Page 43 of Betrothed

“Come on, angel,” I murmured, bundling Kenzie into my arms and leading her from the field. “Let’s go.”

“I need to go to the hospital. Did you hear—can you see where they’re taking him?”

“We can’t go to the hospital. We have to go home,” I told her hollowly as we reached my Jeep.

Her head shook frantically. “No, I can’t. I need to see him, Zeke. I can’t leave.” A fresh rush of tears streamed down her face, and it had never been so damn hard to breathe before.

“Listen to me.” I gripped her shoulders. “You can because you’re strong, okay? You can because we’re going to get in the car, and then I’m going to find out everything that’s going on. You’re his mother, you have a legal right to know what’s going on.”

She just didn’t have a right to see him because that stupid fucker wouldn’t let her.

“I have to be there. He called for me. You heard him call for me.” She cupped her hand over her mouth, trying to hold in her strangled cry.

I gritted my teeth and swallowed though it felt like pure acid down my throat. “If you go, he’ll refuse to let you see him,” I said, my voice cracking. “You know he will. And as soon as you try, he’ll file a restraining order.”

She flinched as though the fact had physically struck her. Her eyes lowered to my chest, and she stared hollowly—silently—for so long, I started to worry when her small voice finally spoke.

“Okay.” The resignation in her voice killed me.

I opened the door and helped her into the car. We weren’t even out of the parking lot before I called Callie’s husband, Reed; he was former San Francisco PD and still had friends on the force. Within minutes, he’d called back and told me they’d taken Jake to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital.

“I’ll call.” Kenzie extended her hand for my phone.

“No.” I shook my head.

“What—”

“I don’t trust them to not give you the runaround,” I explained and dialed a different number—and called in a different favor. “Dex? It’s Zeke.”Dex Covington was Ace’s brother, and his former CIA intelligence training was about to come in handy. “Can you get me the medical records and updates for a patient, Jake Klinger, from Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco?”

“You mean… hack into a hospital?” he asked on the other end of the line.

One look at Kenzie and the answer came flying from my lips. “Yes, I mean hack into the hospital and send me the records,” I confirmed. “Thank you.”

Her jaw went slack and her pink cheeks darkened to red as I ended the call.

“Zeke…”

I handed her my phone, so she’d be the first to see what Dex sent over.

“He won’t get caught.” Dex was too good. However, that didn’t change the fact that I’d asked him to do something illegal.For her.

We’d just pulled onto the highway when my phone began to vibrate with updates, and Kenzie hunched over it reading and re-reading every word and screenshot and image that came through.

“His nose is broken,” she informed me. “They reset it.” Another couple of minutes went by. “They checked him for a concussion. CT scan came back normal.”

“Good.” Even though this was all what I expected based on what I saw on the field, I was relieved to hear it, and I knew she was, too.

“They’re discharging him,” she said another few minutes later.

That was fast.I had a feeling Stan had something to do with it.

“What happened to the kid who hit him?” Kenzie asked in a daze.

My brow creased, and I tried to remember what happened to the other kid but it was all a blur. The whistles and shouts. The people rushing onto the field. Kenzie.

“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “But I think the kid’s dad was the same guy who brought Stan’s truck onto the field.”

Kenzie’s head swayed back and forth, her breaths growing unsteady again. “Why would he do that? Why would he hurt Jake?”