Free Colorado Connection (Colorado Heart Book 6) by Sara York Page B

medical status with nonfamily members.”
    “Is he going to make it? That’s all I want to know. Will he live?”
    The doctor cleared his throat, and for a second, Matthew thought the man wasn’t going to answer. “Yes. Now, I need to get back to rounds. I wish you well.” The line disconnected, and Matthew hung up. Somehow, he’d find a way to talk to Jazz.
    With Bounder and Slider gone, and Jazz and Jimmy in the hospital, the atmosphere was stilted. Everyone he normally ate meals with was subdued. No one joked or talked much because they were all thinking about the men they’d lost. Baller got in a fight with someone from another unit, which earned him a short-term stay in lockup until he calmed down.
    They were falling apart and none of them were ready to go out and patrol the city. Days slid past, and he still hadn’t heard from Jazz. He searched, asked questions, but there wasn’t much he could do until he made it stateside and could physically hunt down Jazz and speak with him.
    A few weeks later, orders came in, and he was told he was headed back to the states. Being home meant he could find Jazz. He imagined what it would be like seeing Jazz again. He could hold him, touch him, look in his eyes and feel his love. But for that to happen he had to be an ocean away instead of hanging out here in this wasteland. Jazz was his rock, his stabilizing factor. He loved the guy and couldn’t imagine going on without him.
    The days inched by, the hours seeming to last forever. Finally, he was on his way back to the United States. It bugged the crap out of him that Jazz hadn’t communicated with him at all. He had a couple weeks leave and he was going to use one of those weeks to visit Jazz.
    It took him a few days to find out which facility Jazz was in. He arranged his leave and booked a flight, hoping Jazz would talk to him. The days of waiting for his trip were painful. He did his work during the day, but the nights were almost impossible to survive. He missed Bounder and Slider, and he ached for Jazz. He wouldn’t have been able to survive if Jazz had died.
    The flight to Washington DC seemed to take forever. Once he was on the ground, he headed strait to the hospital treating Jazz. He checked in at the reception desk, excited to see his man. A woman at the front desk called up to Jazz’s room to tell him he had a visitor. Matthew wanted to grab the phone from the woman’s hand and hear Jazz’s voice, but he stayed still, waiting for permission to see Jazz. She frowned, her gaze connecting with Matthew’s. He knew that look and nothing good would come from it.
    She hung up the phone and shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir, but he’s not accepting visitors.”
    “Did you tell him who I was?” Matthew asked.
    She nodded, her eyes dropping to the desk. “Yes, sir, but he won’t see you.”
    Disappointment wove through him, and for a second, he thought about running past security and racing to the elevator. Jazz wanted to see him—he had to want to. Maybe Jazz was just afraid because of all that had happened. Matthew eyed the security guards, knowing he wouldn’t be able to crash the gates. If he tried, he would be banned from the hospital, and that was the last thing he wanted. He turned to leave, but before he got too far he swung around.
    “When are visiting hours tomorrow?” Matthew asked.
    “Come by at nine, and maybe he’ll see you then. It’s difficult for some of these patients. Sometimes, you just have to wait it out. You aren’t the first one to experience this. I’ve seen best friends and family members turned away over the years. Just give it time.”
    After checking into a hotel close to the hospital, he went searching for food. There were a lot of guys with prosthetics walking around with their families. He wished Jazz would have seen him. Once he had his food, Matthew pulled up his email and checked to see if Jazz had replied to any of his notes. He hadn’t.
    Matthew wrote out another