He shook his head, and I could see the internal battle going on inside him. He knew he wasn’t responsible, but it was easier to blame yourself than to think that this was just the way things were supposed to go.
“We need to wait.”
He nodded and swallowed hard. “We wait.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Brooke
“What are you doing?” Reese asked as she walked into the house.
I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor. You never really realize how dirty something is until you get down on your hands and knees. That’s what happened earlier today. Evie spilled her Spaghettios all over the floor and I had to clean it up. Then I noticed that the floor needed to be scrubbed and the baseboards were dirty too. Well, as dirty as they can be in a new house. But still, it was a job to do. A task to keep my brain occupied.
“Cleaning.”
“I can see that, but why are you cleaning?”
“Because the floor is dirty,” I said, puzzled that she wasn’t catching on to logic.
“Brooke, seriously, stand up.”
“I will. As soon as I’m done with the floor.”
I continued to scrub in small circles, getting every last little bit of dirt up. It really wasn’t that bad at all, but like I said, anything to occupy my time.
“So, I take it that Evie is sleeping?”
“Of course. It’s not like I would attempt to scrub the floor with her up and running around.”
“Yes, you would,” Knight’s voice came over the system.
I clenched my jaw and continued my scrubbing. The man seemed to pop up whenever I least expected it, and it was really pissing me off.
“You tried this yesterday,” he continued. “Evie took a bath in the bucket of water.”
I threw the brush down on the ground and stood, tossing my rubber gloves down also. “You know, fuck you, Knight! Nobody asked for your opinions or your constant interference. In fact, I’m pretty sure no one asked for you to watch me like a pervert.” It was silent on the other end and I laughed. “Yeah? Got nothing to say now?”
“Brooke, I think maybe you need to sit down.”
“Why would I need to sit down?”
“Because you’re losing it.”
“I am not losing it. I’m perfectly normal, going about my day, doing my shit. And I would do it a lot better if someone would stay the hell away from me!” I shouted at the ceiling.
“Okay. Brooke, I don’t think you’re handling this whole thing with Rocco very well. What’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on,” I snapped. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine. When Cap told us what was going on with Rocco, you almost cried.” I glared at her, but she continued. “Now you’re scrubbing the floor and pretending that nothing’s happening.”
“There is nothing happening. Rocco is in the hospital recovering and I’m here taking care of his daughter.”
“That’s not all that’s going on and you know it. Rocco hasn’t woken up yet. Doesn’t that bother you?”
He’s fine. He’s in the hospital where the best doctors are surrounding him. There’s no place better for him to be. Panicking about this won’t do any good, so just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you know something.
“There’s nothing to worry about because Rocco is in the hospital getting the best treatment.”
“But what if-”
“What?” I spun around, daring her to finish her thought.
“What if he’s not alright?”
“No,” I shook my head. “He’s going to be alright. This happens to people all the time and they come through it. There’s nothing to worry about until there’s something to worry about.”
She shook her head at me sadly and I shot her a nasty look. She was looking at me with pity, like I wasn’t facing reality. But I was very realistic about what was going on. I knew there were risks, but I’d always been calm in the face of something terrifying. Panic got you nothing except an overreaction that you would regret when it turned out that everything was fine.
“If you’re going to sit there and pity me, you can leave. I have things to do.”
She turned and headed for the door, but not before she got in one last parting shot. “You have to face the fact that he might not come home. Call me when you realize that.”
✯✯✯✯✯
My phone rang and I stared down at the caller ID. My heart beat out of control, making feel like I was on the verge of a major meltdown. I took a deep breath and answered the call.
“Sebastian,” I said, not betraying the quiver in my voice.
“Brooke…it’s not good.”
My phone shook in my hands, but I hadn’t heard the words yet. I needed to hear the words before I would buy it.
“Okay, tell me what’s going on.”
“The antibiotics aren’t working. He’s pretty close to slipping into septic shock. Once that happens…there’s no guarantee that they can save him.”
“I hate to tell you this, but there are never any guarantees in life.”
“Brooke-”
“He’ll be fine.”
I heard him sigh and I knew that he was trying hard to break this bad news to me, but I wasn’t gonna take it. Until he said the words, until he told me that Rocco was dead, there was a chance.
“Thanks for calling. You should have more faith. I’m telling you, he’s going to be fine.”
I hung up before he could say anything else and almost crumbled to the ground. Tears pooled in my eyes, but I only allowed myself one minute to feel the gut-wrenching pain before I stood up straight and swiped at my eyes. Several deep breaths later, I had myself under control. He was going to be fine. I knew it. Rocco was strong and if that spike didn’t kill him instantly, then he still had a good chance of coming out of this. No, everything would be fine. I would not worry about something that hadn’t happened yet. Everything would be fine.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Rocco
The light shining in my eyes let me know that I was alive. Otherwise, it would be darkness, right? I didn’t really believe in all that shit about seeing the light when you died. From everyone I worked on in the military, they didn’t see a light or have their lives flash before their eyes. It was just dark; a blank, dark space that was terrifying. But I saw light, which meant that even though I wasn’t feeling pain, I had to be still alive and fighting.
