Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 25

Sorry for being a hater. I want to be a lover, but I hate everyone.

— Gable’s secret thoughts

GABLE

It was getting hard to breathe.

Was this what dying felt like?

“ You’re going to be okay, brother.”

I looked up at Quinn’s face. “ I am?”

Wow , was that my voice?

It sounded like sandpaper and gravel had a baby.

“ Yes ,” he said. “ You are.”

“ Athena ,” I coughed. I felt like I was choking. “ Can you get her?”

“ We’re looking for her right now. She’s not answering her phone.” He pressed harder on my chest. “ We’ll find her.”

Maybe they wouldn’t.

I might not get to see her before I died.

“ What happened?” I asked again.

They wouldn’t tell me.

None of them would.

I couldn’t remember how I got into the room I was in.

My family was against the wall.

A lot of them were crying.

“ I need a fuckin’ OR !” I heard yelled. “ Now !”

“ Felix is going to save you,” I heard whispered.

Val .

My sister’s sister-in-law.

Dr . Felix was her husband.

Both of them were doctors in the ER I was at.

And both of them were losing their mind.

From what I could tell, there weren’t any ORs open because of a mass incident that none of them would talk about.

“ If you say so,” I sighed.

“ She’s here!” someone called.

I turned to the doorway, expecting to see Athena , and found… Callena .

“ No .” I shook my head. “ Not her. I don’t want her.”

But then a cool hand was touching my face.

“ I’m here.”

There was my angel.

“ Athena ,” I whispered.

“ Open your eyes, Gable .”

I tried.

I couldn’t.

My eyes were too heavy.

“ Can’t ,” I admitted. “ Heavy .”

She reached down and opened them for me.

I saw the shimmer of her tears as she looked down into my face. “ I’m here.”

I tried to smile but couldn’t.

That was too hard, too.

“ Love .” I drew in a shaky breath. “ You .”

She moaned. “ I love you, too, Gable . I love you, too.”

“ I have an officer down here who’ll die if you don’t find me a fucking OR ,” I heard an angry male voice say.

Maybe Felix again.

The sound that came out of Athena had me trying to comfort her, despite not having the energy.

“ Did you know,” I coughed, tasting blood on my tongue. “ That when you die, your brain lives for another seven minutes, replaying its best memories?”

“ Yeah , yeah I’ve heard that before,” she whispered.

I felt a hot tear fall from her eyes and roll down my throat.

“ You’ll be in all of those memories.”

A keening sound left her throat, and I reached up with the last of my energy and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“ I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “ But I’m happy that I got what I got with you, even if it was too short.”

A choking sob left her throat, and she dropped her forehead to mine. “ Fight , Gable . Please fight.”

“ Fuck it,” Felix snarled. “ Everyone out. We’re doing this here.”

That was the last thing I remembered.