“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 bonesfucking 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 goddamnedminutes.
“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.”