“Look who’s waking up.”
I couldn’t really move, but my eyes did the searching for me. There wasn’t a whole lot to see. Nothing had really come into focus yet, but I knew the voice, so I wasn’t panicking.
“You’re one stubborn fucker, you know that?”
I felt a small grin pull at my lips and held out my hand for Hunter to grab. I needed his hand to ground me, as strange as that sounded. He was real, and as long as I could touch something real when all I saw was bright light, then it was all going to be fine. I felt his hand slip into mine and grip it tight.
“It figures the first voice I would hear is yours,” I said, my voice sounding and feeling like sandpaper.
The room darkened and the bright light dimmed, letting me finally see my surroundings. I was in a hospital, just like I figured, and Hunter and Derek were on either side of me. Cap was in a chair in the corner of the room, sleeping with his laptop on his lap.
I cleared my throat several times, grateful when Derek handed me some water. My hands were shaky and holding the cup was harder than I expected it to be. When Derek took the cup back, I felt like I had expelled all my energy for the day.
“What happened?”
“You mean, besides you impaling yourself on farm equipment?” Hunter asked.
“I remember that part.”
“Yeah, I gotta say, that was a new one for us.”
I attempted to shrug. “I like to keep things interesting.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want just a clean bullet through t
he shoulder or leg,” Derek quipped. “Let’s try and make things as difficult as possible for the rest of us.”
“Hey, blame Knight,” I said, already feeling myself drifting off. “Part of his new training.”
I heard some faint talking, but then I was out. When I woke up the next time, Cap was on the phone and Derek was gone, but Hunter was passed out in the chair. I shifted, feeling like my whole body was going numb, and caught Cap’s attention. He ended the call and came closer.
“What do you need?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you in pain?”
“Honestly, not feeling much of anything,” I grumbled, feeling drugged and sleepy. I wondered how the hell I was even awake right now with how much medication must be rushing through my system. “What day is it?”
“Friday.”
“Friday?” I thought back to the job and frowned. “I’ve been out for three fucking days?”
“No, you’ve been out for a week and three days.”
“What?”
I was shocked to say the least. It didn’t feel like I had been out that long.
“You developed an infection from the rusty, filthy spike that impaled you. And since it took so fucking long to get you to the hospital, that infection had plenty of time to spread through your body. You were septic. To say you’re fucking lucky is an understatement.”
“Wow.”
“Wow? That’s all you have to say?”
“Um…what did you want me to say?”
He rolled his eyes as he threaded his fingers behind his head and sighed at the ceiling. “Did you know that Brooke is going out of her fucking mind right now? Or that nobody has left your side since you were admitted?”
I looked at him funny. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say. Was I supposed to say sorry?
“And since Brooke can’t come here, she’s been bugging me to video chat with her so that she can see you.”
“You didn’t do that, did you?”
“Do I look like a fucking dumbass to you?”
“I want to say no, but I have a feeling that I’ll be yelled at no matter what I say.”
“Is this a joke to you?”
I sighed tiredly, knowing he was only acting like this because he was fucking scared. Yeah, being septic is fucking dangerous, but I didn’t remember it and I couldn’t change it, so I wasn’t going to dwell on it. “Cap, I’m fine now. Just fucking relax and get some sleep. Or some coffee.”
He slumped down in the chair on the other side of me. “You’re so fucking stubborn. I’m positive that’s the only thing that saved your ass.”
I shrugged slightly. “So, how bad is it?”
“You’ll be fine, fucker.” I huffed slightly and started to drift back to sleep. “You know she loves you, right?”
I wanted to answer and say that I really fucking hoped he was right, but my brain was shutting down and I was drifting off again. Whatever they had me on, they really didn’t want me awake too much.
✯✯✯✯✯
“We can’t put her off any longer.”
“We can’t have her talking to him like this either. Are you fucking crazy?”
I struggled to wake up and find out what they were talking about.
“Dude, you saw what she did to her ex-boyfriend’s car. What the fuck do you think she’s going to do to us when she doesn’t get to talk to him?”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I groaned. “Can’t a guy sleep?”
“You’ve been sleeping enough for all of us. Now it’s time to get your ass up and moving.”
The thought of leaving this bed right now was the worst idea in the world. Normally, I wasn’t one to lie around in bed all day, but whatever my body had gone through, it was telling me that enough was enough. And since I was just too fucking drained, I listened to what my body was telling me and started to drift off again.
“Oh, no you don’t.” I felt a harsh slap on my cheek and then saw Derek snapping his fingers in front of my face. I tried to slap his hand away, but my attempt was weak at best.
