Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Gage
MY HEAD FELT ALL KINDS of fucked up, like I’d taken bad drugs and wrapped my car around a utility pole. But it sounded like Jez had just said Tony was okay... and also like Heath was near tears.
I tried not to think about the way parts of my body weren’t working right, and other parts felt numb. One thing at a time.
“Say that again?” I asked—not sure why my voice sounded so weak and out of breath.
The small hand clasping mine gave another squeeze. “You saved Tony. Part of a building fell on you both, but you’re going to be okay.” Jez said. “Knox, too.”
The jittery fear that had been coming through the bond was beginning to ease a bit, and that, more than anything else, made me believe that maybe everything really was going to be all right. Then, the sense of what she’d just said penetrated through the layers of fuzz surrounding my brain.
“Th’ what did what?” I slurred.
The details of whatever had happened at the hotel were still swimming in and out of focus, bits of memory darting to the surface like shiny silver fish, only to sink back into the depths a moment later.
Heath still sounded shaky when he took up the tale.
“We think someone set off a bomb on the roof while Jez and I were outside. The ceiling over the banquet area came down on top of the guests. We found you protecting Tony with your body, while Knox was holding up one end of a concrete slab that would have crushed you both.”
That was a lot of words all at once, but it made sense with the bits and pieces I remembered before everything went black. I’d have to remember to buy Knox a nice bottle of whiskey at some point.
“And by ‘someone,’ you mean...” I began.
“Probably Lorenzo Vozzina,” Jez said grimly. “No proof, though.”
“Last we heard, the authorities weren’t even calling it a bomb yet,” Heath added.
“Oh.” I frowned as a new silvery fish swam to the surface. “Hang on a minute. Wasn’t what’s-his-ass there? You know, the omega shit-stain?”
“Paolo,” Heath said. “And yes.”
“Heath and Knox pulled him out of the rubble,” Jez went on. “Knox thinks he might turn on the Vozzinas if he believes his mate tried to blow him up for funsies.”
Holy shit. That was cold, even for Lorenzo.
“Oh,” I said again—because stringing words together was getting harder, and the weird feedback from my body seemed to be getting worse.
Worry started to creep through the bond again.
“How are you feeling?” Jez asked. “I mean, sorry... that’s kind of a stupid question. And I probably should have asked right away—”
“It’s not a stupid question,” Heath said. “Gage, we can feel that you’re still fuzzy from the anesthetic. Do you need painkillers?”
“Think they musta gave me some already,” I managed. “Wha’s wrong with me, ’zactly?”
“We’re still waiting on a doctor to give us details,” Heath said. “But from the look of things, a broken leg, something with your ribs, and something with your neck.”
“Collarbone, too,” Jez added unhappily. “It’s all swollen, and I think that’s what the shoulder straps are for.”
“Fuck,” I said. “Tha’s a lot of different stuff.”
At which point, staying awake suddenly felt like extra work that I wasn’t prepared to put in right now. As long as the others were mostly okay, a nap sounded like just the thing. My heavy eyelids fell closed, and I settled into the steady, reassuring hum of the bond.
“Might sleep for a bit, ’kay?” I muttered, and gave up the fight to pay attention to my surroundings.
When the annoying sound of beeping machines woke me sometime later, the first thing I noticed was that Jez felt further away. The second thing I noticed was that whatever drugs had been making my body feel numb and distant before were wearing off... and that broken bones fucking hurt.
“Ow, fuuuck,” I groaned, discovering pretty quickly that groaning aloud made several things in my chest grind together unpleasantly.
“Easy there.” The hand that landed on my forearm was larger and callused, rather than small and delicate. I blinked open bleary eyes to see Heath leaning over me. “Try not to move more than you have to.”
“Kay,” I said.
Heath let go of me long enough to drag a nearby chair up to my bedside and sink down in it.
“The doctor finally showed up. Turns out, you’re rocking a simple fracture of the femur, three broken ribs, and a broken collarbone. They were worried about a spinal fracture in your neck, but it turned out to just be whiplash.”
I thought about that for several moments.
“That sucks,” I decided.
“It’s not great,” Heath agreed grimly. “Be glad you’re an alpha. A beta would be laid up for six months. Even for you, you’re looking at six to eight weeks until that leg is back to one hundred percent.”
