhale the scent of his husband. For now that was enough.

They separated a little so that they could talk, but all Riley wanted was to look at Jack. For a time, he’d thought he’d never see him again, and none of this there in the hospital room seemed real.

A cough moved them apart, but Riley gripped Jack’s hand. “Don’t leave,” he begged.

Jack squeezed his hand. “Not going anywhere.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Campbell-Hayes, my name is Dr. Stanlow. I just need to run through a few things.” She flipped through a chart and nodded every so often. “Okay, so the hospital in Nuevo León did a good job with your ankle. It’s fractured, but we’ve set it and there shouldn’t be permanent damage. You should keep the cast on and see your regular doctor about changing it out for a softer support. Either way, with some PT, you should be as good as new in six to eight weeks.”

Riley flexed his legs and put two and two together about why one felt so much heavier than the other. He didn’t recall breaking anything. He just remembered the wound to his head. Lifting a hand, he touched his forehead and encountered nothing but a raised set of bumps.

She caught his movement. “We were lucky you only needed some Steri-Strips on the cut. We’ve caught you up on all your shots, and I’d like you to stay here one more night so I can run some tests.”

“I’m not staying here,” Riley said immediately.

“He’s staying,” Jack interjected.

Riley turned his head sharply to look at Jack and wished he hadn’t as nausea overwhelmed him. Jack held his hair as he was embarrassingly sick in one of those stupid plastic bowls.

“One night, Riley, and I’ll be staying with you,” he said. The doctor left, the nurse arrived to help him clean up, and the entire time, Jack held his hand and said nothing. Only when the nurse was gone did Jack release his hold. “I’ll get Hayley,” he said. Riley wanted to call Jack back, he just wanted Jack. He wanted to tell him everything about sitting in the dark and the pain and the sleeping and talking with Tom. And the fact he’d killed a man. But when the door opened and a steady stream of visitors descended, it was impossible to cover everything that had happened.