“He’ll be off it for a few days. With physical therapy, he should be back on the ice in a month,” Dad says as he leans against the wall next to Mom with his hand on her shoulder. “He should be good by the first game.”
Damon releases his breath and nods. “Good.”
I didn’t even know that yet, so I’m glad Dad told us. “I’m not looking forward to recovery time, but definitely hoping for pampering.”
Damon smirks. “Sounds like she might have a concussion, so you might be recovering together.”
“She’ll make me do my schoolwork,” I complain. Though the thought of hanging out with Evan is better than taking it easy on the couch alone.
“I like this girl.” Dad chuckles. “Driven, focused. You could do a lot worse.”
“I doubt I could do better,” I say honestly. I turn to Damon. “I’m good. Go check on our girl.”
Hawk
When a voice says to come in, I open the door to Annie’s room. She’s in the ER. Heather sits in the chair, clutchingAdam’s hand and looking pale. Annie said before that her mom has hospital trauma. This must be killing her.
“Hawk,” Adam says softly. “The doctor said to let her sleep when she can.”
I nod to him and go to where Annie sleeps. She wears a hospital gown now. I look her over and breathe. Things were chaotic at the house. Cam held me back from going in so many times. When he threw Jackson to me, I released everything on him.
He’s also here, with police standing outside his room. The police weren’t happy that we beat them into the house and beat up the guy, but Annie was in danger. And I’m sure my dad will convince them it was necessary force.
Annie’s memento was a little harder to explain. The blood was on her hands. Though her, Damon, and Jackson held the knife at some point tonight. The officer who took the report didn’t write the carving down, just that Jackson had been wounded by a knife. He mentioned his two daughters were five and three and gave Damon and me a nod of acknowledgement.
The cuts aren’t why Jackson’s in the hospital.
I put him there. He was beaten worse than he beat up Chase.
“Is it a concussion?” I turn to ask Adam.
“Likely. They’re going to get her an MRI to rule out anything major.” Adam runs a hand through his hair. “How’s Damon?”
“He’ll be in. He wanted to check on Cam first.” I drag in a breath. “He’s good though. Some redness on his wrists from the cuffs, and he’ll probably have a bruise on his side from the fight.” I smirk. “We’re all a little beat up.”
I washed my hands and put some antibacterial ointment on the cuts. My knuckles are a little swollen, but I have zero regrets. At least not about beating up Jackson. Not stopping him from taking Annie will haunt me for a while.
She was on my watch. It was stupid. I should have asked someone to stay with her. Not just assumed someone would. I don’t know how I’ll leave her again without one of the others with her. It’s not rational.
I can’t be on top of her twenty-four-seven to keep her safe. Not and have a life beyond her. Right now, that’s all I want, because it was almost taken away from me.
“Hey.” Her voice is soft, drawing my attention to her open blue-gray eyes. She slides her hand into mine. “Sorry, I drifted off there. They gave me some pain meds.”
I brush her hair away from her face with my other hand and she smiles at me. “You doing okay?”
“All things considered,” she says. She pushes the button to lift her head up a little. “My head hurts. The doctor said I need to take it easy for forty-eight hours.”
She frowns. She’s probably thinking about the play. I glance over at Heather.
“Did you call Mr. Watson?” I ask.
Heather nods. “Yes, and her assistant director. They know she’s not going to be in for a couple days, but they know she’s fine.”
“I can’t take a couple of days off. It’s tech week.” She reaches for her head as the door opens.
“You can recover for a couple days, Annie. You need the rest so you can blow everyone away with your performance.” I smile down at her as her eyes meet mine. So much strength. She closes her eyes and rests her head against her pillow.
Damon takes one look at her and steps in, closing the door behind him. He goes to the other side of the bed and gives me a questioning look.
