Doin' a Dime, Vale, Lynn [top young adult novels TXT] 📗

from the beginning.

That’s about the time that I passed out.

CHAPTER 20

After all the stupid things I’ve done in my life, if I die because I touched my face I’m gonna be pissed.

- secret thoughts

WYETT

“Wyett?”

Six’s worried voice had me frowning.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, putting my textbook down to focus more fully on the call.

“I just got a call from Lynn,” she said. “Hunt was hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and they took him to the hospital. He’s in the ER…”

I was already heading out of the door.

But just as suddenly as I got to the door, there was a knock on it, and I froze, my hand reaching for the doorknob.

There was another knock as I still sat there, waiting.

“Wyett?” Six said into my ear, worry in her voice. “Why are you breathing like that?”

I swallowed hard and whispered, “There’s someone at my door.”

“It’s Sin,” she explained. “He came to pick you up.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and opened up the door, looking at Sin apologetically. “Sorry, sorry. I just kind of freaked out a bit when I heard you knock. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here, and Hunt’s worry was coming to mind about that hit man.”

Sin offered me a wink. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I understand completely.”

Fingers shaking at the thought of Hunt being hurt, and me not being there to help him, I gestured toward the door. “Let’s go. I’m really ready to get there already.” I paused. “Do you know what happened?”

I mean, other than being hit with a baseball bat, that was.

“That jackoff who was at the campground, the asshole in the really ostentatious camper? He saw Hunt when he happened to literally run into your hit man at Chick-Fil-A,” Sin explained as he led me to a Harley. I started shaking my head immediately.

“No offense,” I said softly, “but I’m not riding on that bike with you. I kind of want my first motorcycle ride to be on the back of Hunt’s bike. Not yours. Can we please take my car?”

Sin immediately repocketed his keys and nodded his head. “Sure.”

Together we rode to the hospital, Sin driving my car while I shook like a leaf next to him. He explained what all had happened to Hunt, and then explained that they didn’t know much more than that.

When we arrived at the hospital, it was to find the waiting room full of Souls Chapel Revenants.

I smiled warmly at the lot of them, even Bruno.

He had his arms crossed across his chest as he glared across the room at a nurse.

Zach stood at the nurses’ station as he spoke quietly to a nurse.

When I arrived, Zach turned and regarded me as I walked up to him.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“When Hunt was hit in the head with that bat, he suffered a severe concussion. When he arrived, he was vomiting, his pupils weren’t reacting equally to light, and he wasn’t able to see clearly. They have him getting a CAT scan now, and they have him taking some heavy pain meds as well as a few other meds.” He recited them off one by one, and my stomach clenched.

“Does he need surgery?” I asked worriedly.

“No, not right now,” Zach explained. “They’re going to watch him overnight. They’re also going to ascertain his mental state throughout the night and keep an eye on the swelling.”

I clenched and unclenched my hands.

“Can I see him?” I asked, voicing my question toward Zach and not the nurse at his back that likely was an employee unlike Zach.

“Yes.” He nodded. “He’s in room nine. At the end of the hall. The doctor on his case should be in shortly with his labs as well as test results.”

I licked my lips nervously. “Let’s go.”

The moment I breached the entrance of his room, I felt my heart clench.

I’d spent a whole lot of time in the hospital over the last couple of years getting my schooling done, followed by my job.

But nothing had ever helped prepare me for seeing a person that I loved in one of the hospital beds that I spent a lot of my time around.

“Hunt?” I called softly.

His eyes blinked open as if he’d only been waiting for me to arrive.

“My wife!” he called out loudly, surprising me. “Hi, how are you?”

My lips twitched. “I’m okay. How are you?”

He picked up the hand that had an IV attached to it and shook it in a so-so gesture.

“I’ve been better.” He paused. “Hey, I just want you to know that I didn’t get dead by a baseball bat. I just got knocked out. Even though it may be kind of surprising when you look at me.”

My lips twitched. “Oh yeah?”

His eyes were quite serious when he stared at me.

“Yeah.” He shook his head. “I’m okay.”

I moved forward until I could get his face in between my hands. “You scared the shit out of me, Hunt.”

He squeezed one eye shut and scrunched up his nose.

“Is my face still there?”

I looked at Hunt’s face and smiled. “Yes, it’s still there.”

“Good, because I can’t feel it. I didn’t want it to go anywhere.” He paused. “I am so high right now.”

I let his face go and smoothed back a section of hair that’d come out of place. But when I did, I felt the difference in his hair.

I stood up and walked around the back of his bed to get a better look at his head.

I winced as I replied, “You are.”

He was.

“After his injury, they’d brought him into the ER. After we got him some pain meds administered, we had to wrap him into a tight swaddle,” the nurse explained.

It was only after what he said next that I realized why.

“Do you think I can walk?” he asked as he once again strained to get up.

But the swaddle they had him in, practically pinning him to the bed, meant that he couldn’t get up easily.

“I can see why.” I paused. “Is him walking a