30. Hayden
30
HAYDEN
D eclan chased after Jackson’s gurney as I closed my eyes. The sight of Jackson’s blood pouring out of his open chest onto the floor as they rushed him to surgery would never leave my mind. It would haunt me like some of the missions I’d been on. Like the image of the helicopter getting further and further away as I plunged to earth and the water sucking me under until everything went black.
I stood in front of Katie’s room, next to Heidi, my arms crossed over my chest. Trying, and failing, to figure out where and how things went so fucking wrong, but there was no use. Somehow, they gained access denied to the team without some strong-arming.
“Hayden?”
I turned toward Lucia as she came out of Katie’s room.
“Where’s Scott?” I asked.
Our phones buzzed with an incoming notification. She flipped her screen around, showing me the text from him saying he was with Foster and Declan.
“Good. How’s Katie?”
Lucia looked back over her shoulder at where the doctors and nurses surrounded Katie.
“She’ll be okay. The chief is blowing my phone up.”
I pulled mine out and, yep, same. I flashed my screen at her, and she sighed.
“What are we gonna do?”
“Ignore him. We don’t work for him. The label hired Holt. We came at their request. Walker Holt signs our checks, not Conrad Carter. We don’t owe him an explanation.”
“Has he called your dad?”
“Not that I know of. And if he has, Dad’s probably not answered. I love that old man, but he spends his days thumbing through photo albums, staring at pictures of my mom. He retreated into himself when I enlisted and it became worse after the shit with Mara and my accident.”
“Does he even know you got married?”
“No. I answer if he calls, and if I’ve not heard from him in a few weeks, I call him, but he never stays on the phone for long. And when he does, every question I ask is answered with a story about Mom.”
Before she could comment, Celeste and a doctor came out of the trauma bay, the glass doors sliding shut behind them.
“How is she?” I asked.
The doctor looked at Celeste, who waved at me, Lucia, and Heidi. “They’re part of Katie’s security team and covered under the POA.”
“Okay. Given that the security company has medical power of attorney, I can say that Katie has suffered a severe head injury. Looking at the wound, I feel confident she hit her head when she fell to the ground.”
“So, she hasn’t been shot or hit with anything?” Heidi asked.
“Not that I can tell from the injury.”
“What’s next, doc?”
“Well, as soon as we get her scans back, if there’s nothing more concerning than the concussion, we’re going to move her out of the trauma bay until she awakens.”
“Okay. Sounds good. Thank you,” I said, shaking the man’s hand. I turned to the women surrounding me and asked, “I know it’s early yet, but have you heard anything?”
Heidi and Celeste shook their heads, but Lucia said Scott texted.
“Foster placed Scott at the doors to the surgical unit and Declan on the OR doors. Foster is going to the observation room.”
I nodded. From that point forward, we played a waiting game.
Waiting for Katie’s results to come back.
Waiting for word about Jackson.
Waiting for Katie to move to another room.
Waiting for her to wake up.
Waiting for the family to arrive from Seattle and Texas.
I fucking hated waiting. It irked me. While still in the Marines in a Recon unit, I could sit on a target forever. It was only after the accident that sitting still for any length of time made me twitchy. The VA docs all said it probably had to do with the fear of being paralyzed, or it could be due to the head injury.
Whatever it was, it had my skin crawling as I stood guard outside Katie’s room. I’d texted with Marcie and Declan several times, but then Declan went fucking silent. When he didn’t respond to either Marcie or me, or me alone, I stuck my head in the room to ask the women sitting with Katie, but they didn’t know anything more than I did.
Just as I contemplated offering to get us all some coffee and snacks so I could check on him, I got a text.
Declan
I’m okay. I’ll explain later.
I breathed a sigh of relief. He was taking this hard, but I trusted him to do what he needed to do to deal with it. I couldn’t second-guess or undermine his strength.
I went back to my leaning and guarding, only to be jolted out of my fucking skin when Katie screamed bloody fucking murder. I burst into the room to find Katie losing her fucking shit. She thrashed and screamed, tearing at the tubes and wires the staff had her hooked up to.
Heidi climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Katie from behind, all the while talking to her and trying her damnedest to keep Katie from hurting herself. A nurse stuck her head in the room and came back with the doctor who’d been working on Jackson as they rushed him to the ER.
