Nicole Edwards - Zane

“Zoey,” V whispered her friend’s name as she emerged from the group of massive males, making a beeline straight for her. Never in her life had V been happier to see her best friend than she was right then.

The second she came in contact with Zoey’s much smaller body, she nearly fell to her knees. Overwhelmed by the enormity of what this all meant, V began sobbing like a baby.

“Honey, I’m here.” Zoey whispered in her ear, holding her tightly against her and running her hand through her hair. Being held had never felt so good, and V was relieved to have someone she knew she could turn to.

The chaos ensued around them, but V didn’t look up, nor did she stop crying as she sent up a steady stream of silent prayers for Zane. Even when the buzz of more Walker males speaking around them, she continued to sob, never speaking, just quietly begging.

Please, God, please let Zane be ok.

♂♀

Three Months later... December

“Will you stop hovering, goddammit?” Zane was literally two seconds away from jumping out of the damn bed and showing his brother exactly what he thought of him acting like a fucking mother hen. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

“Actually, no.” Braydon grinned, and Zane wanted to punch him. Square in the mouth. “I’ve dedicated my entire morning to seeing your pretty face.”

Just fucking perfect. “Fantastic.”

Just what he needed – a fucking babysitter.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Braydon added in that facetiously ornery tone that made Zane’s hands clench into fists.

He knew damned good and well why Braydon was there. For the same reason, at least one of his six brothers visited him each day – so he didn’t just walk out of the damn prison that was disguised as a hospital. The one he’d been sentenced to for the last three months.

“Well, you should find somewhere to go then before I get out of this bed and kick your ass,” Zane told him.

“I’d like to see you try.” The same cocky grin Zane saw, more often than not, on one of the twins’ faces reflected back at him. Only when Braydon did it, he managed to get under Zane’s skin like no one else.

Zane growled in response to the dare.

Little did his older brother know, but Zane was finally capable of doing just that. Well, the getting out of bed part anyway.

For the last two months, ever since he’d come out of his month long coma, Zane had been working like a maniac, to get his body back to where it was before the brutal attack that left him unable to walk, along with other things. Aside from the multitude of broken bones – all of which had healed nicely during his three month vacation in the hospital – Zane had been diagnosed as having severe Traumatic Brain Injury. And in case the doctors didn’t know, that wasn’t something to be shared with his six older brothers. They’d had a field day trying to convince the doctors and nurses that he’d been born that way.

After three and a half weeks in a coma, Zane had woken up only to find that he wasn’t able to do some of the things he had taken for granted most of his life. Both walking and talking had been on that list if only for a brief time. After two months of rigorous physical therapy and finally, a much anticipated breakthrough, Zane could do pretty much everything he had before the attack. Only it required a little more effort on his part.

Aside from the emotional scars, Zane had healed rather well. A couple of physical scars that were visible with his clothes on would remind him and his family of what he’d been through. Nothing significant. Although the small, three inch scar beside his left eye was a glaring reminder of the payback that was due.

For the last week, he had even been allowed to do some strength training exercises that weren’t reserved for children or the elderly. And now he was feeling as though he could take on the world. Bench pressing three hundred and fifty pounds again might take more time than he originally expected, but he was working on it. Not that he would let his therapist know that.

Regardless, Zane was on the path to a full recovery and, quite frankly, he was ready to move on with his life... right out the front doors of the hospital. It’d taken some time to win over Dr. Canton, the frustratingly patient doc who’d been by his side for longer than either of them had probably expected. To his relief, the good doctor had finally told him today was the day. The day they were finally letting him go home. So, yes, Zane knew full well that Braydon was there to ensure he didn’t get any bright ideas about running out of the building like a mad man.

The thought had crossed his mind a time or two.

Along with spending the better part of these last few months focusing on his recovery, Zane had also been battling an overwhelming sense of violence – the kind that would certainly get his ass thrown in jail for man slaughter. His temper was only exacerbated by the memories of what that bastard Jake Sanders’ buddy had done to Vanessa on the very day Jake and his friends had nearly beaten Zane to death in a surprise attack on V’s front lawn.

