Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 100608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“Is he okay to question?” Jax asks. “Maybe he can tell me who did this to him.”
“I did ask him if he remembered the incident,” Dr. Olson reveals, “and while he remembers being hit, he doesn’t know by whom.” He squeezes my shoulder. “Have Nurse Boaz ring me if you have any questions. I’ll leave you two to it.”
As soon as he leaves, I walk over to my brother and take his hand.
“Hey, bud,” I say, gently squeezing it in mine. “How are you doing?”
He winces. “Feel like shit. Bet I look it too.”
My lips thin out, unable to find words, as I rake my gaze over his battered face.
“No jokes?” he croaks out. “I must look pitiful. How’s my hair?”
Tears burn at my eyes as I swallow down my emotion. Only my brother would be able to joke about the most horrible thing ever done to him. “They shaved you bald around the surgery site. I’m once again the brother with the best hair.”
He cracks a smile that makes my heart squeeze painfully in my chest. Jax comes up behind me, kneading my shoulder muscles. Callan’s unswollen eye catalogues the movement, surprise flashing in it for a second.
“Can we talk about what happened?” Jax asks, releasing me to step closer to Callan. “Can you give me a replay of your day?”
Callan’s brows furrow and his one eye closes to match the other. “It’s mostly a blur.”
“Take your time to make it come into focus,” Jax urges. “But we need your help on this if we have any hope of finding the person who did this to you.”
After a long couple of minutes, Callan sighs and reopens his eye. “I can’t remember. One minute I was bending to grab my bookbag and the next, when I stood up, I got a blow of pain to the head. I’d curled up into a ball, taking most of the hits to my back, so I wasn’t able to see.”
I can tell Jax wants to press, but it won’t help. Callan either doesn’t know or doesn’t want to tell him. Either way, we’re not getting any closer to finding answers. My biggest concern is if he doesn’t want to tell us, that means he’s afraid.
“Knock, knock,” Zak says from the doorway. “Can we come in?”
Callan grins at seeing both Zak and Cormac. “Only if you brought donuts. They’re trying to feed me slop.”
Cormac is white as a sheet, the horror evident on his face at seeing Callan beat up. Zak is the exact opposite, face bright red with fury.
Jax tugs at my elbow as the guys crowd the hospital bed to talk to Callan. We step outside, just the two of us.
“Don’t worry,” Jax says, his brown eyes searching mine. “I’m going to find out who did this, even without Callan being able to tell us anything.”
I scrub my palm over my face and let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”
He scoffs. “Of course it matters. If we don’t get to the bottom of it, the perp might escalate their violence. The only way to protect him and make sure it doesn’t happen again—”
“It won’t happen again,” I growl, unable to meet his fiery stare, “because we’re leaving.”
He sucks in a sharp breath. “What?”
“I can’t…” I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the wall, finally glancing up at him. His expression is unreadable. “I can’t keep doing this.”
“Keep doing what?” His tone is cool.
“I can’t keep trying to create a life here when we so clearly don’t fucking belong,” I snap, cracking my neck.
Jax flinches at my words and then shakes his head in vehemence. “No. That’s not the answer. You belong here.” Heartbreak shines in his brown eyes. “With me.”
I close my eyes, squeezing them so tears won’t form. “You know we can’t do that.”
“Dante,” he rasps. “Look at me.”
Popping my eyes open, I pin him with a hard stare. “We can’t be together, so what the hell does it matter if we stay or if we go?”
He steps closer, his eyes darting back and forth. “We can be together.” His hand lifts, stroking my cheek with his knuckles. “I’m trying so fucking hard for you.”
My eyes water and I’m forced to look away. I’m staring at the elevators when they open. Mr. Hayworth and Coach Townsend step out. Jax notices them as I do, dropping his hand and stepping away from me.
“Trying so hard, huh?” I mutter, bitterness in my words.
“That’s not fair,” Jax growls. “I’m…it’s just…”
“Heard you loud and clear, Sheriff. Your actions always speak louder than your words.”
“How is he?” Mr. Hayworth says as they approach. “Hank said Brie texted him that Callan’s awake now. That’s excellent news. We wanted to check in on him.”
“Appreciate you coming by, Mr. Hayworth,” I mumble.
“Call me Brandon.” He shakes my hand. “What did he say?”