Jesus. Six to eight weeks? I got fidgety when I had to sit still for twenty goddamned minutes.
“Where’s Jez?” I asked, rather than think too closely about it. I could feel the direction she was in, like there was a thread tied to both of us, tugging me toward her. But since I clearly wasn’t getting out of this blasted hospital bed to follow it, I figured it was easier to ask.
“She went back to let the others know what the doctor said.” He hesitated. “Knox scored us a pack-friendly room by waving his big dick around. Tony has a mild concussion, and Knox is pretty battered, although I don’t think any of it is too serious. Hopefully they’ll move you up there with us soon.”
I started to nod... and rethought the movement just in time. “Yeah. Could use some of those painkillers right about now, if they’re still on offer.”
Heath reached over and pressed a button I hadn’t noticed before, mostly because my head was stuck in some kind of weird BDSM dungeon contraption that kept it from turning to the side.
“The nurse should be here in a few minutes,” he said. “Things are still pretty insane, but not as bad as last night.”
“Any news about the explosion?” I asked, reassured that I at least remembered what he and Jez had told me about it before.
“Yeah, the news outlets are admitting it was a bomb now.” He huffed out a breath. “Not that there was much question. The place is swarming with police and FBI, but I don’t expect Vozzina will have left anything behind that ties it to him.”
“Assuming it really was him,” I said, and winced when my ribs reminded me how little they liked breathing right now.
Heath shrugged a shoulder. “Helluva coincidence that he was too ‘sick’ to be there, while all the people he’d love to get rid of were conveniently gathered in one place, right around the stage.”
I tried to wrap my brain around the idea of an alpha trying to murder the omega he’d mated. It made me feel nauseated in addition to feeling broken.
“Can’t believe he’d do that to Paolo,” I wheezed. “’S fucked up.”
“Yeah.” Heath sounded sour. “Much less fucked up for your scent match to try and kill you first, and for the mating to come afterward.”
I peered at him, because the tone didn’t match what was coming through the bond. “You and Jez still at each other’s throats?”
He shook his head and rested his elbows on the edge of the mattress. “No. No... we’re actually not. We had a talk. A couple of talks. Which doesn’t totally cancel out the fucked-uppedness of the situation. But... I think we’re good. Still not sure about Knox, though.”
That was fair. Jez had tried pretty hard to kill both Heath and me when we’d been holding her prisoner in the attic, but not in the same cold-blooded way she’d almost killed Knox. It was a lot to get past, on both sides.
“Glad you’re working it out,” I told him. “Is Tony okay with it, d’you think?”
Betas could be tricky. Relationships looked different for them. I sometimes wondered what it would’ve been like, back in ancient history when alphas, betas, and omegas were all kind of jumbled up together... before everything got so segregated.
Heath scrubbed both hands down his face.
“I don’t know. But I think... maybe? It’s complicated, but they were friends before.
” His gaze met mine and held. “I didn’t say this like I should have, earlier.
What you did for him... he’d be dead if you hadn’t protected him.
I can’t ever pay you back for that, Gage. ”
A thin thread of surprise pierced through the pain. Heath didn’t say things like that. Not with those big, wet, red-rimmed green eyes pinning mine, and without so much as a flicker of sarcasm anywhere to be seen.
I made myself smile up at him, hoping it didn’t look too much like a grimace of discomfort. “Don’t need to pay me back, idiot. We’re pack. Besides, he’s adorable. Think I might be in with a chance, if I play my cards right?”
It probably would have been more effective if I didn’t sound like a wheezing old man, but Heath let out a little amused huff anyway.
“You’d have to ask him yourself,” he said. “Just as long as he doesn’t get a taste of you and suddenly realize what a bitter old asshole I am. I swear to god, you’re too fucking good for this world sometimes.”
“I’ll make it clear we’re a package deal,” I promised. “And only if Jez is okay with it, obviously.”
“Fair.” Heath paused, sobering. “I’m starting to worry about how Knox fits in with all this. You know what I mean?”
I snorted, and immediately regretted it.
“I’m more worried about people trying to blow us up, to be honest.” He had a point, though. “But... yeah. Guess we’re going to need a few more pack meetings, huh.”