Don’t get him wrong, Zane knew better than anyone that his condition could have been much, much worse. He was more than grateful just to be alive and to have his body and mind in one piece was an even bigger reason to send up prayers of thanks, but that didn’t stop the blinding fury that now pulsed right along with his heartbeat.

If it hadn’t been for his mother, Zane would’ve probably gone AWOL by now. The look in Lorrie Walker’s crystal blue eyes and the tears that continued to swim in them weakened Zane even more than the combination of tire irons and being out of it for almost a month. So, here he was, wishing like hell he had managed to control his temper better. At least then his brothers wouldn’t know how pissed off he truly was. Not that hiding anything from them was easy. Considering he’d spent the last two months getting reacquainted with his wild and crazy brothers, Zane had also managed to fill up his TMI quota for the year. He was pretty sure Sawyer was out to win the title of the most ludicrous of them all. The man had mental issues.

“You talk to V lately?” Now it was Braydon’s turn to ask questions.

“Not today, no.” Zane hadn’t talked to V in two months actually. They’d texted back and forth a couple of times, but even those had significantly declined in recent weeks. He’d been lucky yesterday because she had actually responded to two of his texts.

Ever since the day he woke up to find V sitting by his bedside, holding his hand, her tears dropping onto his fingers, Zane hadn’t seen her either. That day had been the one and only time he had physically laid eyes on her while he had been in the hospital, although his mother said V had remained by his bedside from the minute his parents gave the hospital permission to let her see him until the moment he woke up.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to speak for the first couple of days that he was awake, but he found a way to communicate as soon as Sawyer offered up his cell phone. For those two days, that was exactly how Zane communicated with everyone. Including V. The only difference was that once he was coherent and finally able to talk, he’d had the honor of talking to every single member of his family, his best friend Beau, and even Zoey, Kaleb’s fiancé, on a daily basis. But he hadn’t yet been able to say two words to V in person.

And since he came to, she’d become even more unresponsive as each day passed, to the point Zane had stopped texting her altogether. His attempt at interrogating both Zoey and Beau hadn’t worked either. Neither of them shared much information with Zane when he asked. The only thing he managed to pull out of Zoey was that V was doing fine and that she felt responsible for what happened to him, which she seemed to be having a hard time dealing with.

Her being responsible was so damn far from the truth, Zane was livid when Zoey had told him, and from what he remembered, he had told her as much. That might explain why V wasn’t showing her face or answering when he called. At least he hadn’t been stupid enough to leave her a voicemail telling her what he thought. It wasn’t V’s fault. That bastard Jake Sanders was responsible.

And his pussy ass friends.

It took a couple of weeks after he woke up for Zane to remember what happened. Once he did, the images continued to sneak up on him at the most inopportune times. Just thinking about how they came at him, all four armed with fucking tire irons, still pissed him off. But, Zane wasn’t all that worried about Jake and his band of losers. Not a single one of them had shown their face in town since that day, and he figured it would be a long time before they did.

Especially since, word was out that Travis Walker, Zane’s oldest brother, was looking for them.

Literally.

But Trav wasn’t going to be the only Walker looking for them. As soon as Zane was able to walk out of the hospital on his own two feet, he vowed to apply a little Walker retribution of his own.

As it turned out, that day was today.

“So you haven’t heard that Jake contacted her?” Braydon spoke, and Zane turned to look at him.

“What?”

“Kaleb mentioned it this morning. V seems to be blowing it off, but Zoey’s really worried.”

“What the hell did he say?”

“Don’t know for sure, but apparently he got her phone number somehow. Looks like he might’ve been the one behind the texts she was getting, too,” Braydon stated calmly, as though they were talking about the weather, sitting in the guest chair with his attention divided between the silent television and Zane’s face.