“Look,” Mason said, setting his phone down and coming closer to the bed, but I could see he wanted to be anywhere but close to me right now. “Levi’s alive, okay? From what we can tell, he’s definitely alive?—”
“He is,” Kayden said, and I waited until I remembered he was a cop. If he was speaking with that much confidence on whether Levi was alive?—
“And he’s not hurt,” Mason finished, shooting Kayden a look that I couldn’t make sense of. “I wouldn’t worry about him.”
“Worry about a lot of other people, but not him,” Ward said. “Just...rest, Dom. You’re not going to be much good to anyone right now, least of all Levi. We can explain more when your head isn’t fuzzy from coming down from a high.
I knew he was right, but I hated it. I was awake enough to realize how useless I was, but not awake enough to do anything about it. The best I could do was let the darkness come back and sweep over me. I kept waking up after that, and there were times when I was still fuzzy and could barely make sense of it, and other times where I couldn’t do more than look around the room and wonder when the hell I was going to be free of everything.
The first time I woke up and felt like I was actually awake, the room was dark. The window was a nook with a cushion and some pillows, and someone was huddled there under a blanket. Beside me, curled up in a chair and partly on the bed, was Micah.
“Hey,” I said, reaching out to touch his hand when he cracked his eyes open. “Doin’ alright there, kid?”
He sat up, eyes wide. “I’m not a kid.”
“You’re always going to be a kid to me,” I said, looking him over. “You are okay...right?”
“Because of you,” he said, his lip trembling slightly. “And Levi. Those guys who hit you were going to come back, but Levi...Levi shot at them. Wouldn’t let me help you or anything. Held me back and tried to shoot those guys.”
“Good man,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s what I would have wanted him to do.”
“He was pretty pissed about it,” Micah said, putting his hand on my arm, a rare physical contact from a normally wary person. “Mom wouldn’t listen to me about him, but he did save me.”
“Moms can be...special,” I said. “You’re her kid, she’s going to be a little touchy about things like you being in danger.”
“Yeah, but...she...” He frowned. “She never listens to me.”
“I think, with this, you’re going to lose,” I told him.
“Yeah, but it’s Levi. You love him. How can you...think she’s right?”
“Because when it comes to this, she is right. You were put in danger because of me and Levi. That’s on us, and she has every right to be pissed.”
“She’s not mad at you...well, she said you were an idiot.”
“That sounds like her.”
“But when Mason said you were an idiot who was thinking with his heart, she got this look on her face and didn’t call you an idiot anymore.”
“Huh, that was nice of her.”
“It didn’tfeelvery nice.”
I put my hand on his chest. “Look, I appreciate you trying, kid, but don’t start worrying about Levi, okay?”
“I am worried,” he said, frowning. “He?—”
“Don’t,” I said, pushing lightly against his chest. “Don’t tell me, okay? I’m still not...able to do a whole lot. And I have this feeling that when I find out the truth about whatever is going on, I’m going to try to get out of this bed. And that’s probably a bad idea right now.”
“That’s what Grandma said,” he sighed. “Well, she said we weren’t going to keep the truth from you, but we weren’t going to tell you until you wouldn’t break your legs trying to get out of bed.”
“That sounds like Matty.”
“I’m...glad you’re okay.”
“Me too, get some more sleep, kid. I think I should do the same.”
“Sure, okay.”
