Chapter 19
Beck
Beck tried not to let the words hurt him—after all, the guy was unstable—but it hurt all the same. “Let’s just calm down here.”
“You’re tainted. You shouldn’t be with him! Kole, please, listen to me!”
Andrew went to grab Kole, but Beck dropped his bags and gripped the man’s wrist. “Unless you want to be in even more trouble with the police than you already are, you need to leave.”
“Kole! Listen to me. I can give you everything you need. Everything you could ever want. Listen to me!”
“Andrew, I’m sorry, but I just don’t think of you that way. I enjoyed what we had, but I’m with Beck now.” He put the bags down.
The placating tone was obvious, but it didn’t seem to get across to the man.
“You can enjoy it again! All you need to do is get rid of him ,” Andrew shouted, beginning to draw attention to them from the passersby.
Kole held his hands out, palms forward. “Andrew, I need you to leave.”
“No! Not without you!”
Before Beck could blink, a searing pain went through his left hand, the one holding Andrew at bay. Reflexively, he let go, hissing as the pain increased and then cursing when he saw the pocketknife sticking out of the back of his hand. He jerked his hand away when Andrew went to yank it out, knowing, somewhere in the back of his mind, that if he did, he’d end up losing a lot of blood.
Andrew went feral, but it didn’t last long. Within seconds, he sprinted away, lost in the growing crowd.
“I’ve called the police,” someone said to them. “They’re on their way.”
“Fuck, Beck! Are you okay?” Kole cradled his hand, and Beck tried not to move it too much.
“Yeah,” he said, although he could hear the pain in his own voice. “Good job it’s my left hand and not my right. At least I can still tattoo. Though it’s going to make it a lot harder.”
“Bloody hell,” Kole said, glaring in the direction of where Andrew disappeared. “He’s even more unhinged than I thought.”
“And a stalker to boot.”
Kole scraped his teeth along his bottom lip. “Yeah, I guess only time will tell.”
“You’ll have to be more careful now. He’s pissed. He’ll be up for revenge.”
“We’ll both have to be careful.” Kole leaned closer to the knife. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Just a bit.” Beck played it down, but it hurt like a fucker.
Sirens wailed towards them, and a police car and paramedic car pulled up beside them. Beck could honestly say he’d had enough of the police by that point, but he could hardly tell them to piss off. He would press charges against Andrew—if they ever found him—and hopefully, it would give them extra to add onto whatever stalking charges they could pin on him.
They explained everything to an officer while the paramedic tended to his hand. When Beck interrupted to ask about taking the knife out, the paramedic shook her head.
“It would be better to keep it in place until you get to the hospital. They will probably have a surgeon look at it before deciding how to remove it. They won’t want to do more damage than necessary.” So, she bandaged it up, with the knife still reaching for the sky. “I’ll take you in.” She turned to the officer. “You’ll have to finish getting his statement at the hospital.”
They settled into the back of the paramedic’s car after securing their shopping bags in the back. It was a quiet ride. The paramedic, Stacy, tried to make conversation, but neither of them was forthcoming. He couldn’t speak for Kole, but Beck was tired. Bone-tired. Sick and tired. Just bloody, fucking exhausted from it all, and he didn’t want to take it out on anyone.
When they finally arrived, they were sent directly into a room, with one bed and one chair, neither looking very comfortable. Beck settled onto the bed and Kole took the chair and still they didn’t speak very much. Kole must have got the message that he didn’t want to talk because he went silent, but the look he kept giving him spoke volumes. Beck knew he was being an asshole, but he couldn’t help it. He was pissed at the world.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for a doctor to arrive—or several—and they had the bandages off his hand, in complete gory detail, being examined by several people.
“We definitely need to get some tests done on this to see where the knife is.”
“In my hand?” Beck said.
“Beck…” Kole warned.
The doctor laughed, his mouth and eyes crinkling, showing that he laughed a lot in life. “Yes, it is definitely in your hand. We need to just make sure it’s not touching or severed anything vital before we try to remove it, so we need to take some pictures to do that. Once we’ve done that, we can get it taken out all being well.”
“How long is this likely to take?” Beck asked.
“We’ll call down to get the test done now. It shouldn’t be too long.”
The doctors disappeared, and Beck exhaled, long and loud. “In other words, we’re going to be here for hours.”
“We’ll be here for as long as necessary to ensure that your hand is in the best condition possible when we leave,” Kole said, leaning forward and pointing a finger in Beck’s face. “And you’ll grin and bear it. Understood?”
Beck tried to ignore what that tone did to him, and instead, just stared at the ceiling.
“Understood?” Kole’s tone brooked no argument.
