Deals With The Devil's Spawn

Cavanaughs protect their own

Brayden's POV

I paced the hospital hallway, my hands going up to my head, and clutching clumps of my hair as I fought with everything in me to not storm into her hospital room, and beat every little shit in there who wouldn't tell me what the fuck was going.

We'd been in the hospital for half an hour, and I was starting to panic. No one was telling me anything, avoiding my eyes whenever they walked past. I had no idea what the fuck was happening to Porter, and the fear that she could be seriously hurt was going to drive me up a fucking wall.

I wasn't used to being scared. Whenever one of us got hurt, I would immediately assess what was wrong and what needed to be done. Even as a kid, I was smart enough to know what I had to do whenever Cade or I were hurt and there were no adults around. But with her it was different. All I could remember in that moment, with her on the ground unconscious, blood on her face, was that it was all my fucking fault.

Once again I'd let my anger get the best of me and Porter had been hurt. She'd been hurt right next to me, and it had been because of me. I was supposed to protect her and instead, she was in a hospital room. The only reason Porter was anywhere near me was because I'd convinced her to go along with my stupid plan. She was doing me a favor, and even though I'd promised her that this wouldn't turn sour for her, it had.

"Brady, where is my baby?" Ms. Mathews' desperate voice snapped me out of my thoughts, making me come to a stop in the middle of the hospital hallway that I'd been pacing just a few seconds ago.

Shaking my head, I avoided her eyes, my hand coming up to grasp the hair at the nape of my neck. "I'm so sorry, I should have protected her, and I didn't. I'm so sorry."

"Brayden, where is Porter?" she slowly asked again, moving closer to me.

"Lindsey?" a nurse spoke up before I could, making her way over towards us. "I thought that was you. Porter is fine, don't worry, she just has a mild concussion. We'll have to keep her overnight as a precautionary measure. Her doctor will be out in a few minutes to answer any questions you may have. Right now, I'm going to need you to fill out some paperwork for me."

Throwing one more glance at me over her shoulder, she followed the nurse. Fighting the urge to punch the wall next to me, I growled and sank into one of the chairs aligning the edge of the hallway.

How the fuck could I have let this happen?

***

"Hey, kid." My head snapped up at the sound of my dad's voice.

Fuck.

What the hell was he doing here?

He was the one person I'd hoped would never find out about this. My dad prided himself on taking care of the people he cared about, and he made sure that Cade and I always remembered that he expected the same of us.

"Uh, hey, dad. What are you doing here?" I asked, nervously, sitting up in the chair.

He walked over towards me and took the seat next to me. "Doctor said you wouldn't let him look at you. That nose might be broken, you might want to rethink that choice."

"It's fine. I probably have a cut on the bridge that caused the blood. The trauma might cause the periosteum to inflame, but it'll heal in a few days," I reassured him.

"You know, it always freaked me the fuck out when you would do that as a kid," he mumbled, shaking his head with a chuckle. "Most of the time I had no clue what the hell you were talking about."

"Yeah, I remember," I told him, shooting him a smile.

"How's Porter?" He asked, and I cursed inwardly. I was hoping he hadn't heard about Porter, and instead was at the hospital only because he'd heard about me being there.