Page 155 of Dark Tangled Truths
“You should see the other guy.” I smirk. The knife hurts, but I’m imagining what happens next will hurt more.
Dad shakes his head. “You should have let the police do their jobs.”
I turn and see Evan, buried in her mother’s embrace while the nurse argues that they need to redress the wounds. Heather just shakes her head and holds Evan so fucking tight. Adam has his arm around Heather and talks calmly with the nurse.
Then I’m wheeled away. It’s a while later before I’m in a room waiting. They sliced off my jeans and pulled out the knife before closing up the wound with some stitches. Someone gave me drugs at some point, and I stopped caring what they were doing.
Now I’m in a hospital gown, in a bed, twiddling my thumbs. Dad opens the door and Mom hurries in. She grabs my hand and touches my forehead like I’m sick, brushing my hair away from my face.
“How are you feeling?” She looks over me like she’s cataloguing everything is where it’s supposed to be. I’m surprised when she doesn’t lift the sheets to check that I have all my toes.
“I’m good. How’s Evan?”
Dad glances toward the door. “She didn’t need stitches. The police were in with her getting her statement.”
Mom looks at all the monitors. If there was a clipboard at the end of my bed, she’d be reading that, but all the notes are in computers now. Not that she could make anything out of it.She’s not a nurse. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to hack the computer.
She finally sighs. “The nurse should be back in a few. The doctor said you’ll need to stay off it for a little while, but everything should heal nicely. You’ll follow up with our doctor. They’re sending you to physical therapy to help with strengthening.”
Dad rubs her back. “If it had been anywhere else, you would have needed surgery.”
“So I can get out of here soon.” I sit up.
“They’re going to discharge you instead of keeping you overnight.” Dad acts like they really should keep me, but I’m glad they aren’t.
Damon opens the door and walks in. “Hey.”
I smile and know it comes across a little weird because of the pain meds.
Dad nods to Damon.
“You were a beast.” Damon holds his hand out to me, and I clasp it.
I laugh. “You would have done the same.”
When he shrugs, my mom makes a noise of disapproval.
“You all could have been killed running into a kidnapping like that.” Mom shakes her head and Dad pulls her into his chest. She releases a choking sob.
“He’s fine, Lisa.” Dad makes soothing noises, rubbing her back.
“He had a knife in his leg! A knife! In his leg!” Mom takes in a shaky breath.
“Give us a minute.” Dad nods at me as he leads Mom out into the hallway, speaking quietly to her.
“How is Evan?” I ask. She’s safe. That’s all I needed to know before.
Damon glances toward the door. “I drew the short straw.”
I chuckle. Such a dick.
“Not really,” Damon says with a smirk. “I wanted to see how you were doing, so I could tell her when I saw her.”
“Always playing the hero.” I shake my head.
When the door opens, Dad and Mom move back inside. Mom lowers into the chair and watches me with watery eyes. I hate that I made her worry.
Damon looks me over and his face grows serious. “How is it?”
