Chapter 22 #2
His hand envelops mine, helping to ground me as his large steps force me to take several quick ones to keep up. However, it means we’re closer to finding my dad, so I refuse to complain. Santo and Miles flank us on either side, and Miles points out the receptionist desk.
Moving in that direction, Levon clears his throat once we’re in front of her so she’ll look up.
“Hi, I received a phone call that my father had been admitted here,” I explain. “I don’t know why, and I’m running on very limited information.“
Her bored expression melts away as she nods, becoming more compassionate. “What’s his name, darlin?”
“Curtis Freedman,” I reply, my fingers drumming on my thigh. I’m attempting to hide my impatience, but I doubt the energy I’m giving off will allow that.
“He’s on a cardiac unit, third floor,” she says, pushing badges that say ‘visitor’ toward us. “You can go right up.“
“Thank you,” I gush, snatching a badge. Levon grabs one as well, pulling me in the direction of the elevator. Even not bonded, he can feel how desperate I am.
I’m practically running to keep up with him by the time he punches the call button with his finger.
“Levon, take a breath,” Miles orders.
“I can’t,” he mutters. “She’s so upset.”
Miles wraps his arms around my waist, burying his face in my throat as he purrs for me. My body sags in his arms, and I sob as he holds me.
“I know, baby,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry. Friedrick didn’t have to be such a dick about this, and I could have handled this better.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I wail. How could he think that?
My feet leave the ground as the elevator doors open, and Miles carries me inside. Santo presses the button for the third foor, his face a mask of worry as Miles kisses my temple.
“I’m mad at myself,” Miles confesses. “I let him get under my skin.
“He was being a dick,” Levon mutters. “I didn’t hear anything until the end though.
“Friedrick was initially upset that you didn’t answer your phone, but then it became all about why I was with you,” Miles explains. “I threatened to nail his dick to the wall.“
A hysterical giggle bubbles out and I clamp my hand over my mouth. I won’t be able to stop once I get going.
“See? Not my best moment,” Miles shrugs. “Let’s go find your dad.“
Walking together, Miles holds my free hand as we look for the nurse’s station. Once there, it takes us another ten minutes of speaking with the nurse before a crash sounds in a room down the hall. A loud beeping begins behind the desk, and the nurse winces as she answers it.
“Hello, sir. May I help you?
“If you don’t bring me my daughter, I will rip out every one of these fucking wires and come get her myself,” Dad snarls. “Am I making myself understood?”
“Dad,” I whisper.
The nurse swallows hard, looking sufficiently pale and guilty at the same time.
“He’s not supposed to have any visitors,” she explains quietly.
“My father will throw a tantrum, then sue you for neglect,” I reply. “I’m the most important person in the world to him. Try it. I doubt it’ll please his doctor to find out that you’re riling him up.”
“Cae!” Dad yells.
“Go,” Miles says, pushing me in the direction of the room. “If you need to push your bullshit rules at someone, tell her alphas. Caelia isn’t interested.“
I’m running before I realize it, pushing the door open wider as I see my dad in the bed.
“Daddy,” I whisper.
“I’m fine,” he sighs, his gaze shrewdly looking over me. “How are you?”
“Worried,” I reply, crossing the room to find space on the bed. “What happened?”
“Stupid heart,” Dad complains. “I had a heart attack arguing with Friedrick’s daughter. She has it out for you. I knew she did, but I lost my patience with her.”
“Clarissa can fuck a duck,” I grumble. “I fucking hate her, and I’ll never say her name correctly again. She got me fired. Apparently, she used her father’s paranoia to do it.”
There’s yelling outside near the nurses’ station again, and Dad growls under his breath before stabbing at the call button again.
“Abigail, for the love of fuck,” he snarls.
“Mr. Freedman,” the nurse sighs, sounding exhausted. “One person in your room is outside of the doctor’s orders.”
“They’re my son-in-laws,” Dad lies as my jaw drops. “Let them in. I’ll deal with the doctor if he has issues with it.”
My alphas enter a moment later, their gazes tracking where I am immediately. None of them say anything outside of Santo finding me a pillow to prop myself up on.