“Understood,” Beck murmured, closing his eyes.
He would give the doctors their due, it didn’t take them long to get him down for a test. It could have been an X-ray, or it could have been something else, he wasn’t sure because, with the knife in his hand, he wasn’t certain what test could be done without causing problems. But he did what Kole had asked of him. He grinned at the right points; he bore it as much as he could, and by the time they were back in the room, there were already some people waiting to discuss the next steps. The doctor who had spoken previously to him, who was called Dr Stevens, stepped closer and held up the photo. It looked like an X-ray, but Beck still wasn’t certain.
“This,” Dr Stevens explained, “is your lucky day. The knife has missed everything vital and has cleared the most important parts. It will be a fairly easy surgery to remove it, and although I know you’ll want it to just be pulled out now, I don’t recommend that because taking it out that way could cause problems. The slightest wrong movement as we take it out could cause lasting damage. So, we are going to get a room prepped for you and get his knife out as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you, Dr Stevens,” Kole said. “We appreciate how quickly you’re doing this for us.”
Dr Stevens chuckled. “It’s the least we can do.”
With that cryptic message, the doctor jerked his head to the side, a clear message to his coworkers that it was time to leave. Beck wanted to ask what that sentence was about, but he assumed it had something to do with them knowing who Beck was.
“That’s all I need,” he said. “I hate being a celebrity sometimes. Although Joey says we’re not celebrities. We’re celebrities’ acquaintances.” Beck huffed. “Can’t see what the difference is, really.”
Kole smacked his feet to the floor, clapped his hands on his thighs and stood, glaring. “You should be grateful they are doing this for you. It doesn’t matter why they are doing it. There are people who probably had a knife in their hand who’ve waited for days before they got it sorted.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Beck said.
“I’m not being dramatic,” Kole replied. “It’s the truth. Not everybody is lucky enough to get top-notch treatment, and I am so grateful that you do. Especially because…” His breath hitched, and he covered his mouth with his hand.
Finally, Beck took his head out of his ass and realised. “Oh, fuck. Come here.” He held out his good arm, and Kole collapsed onto him, sobbing.
“I’m so sorry he did this to you. I didn’t think it would be anything. I didn’t think he would be like that. Even with him attacking me, I never actually thought it would go further. My brain obviously did because that’s why I needed to speak to the therapist, but my mind never caught up to that fact until now. I was so scared he was gonna hurt you, and he did!” Kole broke off on another sob.
Beck held him, pressing his lips against his temple and making shushing sounds like a mother would to a baby—not that he was saying Kole was a baby, but the universal sound calmed most people.
It took a few minutes, but Kole eventually calmed enough to wipe his tears.
“Are you okay?” Beck said.
“Not particularly,” Kole replied with a laugh. “I guess I was more upset than I thought I was.
“Maybe just a little,” Beck teased.
“Hey, if you’re not careful, I’ll pull that knife out myself,” Kole warned.
Beck laughed. “Think you might be in trouble with the doctors if you do that.”
“Yeah, I think so, too,” Kole agreed.
Beck latched onto something to keep the conversation light, spying the carrier bags to the side of his bed. “I have a feeling several of those items are going to have to be thrown straight in the bin.” His tone implied the sheer horror of throwing away what would have been good food.
“At least we can buy it again and have it tomorrow.” Kole smiled.
“Think you might be doing the cooking if we did that.” Beck laughed. “Not sure I’ll be doing much with this hand as it is now. We did get some crisps and things, though, and I am hungry. Maybe we should eat some of it.”
Kole stood. “I want to check with the doctors that it’s okay first. I don’t know what kind of surgery you’re going in and whether or not you’re allowed to eat.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Beck said. “If they tell me I’m not allowed to eat, I’m tempted to walk out of this hospital because I’m starving.”
Kole chuckled. “You’ll do as you’re told.” He winked at him and disappeared out of the room.
While he was gone, Beck had nothing to distract himself, and he stared at the bloody mess that was his hand, hoping with everything in him that he’d heal nicely and have no problems with it later on. Although he was right-handed, he did use his left hand for certain things while tattooing. If it became impossible to do, he didn’t know what he would do with his life. Tattooing was all he knew and all he wanted to do. It would truly devastate him if he was taken from him.
“They said you can eat just fine,” Kole said when he reappeared. He went to the bags, bringing them up on the side of the bed. “So, what do you fancy? Uncooked pasta? Bacon crisps? Onion rings? Nik-Naks?”
“I’ll always go for the Nik-Naks,” Beck said, reaching for them.
“Good job there are two packs of them,” Kole said, grabbing another from the bag. “How about something healthy, too? We’ve got apples or bananas?”