The doctor jabbed Katie in the arm with the syringe he held as he said, “It’s a low dose. It shouldn’t knock her out, just mellow her some.”
We all watched her continue to scream and jerk in the bed for another few minutes. But with every tick of the clock on the wall in the room, she settled more and more until she finally took a deep breath.
And so did we.
A few minutes more passed before her tear-filled eyes opened, and she asked the question we didn’t have an answer for.
“Jackson?”
“He’s alive, Katie,” Heidi said.
Celeste sat on the other side of the bed from her sister, both of them staring at Katie. Celeste gripped Katie’s hand and said, “He’s alive, Katie. Understand? That’s what you need to focus on right now.”
“He was shot?”
Celeste sighed. “Yes. He was super lucky.”
Lucky?
Celeste continued, “The bullet entered his back, missing all the nerves and major arteries. It exited his chest, missing his heart. It did go through one of his lungs, though. He’s in surgery. Last I heard from Declan, things were going well, but the surgery could take a while.”
“Can I see him?” Katie asked.
“After surgery, they will take him to recovery and then to ICU. He’s going to be out of it for a bit, but they might let you back there once he’s in ICU,” Celeste explained.
With Katie settled and no longer freaking out, I stepped back out into the hallway. She didn’t need me in there while they talked. They needed me out here being the muscle.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I smirked. All three women in that room with Katie were just as capable and well-trained as I was. Everyone of them would kick my ass if they heard me say they needed to gossip while I provided the muscle.
Marcie
Any update?
Instead of texting, I put an earbud in and called her.
“Hey.”
“Hey? That’s it? Hey?”
She blushed so pretty and whispered, “I’m not alone.”
“Okay, then hey works. Katie’s awake by the way.”
“Oh my God! Really?”
Her hand flew to her mouth. Tears filled her eyes, and I smiled at her, taking a moment to scan the hallways around me. As busy as the ER was, we’d been left pretty much alone, other than the one doctor and nurse.
“Really. Jackson’s still in surgery. Declan’s up there with him.”
Her face went pale, or rather paler than usual. “Daddy’s up there by himself?” Fear and rage lifted her voice at least an octave.
Fucking hell hearing her call him Daddy made me giddy as a kid in a candy store. Nothing had been set in place between us, not officially anyway. But we wanted her to be ours so much that the honorific slipped a few times while talking with her. We couldn’t help ourselves. She called to us in a way, at least for me, that only Declan ever had. I didn’t know about him, but Declan was a natural caregiver, so it wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination, especially after seeing him with her, to see him as a Daddy, no matter how submissive he was with me. But I never considered myself anything more than a very possessive, dominant lover. At least, not until Declan. The first time he called me Papi, it opened up a whole new world to me, and I… I still wouldn’t have said I was a Daddy or a Dom. Yeah, I wanted a side of kink with my fucking once I met him, but meeting Marcie threw open doors that meeting Declan only cracked. Holding back and taking things slow, fuck having conversations I knew we needed to have, none of it seemed as important as jumping into the deep end.
“Papi! Is he alone?”
“No, colibrí. Foster and Scott are up there, too. I’m downstairs guarding the door to Katie’s room. And before you ask, Lucia, Heidi, and Celeste are in the room with her.”
All the air went out of her sails, and I watched her deflate. Her eyes grew wide, and her hands flew to her face, imitating Kevin from Home Alone perfectly.
“It’s okay. This time. Only because you forgot yourself and called Declan Daddy and me Papi without thinking about it.”
I chuckled as her eyes rounded even more. “Colibrí, your eyes are gonna pop out of your head if you’re not careful. When Daddy and I get to Nashville, the three of us are having a serious talk.”
Worry bloomed on her face, and she nibbled her lip, turning it puffy and pink. And completely fucking kissable. Blood rushed south as my dick took notice.
“There’s no need to worry, pequena . Now, quit chewing on your lip.”
The pouty flesh popped free, and I wanted to groan at the sight. The plan had been to fly into Nashville by tomorrow. Now, who knew when we’d get back to our girl.
“How do you know?”
“I’m Papi. I always know. There is nothing to worry about.”
