Matt—The Callahan Brothers by Emily March

Author:Emily March
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-942002-02-4
Publisher: Emily March Books

“HIPAA laws, schmippa laws,” Maddie Callahan railed as she paced the ICU waiting room. “This is Brazos Bend. We have our own way of doing things here. Federal law can go hang. That doctor needs to tell us what’s wrong with your father!”

“Calm down, Red.” Luke draped an arm around his wife’s shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze. Maddie had rushed to town from Fort Worth, where she’d been lobbying a state senator to support a bill to improve conditions in Texas prisons. “He’s new in town. He’ll learn in time. The important thing is he said Branch is doing all right.”

“Why would he forbid the doctor to give us details?”

“Because he’s a crotchety old fart who refuses to give up control of anything.”

“I want to see him,” she said, in a small voice.

“You know how he is about weakness, honey.” Luke pressed a kiss against her hair. “He doesn’t like anyone seeing it. That’s why he ditches his walker for a cane whenever he goes outside, even though that’s when he needs the walker most.”

“Mark needs to be here, Luke,” she added. “If Branch ... well ... Mark should be here!”

“Let Mark be. I think he’s wrestling with demons we don’t understand.” When he’d started on the liquor, his brothers had taken possession of the pain pills. There hadn’t been time for questions.

“He’ll regret it.”

Luke’s only response was to hold his wife tighter.

Matt sat slouched in a hard plastic chair, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. He had his hands folded across his belly and his eyes closed, but he wasn’t napping. Far from it. His mind raced a million miles a second.

He was shaken. He didn’t need the doctor to tell him what had happened. It was obvious. Branch had a heart attack. He’d gotten worked up emotionally over Mark’s situation, then taken a second punch from Torie’s presence at the lake house. The stress might not have caused the attack, but it sure as hell hadn’t helped.

Matt figured he was the one to blame. He was the one who’d involved Mark in Torie’s troubles. He was the one who had taken her into his home. Hell, if Branch knew he’d taken her to bed, he’d have had both a heart attack and a stroke.

Matt let out a sigh. As if his feelings toward his father weren’t complicated enough already. He hated the man ... but he loved him. He was furious with him over his part in John’s death, but unlike his brothers, he understood the desperation behind Branch’s efforts.

Hadn’t Matt been just as desperate?

Against his will, his thoughts returned to that night in Sarajevo, that fateful encounter that no one—not his brothers, nor his father, nor his employers—knew anything about.

He recalled the café, Natalia’s ruby lips and smoky voice. John’s surprised, “Matt? Is that you? What are you doing in Sarajevo, brother?”

He’d lied. Curse his black soul, he’d lied and denied and turned his back on his own brother.

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