“All right. I’ll do my duty and eat a banana first,” Beck said, turning his mouth down to make him look sad.
“Those puppy dog eyes won’t work on me. Eat your banana,” Kole said, but the twitching of his lips gave away his humour.
They switched on the TV, and he let Kole flick through the channels to see if there was anything decent to pass the time. Beck hadn’t checked his phone since they arrived, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He had no idea the messages he would have. Though he expected plenty of ‘let me know if I can do anything’ type messages from his friends. He wasn’t sure he could stomach them right then.
Kole settled into the uncomfortable chair but brought it right close to the bed so that they could hold hands. He’d chosen a rerun of some old murder mystery, which wasn’t Beck’s cup of tea—or coffee—it passed the time.
The channel had just switched over to the next programme when a nurse came bustling in.
“Hello, Mr Cavanagh. My name is Susie, and I’m getting you prepped to get this tiny, annoying item removed from your hand.”
Susie was the type of nurse that Beck had always wanted whenever he visited a hospital—one that took no crap, but also had a friendly smile and a good sense of humour. They bantered a bit until she cleared him as ready to go.
“The porter will be here in a few minutes to take you up to the operating room,” she said.
“Am I going to be knocked out?”
“I’m not certain,” Susie said. “Possibly. It depends on if they think they can do it without, but I’ll leave that to Dr Stevens to tell you. I’ll see you on the other side, Mr Cavanagh.”
“I think you know enough about me now, Susie, that you can call me Beck.”
Susie laughed. “I’ll see you on the other side then, Beck.”
She disappeared, and Kole chuckled from beside him.
Beck raised his eyebrows. “What?”
“You’re such a charmer. I now know how you get away with everything. You could probably get away with murder if you put your mind to it.”
“Yeah, probably could,” Beck said in a matter-of-fact tone, causing them both to burst out laughing. At least until Beck hissed because he’d moved his hand.
A guy knocked on his door and poked his head around. “Hello, Mr Cavanagh. Time for your taxi ride to the operating room.”
“Can I come up with him, or do I have to stay here?” Kole asked.
“You’re quite welcome to join us up to the floor, but you will have to stay in the waiting room until we’re done. I’m not entirely sure how long the procedure will take, but the doctor or nurse will come and let you know.”
“Okay, thanks.”
The porter, James, took the brakes off the bed and manoeuvred it through the door. When they got into the corridors, he realised why it was so quiet. There were several guards outside his door and at the end of the halways. Beck chuckled.
“Donovan.”
“What?” Kole asked.
“The guards. They must’ve been from Donovan.”
On the journey, where possible, Kole stood beside Beck, and when it wasn’t, he followed behind. Beck could feel his presence and that helped calm his nerves. He didn’t know why he was nervous. It wasn’t like it was a huge surgery, like heart surgery or something. Just a little knife in his hand.
When they got to the floor, James paused and pointed to a room off to the side. “That’s where you’ll have to wait, I’m afraid,” he said to Kole.
Kole nodded and exhaled. “Okay, then. Don’t cause too much trouble, Beck. I will make the doctors tell me if you become a petulant child while you’re in there. And I love you.”
Beck reached for him, sliding his good hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to him for a kiss. When he finished, Kole’s eyes were slightly glassy and his lips red and swollen. “I love you, too. See you soon. And don’t eat all those crisps.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Kole replied.
Kole stayed standing until James pushed Beck away until he couldn’t see him any longer. The nerves began invading, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. They entered the operating room, which was awash with people and machines. Anyone would have felt terrified. Beck wasn’t scared as such, but he had wished that his night had gone in a different direction than what it was.
“Mr Cavanagh,” Dr Stevens said. “We’re ready to get going. I’m going to recommend a regional anaesthetic with intravenous sedation just because I don’t know how long this is going to take. Are you happy to go ahead with that?”
“Yes, that’s fine. How long will it be before I wake up?”
“You won’t be asleep, you’ll just be feeling very drowsy and relaxed. I’m hoping this won’t take more than an hour or so.”
“Okay, thanks. Can you ensure updates are given to Kole, please?”
“Absolutely. Take a deep breath. You’re in expert hands,” Dr Stevens said.
“Take care of my hand for me, doctor,” Beck said as the medicine started working.
“Will do.” Dr Stevens winked at him, and Beck smiled before a wave of exhaustion flowed over him, his eyelids feeling heavier by the minute. He felt a sharp scratch and the pain in his hand stopped bothering him. He drifted, content in thinking about Kole and how amazing the guy was. He didn’t deserve him, but he wouldn’t be the one telling him that. No, he’d keep Kole for as long as possible.
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