“Son-in-laws, huh?” Miles teases.
Dad refuses to reply, his eyes on me.
“Friedrick fired you?” he asks. “I have one tiny heart attack, and the world explodes.”
“That’s not funny,” I groan. While I’m no longer crying, it’s only because I can see, hear, and touch my dad. “No one could get in touch with me because my phone was dead and I, ah, went into heat.”
The last words are barely audible, but Dad snorts out a laugh.
“I should have realized that’s why you weren’t answering your phone,” he says.
“I’m sorry we didn’t text before it all happened,” Miles adds.
“We didn’t quite realize what was going on until we had a situation on our hands,” Santo says, wincing. “Miles answered Caelia’s phone since she was sleeping, and the owner of the Dragons lost his shit.”
“He’s not usually so hot headed,” Dad grumbles. “I’m sorry, Cae. I feel responsible for this since I pushed the idea into his head to hire you.”
“It’s absolutely not your fault,” I sigh. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. I’ll figure out the job situation later.”
“You don’t technically need a job,” Levon begins before I glare at him. “Caelia, come on. You have to know that the three of us could easily take care of you.”
“Ha, she barely lets me take care of her,” Dad says. “Good luck with that.”
“He’s not wrong,” I admit. “I have an issue staying still.”
“Maybe I can talk to him?” Dad asks, wincing.
“Friedrick called her a whore and I had to force him to agree to giving her some type of severance package,” Miles reports as my lips part in shock. I hadn’t heard Friedrick’s side of the conversation.
“What the fuck?” I ask, shocked.
“Fucker,” Dad growls. “Maybe I should quit.”
“Daddy!” I gasp. “You love the Dragons.”
“I love you more,” he mutters.
“I see where the stubbornness comes from,” Santo admits as Miles chuckles.
“I never doubted it,” Miles says.
They all get comfortable around the bed and Santo checks his phone with a smirk.
“Remember when I threatened Clarice with my lawyer?” he asks.
“Your dad, right?” I confirm.
“Yeah,” Santo says. “This is the kind of shit he lives for, he just needs you to agree that he can act on your behalf.”
Biting my lip, I half glance at my father.
“You don’t need my permission,” he says, grinning. “Friedrick also doesn’t deserve your mercy.”
“Burn,” Levon fake sneezes.
“Yes, he can do whatever he needs to on my behalf,” I agree, nodding at Santo.
“I’ll step out and call him,” he says. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
“Santo has a punishment kink,” Levon says under his breath.
Santo pops Levon over the head with a grin as he walks out while Dad shakes his head.
“Okay, moving on,” he says smoothly. “Cae, I’m going to be fine. The doctor wants me to start taking a different kind of medication. Your pack is going to need to go back to Nashville to jump back into the season, and I think…you should go with them.”
“Dad,” I growl.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” he says, pulling me closer. I’m careful with the wires he’s hooked up to as I lay my head on his chest. I don’t care what the beeping of the monitors say, I need to hear his heart beat. “You’re bonded to them, right?”
“Mostly,” Levon replies.
“As I was saying,” Dad says, making Levon flush.
Even in bed after a heart attack, he still has the ability to scare the shit out of my alphas.
That’s a special skill. “You’re going to miss them if you’re so far apart.
It’s just the way a new bond works, Cae.
You can call to check on me whenever you want and I’ll answer. Even in the middle of a game.”
“Ugh, don’t do that,” I giggle. “I worry about you.”
“That’s my job,” he says seriously. “Friedrick is out of line for his actions, and he’ll be lucky if I finish out the season with him.”
“Dad,” I hiss, glancing at my alphas. Santo still isn’t back yet. I hate to remind him of the elephant in the room, but I think I need to. “You may not get another chance to coach if you quit.”
Miles’ face clouds over while Levon frowns, knowing what I’m talking about.
“There are more important things than hockey, and I’m holding it,” Dad says, squeezing me gently. He rolls his eyes as tears burn in mine, but I can tell he’s just as affected. “We’ll figure it out, honey.”
“That’s some bullshit,” Levon grunts. “You were defending Caelia when all of that went down.”
