The Keeper (Playing To Win Book 1)

I wake up, disoriented and unsure of where I am before everything suddenly comes hurtling back to me.

The accident.

Lindy.

I bolt up and ignore the pain of whatever just ripped out of my skin. “Lindy,” I call out, and Juliette and Becket come into view. “Where’s Lindy. I need my wife.”

Jules runs a hand over my face. “You need to calm down, Easton. You just ripped out your IV.”

“Where’s my wife?” I ask again, frantic. “Lindy . . .” I yell.

Becks grabs my hand.

The one that’s not splinted.

What the fuck?

“We need you to calm down for a second and hear us, Easton. Take a breath.” Becks refuses to let go of me when I try to wrench free. “Breathe, kid. We need you to calm down for Lindy.”

His words break through to me.

“Why?” I look at him, fucking terrified. “Tell me she’s alive, Becks. I need her to be alive. She has to be alive.”

My eyes burn as tears I haven’t cried since my mom died gather in my eyes. “Please, Becket. Please tell me she’s alive.”

“She’s alive. She’s in surgery now,” he tells me, and I rip out what’s left of the tubes and needles attached to my body.

“Easton.” Juliette stands in front of me. “Stop. You’re hurting yourself.”

A nurse runs in as a machine beeps from somewhere in the room.

I look around like a caged fucking animal.

“Mr. Hayes. You have to sit back down.” She turns away and calls out, “Someone get me help.”

“Get out of my way and take me to my wife.” I try to push past her, not giving a shit that she’s a woman. She’s keeping me from Lindy.

“You’re not going to help your wife if you hurt yourself, son. Sit down. Let me take care of you for ten minutes, and we’ll wheel you down to the private waiting room where the rest of your family is. I’m not going to keep you from her, but I’m not going to let you bleed all over the hospital either.” She grabs a bandage and puts pressure on my unsplinted arm where my IV ripped out.

I lean back against the bed as the room starts to spin.

“Sit down, Mr. Hayes.”

Becket moves around me and eases me down on the bed. “What’s happening, Becks? Why is she in surgery?”

Becket looks to the nurse, whose badge hangs from her pocket saying her name is Helen.

She answers for Becket, “Your wife has internal bleeding. They need to find the cause of the bleed and stop it.”

“You’ll take me to her?”

“Just let me fix you up first. Now sit there and don’t move. I’m going to get you some scrubs to put on.”

Shit. I hadn’t even realized I was in a hospital gown.

The nurse leaves the room, and I close my eyes. “What happened?”

“You were in a car accident,” Jules tells me. “It was bad, but you had front and side airbags. They helped. It could have been so much worse.” Jules wipes her eyes as she cries, and a guy in navy-blue scrubs walks into the room.

“Mr. Hayes?”

“Yes.” My body locks down, preparing for the worst.

“I’m Dr. Midori, your orthopedic surgeon. You have a distal radius fracture in your right forearm, most likely from bracing during your accident. We were able to go in and repair it. You’ll be in a splint for two weeks, while the swelling goes down, then in a cast for another four weeks. Once the cast is off, you’ll be able to work with your team’s physical therapist to get you back on the ice. That should take another four to six weeks. So all in all, you’re looking at about three months before your back on the ice.”

“Doc, I don’t give a fuck about my arm. I need to get to my wife,” I tell him, ready to crawl out of this room if I have to.

Nurse Helen comes back into the room with scrubs and a wheelchair.

“Helen, do you know where Miss Kingston is?” the doctor asks her.

“Hayes,” I whisper. “She’s Mrs. Hayes now. She changed her name last week.”

Dr. Midori nods. “Do you know where Mrs. Hayes is?”

“I do. If you’d all give Mr. Hayes and me the room, I’ll help him get changed and wheel him down to the surgical floor.”

Becket clears his throat. “Is it okay if I help him instead?”

“That’s fine, but don’t let him fall. I’ll be right outside this door.” Helen walks out, and Dr. Midori stares at me.

