Before You

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

They moved from the ER to a waiting room for surgery, and sat without news for longer than Roth thought they should for an update.

“Brother, easy,” Ridge murmured.

Roth hadn’t realized he’d made a sound as he rose. “I’ll behave.” He walked down to the nurse’s station, a poorly-staffed island amid bleak halls. Just as an exhausted-looking woman with haunted green eyes looked up at him, he heard the surgeon’s voice.

“Doctor Garrett? Mr. Rigley?” A woman’s voice colored with the almost aristocratic-sounding accent of England called them.

They responded in unison. “Yes?”

A tall, strong-featured black woman in scrubs strode down the hall toward them. “May I have a word in private?”

They followed her to a small office that smelled of furniture polish. Nathan’s rugged face clearly showed the strain of his emotions. “How is he?”

“Fortunate,” she responded, dark eyes very earnest. “The bullet entered at the bottom of the scapula and, due to some very old scar tissue, traveled up along the bone rather that breaking it to travel through the lung and chest cavity.”

Roth asked, “Did it fracture the scapula or clavicle?”

“No.” She shifted her gaze from Nathan to Roth. “Doctor Garrett, this young man truly dodged a bullet. With antibiotics and rest, he should mend quite properly.”

Nathan’s voice broke as he spoke. “When can I see him?”

Roth cautioned himself against celebration. “Joseph took that round saving this man’s life. It would likely have hit his heart. It’s my professional opinion your patient needs to hear his voice.”

A look of rather belated understanding manifested in her expression. “I’ll see what can be arranged.”

The surgeon arranged a way to slip a scrub-clad Nathan into the recovery area.

Roth, Adam, Ridge and Jason waited in a the metal and vinyl chair-lined hall. After perhaps twenty minutes, Nathan rejoined them. Roth stood. “Did you talk to him?”

Nathan swallowed twice before responding. “He called us a bunch of macho jerks.”

“I don’t know why you alpha assholes keep looming.” Joseph swatted at Roth’s hand as he reach to assist his adopted brother’s scooting higher in the bed. “Stop that.”

Nathan leaned in to kiss his mate’s cheek. “You scared the hell outta us, baby boy.”

Joseph shoved him away. “Don’t you ‘baby boy’ me, you big lug. I survived a bullet. Doesn’t that admit me to the ‘man’ club?”

Adam chuckled. “Okay, I have to vote with him.”

Roth smiled as Nathan scowled. The big man growled, “You ever put yourself between me and a bullet again, I will paddle your fine ass.”

Joseph closed his eye. “He keeps promising.”


Roth and Adam returned to the island at Joseph’s command. He started lippy. However, after his ordeal, had turned outward bossy.

At the tree house, Adam picked up Roth’s hand and led him into the lift. Isolated in the space, he observed his man. “You have something on your mind.”

The lift halted and Adam slid back the guard. “Yeah.”

Roth went along as his fiancé walked him into the master bath. “Wanna share?”

“Not in words.”

Roth woke the following morning draped atop his man. Rubbing his face in Adam’s silky black hair, he recalled the night’s events.

They’d made out like teenagers before going for a moonlight swim at the falls and making love in the aftermath of it. He smiled, swept aside Adam’s hair and lovingly bit his nape.

“Mmmmmm.”

Hearing his man’s rumble, Roth repeated the action before licking the sweet skin. “You’re the most glorious human alive, baby.”

Adam lifted his hips, courting Roth’s forming erection. “All because of you. Make me yell like you did last night."

When the surgeon cleared Joseph to travel, they all agreed to return to Savannah.

Ridge and Jason flew back to New York.

Roth had a curious sense of homecoming as the four of them, along with their FBI escorts, pulled into the drive of his house. A dwelling he’d long considered little more than a barrack with a laundry room and mess, had evolved into a home. “I know you and Joseph will move out soon,” he said to Nathan. “Just understand how much I enjoy having you both here.”


During their eighth night home, Roth woke from a sound sleep. He saw a sliver of light from his closet, glanced over to see Adam slumbering in complete peace. Rising slowly as to not wake his man, Roth pulled on his discarded briefs. He walked to the closet door and eased it wide.

Joseph, wearing dark pj bottoms sat in the floor with the snapshots of Katherine around him. Experiencing an odd sense of déjà vu from the night he found Adam doing the same, Roth murmured, “Hey.”

Joseph glanced up before returning his attention to the photos. His stitches still stood out against his light skin. “I loved you on sight, Roth. Looking at her, I understand that, and the way you treated me.”

He sank to his knees inside the roomy closet and pulled the door closed behind to keep in the light. “How’s that?”

Joseph picked a picture of Katherine Roth’s [i]Maman[/i] had snapped as she watched him play tag in the family pool with Ridge and their father. Holding it up, he said, “She loved you so much.”

“She did.” He thought about the last time he heard her voice, felt her touch.

Joseph smiled. “All her love passed into you. You gave it me and Adam.”

Reaching over to take the picture from his adopted sibling’s grasp, he smiled back. “What about why you loved me?”

The smaller man reached over to pick up his free hand. “Maybe I saw the gift of that love in you.”

Roth cleared his throat before replying, “Get yourself back to bed. I don’t want Nate tossing my bedroom to find you.”