“Not yet, sir,” he responded, looking around to make sure no one else could hear us. “I’m sure you know I’m not supposed to give you any information since you aren’t family, but it seems to me someone should know the score.”

“Thanks Devon, but I don’t want you jeopardizing your job for me,” I responded. It seemed a more suitable response than throwing my arms around his neck and kissing his cheek, which had also crossed my mind.

“Don’t you worry about me, sir.” Devon motioned for me to follow him out a side door, which appeared to lead to an employee smoking lounge. It seemed odd to me that a hospital allowed their employees to smoke on the property, but then again they all had high stress jobs and it made sense that they needed to decompress from time to time. “As I said in there, I don’t have much information just yet, but they’ve taken him to X-ray and they’ll likely run a slew of other tests before the night is out, trying to rule out a head injury or any internal bleeding.”

That didn’t sound good, but after having been there with Drew, it wasn’t a surprise. I let out a sigh of relief because it sounded as if Drew might not be in as bad of shape as I’d assumed.

“Look, I gotta get back in there. If I hear anything else, I’ll be sure to let you know right away.” Devon stepped toward the door. “I know it’s not much, but if he’s gotta be here, tonight’s a good night. We were staffed heavy in case the Mavericks won, and people got stupid...”

How ironic. Drew was going to get expedient, attentive care, all because the team he played for lost the game. Because of a play that he’d been involved in. Talk about bittersweet comfort.

“Thanks again, Devon. I’d better get in there before the guys hunt me down.”

A conference room full of pissed off, mostly drunk baseball players awaited me inside. When I opened the door, the room exploded into a barrage of questions so loud I couldn’t hear any of them. Finally, Mason whistled loud enough to wake the dead and everyone stopped talking at once. “Thanks, Mason.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Mason barked out. “You got these guys all worked up, and I want to know what the fuck happened that we’re sitting here instead of down at 42.”

Sean pulled Mason back as he advanced toward me. I swallowed hard and nodded my thanks to my friend. Murmurs started throughout the room again and I cleared my throat. “First, let me tell you I don’t have a lot of information just yet. I cut through the alley on my way to 42 and interrupted someone beating the shit out of Drew. I didn’t know it was him at first, but I scared the guy off and called 911.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you go after the guy?” Kevin Green asked, which earned him a slap to the back of the head from his girlfriend. Amber wasn’t the type to take shit off anyone, including Kevin. That quality may very well come in handy before this was over. I needed someone with a level head in my corner as the rage in my friends and former teammates grew.

“Because if I’d gone after him, that would have meant leaving Drew lying in the alley in a pool of his own blood,” I snapped back, slapping my hands on the table, leaning in closer to Kevin. “It was a snap decision, but if I had it to do all over again I’d have done the fucking same. Hopefully when Drew wakes up, he’ll be able to tell the cops something and they’ll catch the mother fucker who did this to him. If I hadn’t let the asshole go tonight, we might be having a very different argument right now.”

My entire body shook uncontrollably. I hoped I wasn’t about to break down crying, but I couldn’t be certain. The gravity of what had happened crashed down on me and it became hard to breathe. I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced to see Jason standing behind me. I placed my hand over his, not giving a flying fuck who might have an issue with it.

“You made the right call, Eric,” Jason assured me before stepping to the side to address the rest of the room. “And if any of you disagree with that, you can come and talk to me. It’s easy for all of us to sit here and talk about what we would have done, but the reality is none of us had to make that call. None of us had to see one of our own lying on the ground. None of us will go to bed tonight with those images running through our heads. Eric will. And even though he’s no longer a Maverick, he’s still our brother. Remember that.”

A soft knock on the door interrupted everyone from coming at me with questions for which I didn’t have answers. Devon poked his head inside and motioned for me to join him in the hall. He cocked an eyebrow when Jason followed me.

“It’s okay. If one of us is going to be here, it should actually be him,” I informed Devon. “Jason’s boyfriend is Drew’s best friend. He’s probably the one you should be talking to.”

I took a step back, but Jason stopped me. “No man, you’re as close to him as the rest of us. I’d like to hear what they have to say, but I think Drew would want you here. He and I haven’t exactly had the best relationship over the past few months.”

“You two can figure that out between yourselves.” Devon chuckled. “For now, I’ll just say what needs to be said. Drew’s back from X-ray. He has three cracked ribs and his right wrist is broken. He woke up for a while, but now he’s out again thanks to the pain meds. The CT scan showed no bleeding or swelling on the brain, which is a damn good thing. He does have a moderate concussion, but that’s to be expected in this type of scenario.”

“When can we see him?” Jason asked. Devon simply shook his head and looked past us into the conference room filled with men nearly gripping the table to keep from rushing into the hall.

“If by ‘we’ you mean the two of you, that should be possible once we take him upstairs for observation. I know it’s a long shot, but do either of you have information on how to reach his emergency contact?” Devon waited for me to answer and I looked to Jason, because I sure as fuck had no clue.

Finally, Jason spoke up. “Was his cell phone in his pocket when they brought him in? If it was, I’d like to see if I can call his parents. That way they don’t flip out by getting a call from the hospital in the middle of the night.”

“I believe it was with his personal belongings, yes.” Devon’s phone rang and he pulled it out to look at the display. “I have to take this. I’ll come back when I have more information.”

“Thanks, Devon.” I was surprised he’d given us so much information when he didn’t have to. After he walked away, I slumped against the wall feeling completely wrung out. Without the adrenaline coursing through my body, I was left running on fumes.

Jason wrapped his arm around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a hug. My body went rigid at his touch. He was one of my closest friends, but I’d never known him to be openly affectionate. “Come on, let’s go tell the guys, and see if we can get some of them to clear out.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, unable to form a complete thought. This wasn’t the way our night was supposed to go, but I was grateful to Jason for understanding what I needed. I couldn’t explain why, but something inside me refused to set foot outside the hospital before I had a chance to talk to Drew and know he was okay.

Chapter 3

All I wanted to do was sleep. You’d think that’d be easy to do in a hospital. Not so much. Between the nurses coming in to make sure I woke up normally, the doctors checking to confirm they hadn’t overlooked something, and my over-vigilant family, it felt as though it’d been a week since I’d last slept.

This time, it was the scent of coffee filling the room that pulled me out of my haze. I turned my head and scowled as Jason took the seat next to my bed and sipped his morning brew. On top of being exhausted and every inch of my body hurting, I had yet to convince anyone in this place to give me anything beyond water and ice. No one can be expected to be satisfied by that, especially someone who’d played the game of his life the night before and lost.