“You aren’t leaving the hospital, right? We’d like to monitor you overnight.”

“If you can do it from my wife’s bedside, then go for it. But I swear to God, doc. If you don’t get out of my way and let me get to my wife, I’ll go right through you,” I warn him.

“We’ll make sure he doesn’t go anywhere, doctor,” Jules tells him. “Thank you so much for taking care of him.”

The doctor walks out of the room, and I wait for Jules to leave too.

“Not a chance, Easton Hayes. I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’m going to sit right here and keep my eyes focused on this wall while you get changed.”

“Don’t fight with her,” Becket tells me. “The way you feel about getting to Lindy is how Jules and Kenzie have felt all night about you. Let her stay if it makes her happy, E.”

I nod and kick my legs out so Becks can pull my pants up because if I bend over to do it myself, I have a pretty good feeling I’ll fall the fuck over. My head is spinning from the drugs or the anesthesia or the accident. Pick one. It could be any of them.

He helps me get the shirt on, then Jules calls for Helen and the wheelchair. “I’m really not supposed to let you out of my sight, Mr. Hayes.”

“You know where I’m gonna be, Helen.”

She moves behind the wheelchair. “I do. And I’m going to take you there.”

The hospital is quiet, with the lights off in most of the patient rooms. But once we get down to the surgical floor, there’s no sign of the time. No way to tell that it’s the middle of the night. Helen wheels me into a private room with the Kingstons, and Kenzie runs to me.

Becks stops her before she can launch herself at me. “Don’t, Kenz. Don’t hug him. Give him a minute. He’s covered in bruises and has a fractured arm.”

“I’m okay. How’s Lindy?”

Jace comes over to me then. “She’s still in surgery. They’re supposed to come out here and update us once they locate the source of the bleeding, but we haven’t heard anything yet.”

I stand carefully, and Jace holds out his arm for me to grab onto as I slowly make my way over to where Ashlyn and Brandon sit, surrounded by the Kingstons. Scarlet rises from the seat next to her and touches my chest. “I’m glad you’re okay, Easton.”

I carefully squat down in front of Ashlyn, and she takes my hand in hers. “I’m so sorry,” I say as tears fill my eyes. “I couldn’t stop it. It’s my fault. I couldn’t save her.”

“Easton,” Ashlyn sobs. “There was an officer at the corner of the street. He saw it all. You couldn’t have controlled what happened. The paparazzi caused the accident. The man on the motorcycle had a long-lens camera with him. He died for a stupid picture.” Her voice shakes. “And Madeline—” She breaks off on a sob, and Brandon pulls her to him.

“Come on, Easton.” Becket moves next to me and helps me into the chair next to Ashlyn. “You’ve got to take it easy. They’ll come out and tell us what’s going on soon.”

Soon doesn’t come for three more hours.

And when it does, you could hear a pin drop in the room.

A man and a woman, both dressed in dark-blue scrubs and surgical caps walk into the room. “Mr. Hayes?” the woman calls, and Juliette points them my way.

“I’m her husband,” I say, feeling Ashlyn take my good hand in hers. “And this is her mother.”

“Are you okay, Mr. Hayes?” the woman asks, and the room whirls around me. “I’m fine. Tell me about my wife.”

The male surgeon answers, “Your wife is a fighter. Her seatbelt saved her life, but it also caused a splenic laceration. Once we located the bleed, we did everything we could to save her spleen but were unable to. She’s out of surgery now and in recovery.”

“What exactly are you saying?” I ask, wanting to make sure I’m understanding him.

“We removed your wife’s spleen. She’ll have to stay here for a few days, so we can monitor her recovery, and she’ll have to take it easy while she recovers for the next four to six weeks. She’s a lucky woman. This could have been much worse.”

“Can I see her?” I ask, ignoring everyone around me.

“I’d normally tell you to wait until she’s brought to her room, but you’re not looking too good, Mr. Hayes. How about you let us take you back to your wife and we can look you over too?”