“Fuck off,” I grumbled and tried to let myself slip away again.
“Nope. Brooke is ready to break every single fucking law to get here and see you,” Derek said, tapping my face again. “So, you’re going to get on the phone with her and tell her that you’re okay. Got it?”
“Tell her I’ll call her in the morning,” I mumbled.
“Nope.”
He hit a button and my bed started shifting, moving me into a more uncomfortable position. “Goddamnit,” I shouted when something pinched in my side.
“Yeah, that’ll happen when you get impaled with farm equipment. Don’t worry, I talked with the doctor and he said that it was time to get you up and moving.”
I glared at Derek and then saw Hunter in the background, pretending that he had nothing to do with this.
“Aren’t you gonna fucking do something?”
Hunter shrugged. “I kept them away as long as I could, but I’m outnumbered now. Brooke is anxious to see you, and as much as I think that’s a big fucking mistake, I can’t fight them all off.”
“Alright, we’re going to do a video chat. Try and keep the call only on your face.”
“Why?”
“Have you seen the rest of you?”
I stared at him in confusion, not sure what he was talking about. Now that the bed was more upright, I finally looked down to see I wasn’t actually wearing a gown and I had a large bandage across my side. I didn’t think I looked that bad though.
Derek shook his head and shoved the phone at me. “You still look like you’re about to croak. Just don’t show her more than you need to.”
I nodded and sighed, looking at the number on the phone. My eyelids were already starting to get heavy and the idea of just shutting them was very tempting. But Derek said this was important and I didn’t want Brooke to freak out any more than she already was. In truth, it made me feel good, knowing that she was that worried about me.
I hit the number on the phone and waited. “Derek, tell me that I can talk to Rocco.”
“It’s me, Sweets.”
Derek snatched the phone out of my hands and hit another button. “Stupid fucker. I told you to do a video chat.” He shoved the phone back at me, growling about me being too fucked up to work a fucking phone.
“Hey, Sweets.”
She glared at me, not exactly the response I had been thinking I would get.
“Is something wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“Of course something’s wrong. You’re in the fucking hospital and I can’t come see you because my dumbfuck ex was screwing another man in our house.”
There was so much wrong with that sentence, but I didn’t bother to correct her. “How’s Evie?”
“She’s good. She’s adjusting.”
“To what?”
“Um, hello? To having me take care of her. It’s been interesting to say the least.”
I chuckled slightly, imagining how much trouble they had gotten into. “I’m sure you’re doing a great job. Thank you.”
She shrugged and stared at me hard. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just tired.”
“Okay. I won’t stay on, but put Derek back on the phone.”
I nodded and let Derek take the phone from me, slipping back off to sleep as he argued with Brooke in the background.
“You said that he was getting better. He looks like shit!”
“Well, yeah, he almost fucking died, so this is better.”
“How is this better?” I heard her shriek.
“Well, he’s not fucking dead,” Derek said slowly. I shook my head and grinned as I fell back asleep.
✯✯✯✯✯
“Come on,” the nurse said. “It’s time for our walk.”
I scowled at her, angry that she was making me get out of bed. This stay in the hospital was worse than anything I’d ever had before. I was constantly tired, and all I wanted
to do was sleep, but Nurse KissAss was making me get up and move around. I called her KissAss because whenever the doctor was around, she was so sweet and loving, but when he left, she was a hard ass that was hell bent on destroying my life.
“I don’t have time for this shit,” she mumbled, reaching over to help me sit up.
“Then go fuck with someone else,” I muttered.
“Hey, I’m just doing my job.”
“You want to lay off?” Hunter snapped as he walked in the room. At first, I thought he was talking to me, but then I saw the way he was scowling at the nurse.
“Sir, I’m just doing my job. If he doesn’t get up and move around, he’s not going to get better.”
See? KissAss. Hunter walked toward her and got in her face. I could tell that he was pissed at her and trying his very best not to snap her neck.
“Do you know that I have cameras set up all around the room?” The nurse blanched. “And did you also know that I have audio that gives me the play by play in my ear at all times?” The nurse tried to take a step back from him, but he had her boxed in against the bed. “I know the shit that you’ve been saying to him, and while I’m sure he can take your shit, I’m about two seconds away from making sure that you never step in this fucking hospital again. Am I clear?”
She nodded and he took a step back, smiling wide for her.
“Now, why don’t you go get me a nurse that actually does her fucking job.”
“Of course,” she murmured, not bothering to look back at me before she slipped out of the room.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said tiredly.
“I know I didn’t, but it was fucking pissing me off.”
“Watch it. You’re starting to sound like you care.”
He placed a hand over his heart and made a pained face. “I’m hurt that you think I don’t care.”
I rolled my eyes and sat there waiting for the new nurse to come in. I wanted to just lay back down and go to sleep. My eyes were already drifting closed when the door popped open.
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