“His reputation was affected by the lies spread by my old team,” Miles sighs. “If I believed them, think about what the Knotty Pucker League believes.”
“Meh,” Dad mutters. “Troy told me he’s leaving the team. His wife did a ‘tell all’ interview that was all fabricated lies. It’s destroying him.”
“Bitch.”
“I’ll agree with you on that,” Dad says. “Troy needs a break from all the shit coming his way. Human Resources is already aware of this decision, and the public relations team is struggling to keep this contained.”
“Poor guy,” I say. “He’s had a rough time. I feel bad.”
Miles makes a face at my sympathy but begrudgingly nods. “Troy has some good moves. I think he’ll be picked up pretty quickly. There’s a team in Savannah that’s in its first year. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to draft him once the decision is made public.”
“I hope he doesn’t stop playing,” I admit. “The public is going to be a nightmare.”
“All he needs to do is hold a press conference to shut them up,” Dad says. “Troy was the victim in this.”
“That doesn’t always matter,” I say, thinking about what happened to me with a shiver.
“We never went public,” Dad reminds me. “You were really young, still are honestly, and weren’t in a position to make a statement at the time. Maybe that was a mistake.”
“I was a mess for a long time,” I say. “Hell, I still am some days.”
We’re all quiet while I silently count my dad’s heartbeats. Creepy? Maybe, but he scared me.
My mind whirls from thought to thought, and by the time Santo walks back into the room, I make my decision.
“I’ll go to Nashville,” I say. Santo trips, eyes wide, making me realize that I may be a little ahead of myself.
“No, don’t say another word,” Miles growls. “I’m holding you to this decision.”
Smirking, I watch as Santo connects a few dots.
“You’re coming with us back to Nashville? Really?” he asks, sitting down beside me.
“Since I’m unemployed and Dad goes back on the road soon for games, I think that’s best,” I explain.
“Damn, old man,” Miles grunts. “You’re still going to go back like nothing happened?”
“Old man, my ass,” Dad grumbles.
“Knock, knock,” a voice says, poking his head into the room. He’s in a white coat, and it’s clear by the way that my father sighs that this is his doctor. “How is my patient doing?”
“Perfectly fine, now that my daughter is here,” Dad says. “When are you cutting me loose?”
“Tomorrow,” the doctor says, coming further into the room. “For those that don’t know, I’m Dr. Fitz.”
“Is there anything my father isn’t telling me?” I ask. “He’s been ridiculously cagey lately.”
“That’s rude,” Dad mutters. “I’ve been nothing of the sort.”
“Mmhm,” I say, giving the full force of my stare to the doctor.
“Um,” he says. “Why is someone so tiny, so intense?”
“Welcome to my world,” Miles says. “Answer her question, and she won’t cry.”
“That feels like a very loaded threat.”
Dad groans, rubbing his face. “Fine, just tell her.”
“Mr. Freedman has some of the aches and pains that occur as someone gets older,” Dr. Fitz says. “Overall, he’s fine. However, I want him to change the medications he’s currently taking as he lives a life of higher stress than normal people.”
“You mean when his face turns the same shade as his hair?” I snicker. “Redheads are angry gremlins.”
“Cae,” Dad laughs. “Honestly.”
“In addition,” the doctor continues, “he’ll be on a modified diet to help reduce his cholesterol. He’s been doing really well with exercising.”
“See? I’m completely fine. I’m also cleared to go back to work, correct?” Dad asks.
“Yes,” Dr. Fitz replies. “It sounds silly to say that it was just a little heart attack, but that’s what it was. Your dad was lucky.”
Dad gives him a slightly pained look as I glare at him, and the doctor takes his leave.
“He just hung me out to dry,” he mutters.
“You scared the hell out of me,” I sigh, starting to feel sleepy again. My eyelids feel as if they’re a million pounds.
“Take a nap, baby,” Santo says gently. At my unintelligible noise, he smirks. “We’ll go hunt down food when you wake up, okay?”
“I couldn’t get her to eat anything,” Miles complains.
“Did you really think Cae would be easy to manage?” Dad asks.
I don’t hear anything else as I allow myself to fall asleep. I can’t really do anything if I’m about to fall over anyway.