“Take care of my wife, and I’ll be fine, doc. Just make sure she’s okay.”

Becket helps me back into the wheelchair, and Ashlyn calls out for me.

I stop and look at her.

I should feel guilty because I didn’t offer to let her go back there to see her daughter, but I can’t.

I need Lindy.

I need to feel her breathe.

“Take care of my baby, Easton.”

I nod, feeling like I already failed, but I don’t say anything as the doctor moves behind me and wheels me into Lindy’s room.

The room is cold and quiet. The hum of the machines, the only sound.

The doctor wheels me over to her bed, and I rest my head against her arm as a nurse comes in and checks Lindy over. Then she looks at me, and I shake my head. She looks like she’s going to fight with me but changes her mind and leaves us alone.

I press my lips against Lindy’s limp hand. “I’m so sorry, baby. So sorry I couldn’t save you. Please be okay. I can’t do this without you.” I drop my head down and do something I haven’t done in fucking years.

I pray.

Lindy

The hum from the overhead lighting is the first thing I notice when I wake up.

The pain is the next thing.

“Lindy.” My mom’s voice pulls me further from the fog, and I open my eyes and try to focus.

“Mom.” I find her next to my bed, with Brandon behind her.

I’m in a hospital room.

The pieces of a fuzzy puzzle start slowly falling into place, and I remember the accident.

I remember being wheeled into the hospital and told they needed to take me into surgery.

“Easton?” I ask, and my mom points to the other side of my bed, where my husband’s head is laying on top of my hand. His arm is splinted, and his hair is a tangled mess.

“He hasn’t left your side since they wheeled you out of surgery last night. His doctors wanted him to go back to his room, but he refused. He followed you from the recovery room to this room once you were admitted and hasn’t moved since.”

My eyes fly open, and I lift my numb hand and run it over his hair. “Hockey boy,” I whisper, my throat dry and sore.

He doesn’t move.

“I don’t want to wake him up,” I tell Mom and Brandon.

“Oh, sweetheart. That man was ready to take on anyone who got in his way to get to you. He was barely out of surgery when he got himself down to the surgical floor to wait with us. Wake him up and show him you’re okay. That’s the best thing you can do for him. We’ll go find a nurse and tell her you’re up.”

Mom leans down and kisses my head. “I love you, Madeline. You’re never allowed to do this to me again, got it?”

“I’ll see what I can do, Mom.”

She and Brandon close the door behind them, and I run my hand over Easton’s head. “Wake up, husband,” I call to him, and he mumbles something.

“Easton . . . I need you. Please wake up for me.”

He moves his head and looks up at me. “Baby . . .” It takes a minute for him to focus, and then his hazel eyes transform from brown to golden-green, and he smiles and pushes to his feet. Immediately, his lips press against mine, and we just breathe each other in.

“Oh my God, baby. I thought I lost you.”

I slowly reach up and cup his face in my hands. “You couldn’t lose me. You saved me.”

“I didn’t save you. If I did, you’d still have a spleen and wouldn’t be waking up in a hospital bed, Lindy.” The utter heartbreak in his voice guts me.

“Easton, you did everything you could to stop what happened. We can’t control other people or Mother Nature. And even then, when that car was coming right for us, you threw your arm in front of me.” I gently touch his splint, and he winces in pain. “In my dreams, you always save me, E. And you save me in my reality too. You always do.”

“I love you so much, princess. Old and gray, remember? You can’t ever force me to live on this Earth without you.”

He lowers the rail of the bed.

“What are you doing, E?”

He gently lies down next to me. “They’ve been trying to get me to lie down for hours. I’m following the doctor’s orders.”

“They’re going to make you move,” I tell him as I carefully rest my head on his chest.

“Let them try, baby. Let them try.”

“I love you, Easton. Only you. Only ever you.”

“Only ever us, baby. It was only ever us.”