Seth's Chance [Brac Pack 27] by Lynn Hagen Page B

seeing the fire and anger burning in their depths. “If there is anything left of her, I’ll send it your way.”
Malcolm nodded as he walked back into Chance’s hospital room. Christian took one more glance around before hurrying from the hospital. The place brought back too many painful memories for him.
* * * *
    Seth bent at the waist and grabbed Oscar, swinging his nephew up into his arms as he raced down the hospital corridor.
His boss, Cody, had called Seth, waking him from his sleep to tell him that Chance had been in some sort of explosion and was at the hospital in the city. Seth hadn’t a clue how he was going to get there until Chance’s brother, Roman, had swung by to grab him.
Oscar rested his head on Seth’s shoulders, a coat wrapped around his pajamas as Seth raced to Chance’s room. He was just friends with Chance. He honestly didn’t know why he was being hurried to the hospital, but Seth was grateful. Chance may be a barbarian, but he was Seth’s friend and hell if his heart wasn’t careening out of control at the thought of Chance being hurt.
Seth stepped into the hospital room, noticing right away that the Lakeland men were there. It was hard to mistake them as anything but related. They all looked alike from one degree to the next.
“I’m sorry. I’ll wait until you’re done visiting him,” Seth said as he stepped toward the door.
“Nonsense, son, you’re a part of our family,” Mr. Lakeland said. That confused the hell out of Seth, but he didn’t argue. He didn’t want to leave Chance. But for Chance’s father to declare he was family was a bit strange. What in the hell had Chance been telling these folks?
“How is he?” Seth asked as he stepped closer to the bed.
“I’m fine,” Chance said as he cracked his eyes open and stared at Seth. His voice was a little gravelly, sandpaperish. Seth felt a stranger stirring inside of him, as if something long asleep was finally waking. He’d never felt that before. Not with Chance. Not with anyone. He shuffled Oscar to his other shoulder as he stared down into Chance’s eyes.
“What happened?” He wanted to know. Chance was lying here in the hospital, black soot adorning his nose with a voice that sounded almost like the Godfather, deep, rough, and…somewhat sexy. What in the hell was Seth thinking? This was no time to have those kinds of thoughts. It must be the lack of sleep.
“Let me have the whelp while you talk with Chance,” the father said as he reached for Oscar. Seth pulled back. Although Chance had been Seth’s friend for two months, he really didn’t know the father all that well. They’d met a few times, but not enough to let Seth know he could trust the man with his nephew.
Mr. Lakeland stared at him and then dropped his hands away, giving a slight nod. Why did that make Seth feel bad?
“He’s fine, Seth. Pa won’t let anything happened to Oscar,” Chance said.
Hesitantly, and because his back was starting to kink up, Seth let Pa take his nephew. Mr. Lakeland had insisted Seth call him that, but Seth had never felt right using that term. Mr. Lakeland folded Oscar into his large and beefy arms, Oscar smiling up at the man. Oscar seemed to really take to the Lakeland clan. He was always smiling the few times he had been around them, as if he knew a secret that Seth was clueless about.
“We’ll be right outside if you need anything,” Mr. Lakeland said as he and the other men left the room. He watched them leave and then turned back to Chance. It was amazing how much larger Chance seemed as he lay there in the hospital bed. Seth wasn’t sure the beds were designed for someone as big as Chance.
“Now tell me what happened,” Seth said as he grabbed a chair and pulled it close to Chance.
“It’s a very long story,” Chance said.
“So give me the condensed version.” There was no way Seth was going to just sit here and wonder what happened. Chance had nearly lost his life. That was enough to earn Seth an