“But what if…”
“What did Daddy and I tell you about what-ifs?”
“That they only caused more worry or something like that.”
“Close enough. If there was something you needed to be worried about, I would tell you, baby girl. I wouldn’t make you suffer.”
A loud huff followed the deep exhale, and I bit my cheek to keep from laughing at the dramatic beauty Declan and I were determined to strap our wagon to.
“If you’re sure…”
“I’m positive. This isn’t a conversation the two of us can have alone. Daddy needs to be present. It wouldn’t be right of us to exclude him, would it?”
“No, sir.”
Fuck she was going to be the death of me. If she didn’t stop, I’d end up with a severe case of blue balls. My hope is that Declan and I got relieved at the some time so we could fuck the frustrations away, because if I didn’t get off soon, I might have to resort to jerking off in the fucking bathroom.
Then she ripped control from me with one shy, mischievous question.
“But you’ll make me suffer in the feel good ways, right?”
Instant hard on. Didn’t matter that I stood in the middle of a hospital hallway
Cameron’s face came into view. “Hey, Hayden. How is everyone?”
“Hayden? Like big, bad ass, Marine Daddy Hayden. That Hayden?” The guy’s voice came through the earbud in my ear like he yelled through a megaphone.
“Boy, you need to quit fucking eavesdropping on other people’s conversations.”
Fuck. Who knew Priest harbored Daddy vibes? The thought of it was hella sexy even if he wasn’t my type. Then again, I would’ve sworn he and Cameron were together, and Cameron didn’t give off submissive vibes at all.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping. They’re sitting on the patio talking to someone on a video call. That’s not eavesdropping.”
“Boy.”
They kept at it, but I answered over top of them. “I’ll let Marcie fill you in, but I don’t think we’re gonna be there tomorrow. Probably not for a few days at least.”
An adorable pout overtook Marcie’s face. Same for me, colibrí. I wasn’t happy about it either.
Katie’s doctor and nurse, walking toward me, grabbed my attention, so I ended the call. “I gotta go. Katie’s doctor is on his way. I’ll call back as soon as I can.”
Everyone said bye, except Priest and the guy I assumed was Gavin. They were arguing in the background. I didn’t know why he was at the rental since his team was supposed to be heading out of town, but what the fuck did I know. This day felt like twelve days rolled into one. I could be mixing up some of the logistics Marcie had prattled on about over the phone the last few days.
Then I realized I’d completely forgotten to ask after her dad. I pulled open our group text and sent a message.
Hayden
I forgot to ask how is your dad?
Then I messaged Declan.
Hayden
Katie is awake. Still waiting for an explanation. Are you okay? Is Jackson?
Marcie texted back, and I flipped back that conversation.
Marcie
He’s doing better every day.
When the doctor spoke, I tucked my phone away.
“Her scans look okay, but with the severity of the injury, I’m going to admit her for observation.”
The nurse responded, “I’ll work on getting all that taken care of and see about getting her transferred upstairs, Dr. James.”
“Thanks, Riley.”
I walked into Katie’s room, letting the door close behind me.
“I just heard the doctor say they are going to admit you. Thought I’d let you know.”
Things went downhill after that. Katie lost it. She demanded clothes so she could sign out of the hospital to go… that’s right, upstairs where they wanted to send her anyway.
The nurse came in a few minutes later. The tirade escalated further until the nurse fetched the doctor, who would admit Katie once she saw Jackson.
I thought they were both being ridiculous. The doctor was delusional if he thought Katie was going to do anything other than what she wanted. She wasn’t a diva, but she and Jackson were nuts for each other.
I didn’t have room to talk cause if it were Declan or Marcie, I wouldn’t be any different. Hell, I’d probably be tearing the hospital apart brick by brick to get to them.
When she finally settled down and climbed back into the bed, she asked if she would be living it down. And I couldn’t help myself.
“Nope, Kit Kat. Never. First, we get to hear you say “fuck” and then we get to see you roll over and ask for belly scratches when the good doctor puts you in your place. I’d say that’s good for at least a few years of jokes and ribbing.”
I would make sure she never did live it down. I’d remind her of it every day of her life if I had to. Just to keep her feet on the planet. We couldn’t have stardom going to her head.