Page 168 of Dissolving Prejudice

From here on out, Camilo’s life and mine were laced together, like golden ivy leaves woven into a God’s crown. We became an inseparable part of each other, and nothing would break us apart.

Camilo

“You sure you don’t need anything?” Andrei asked, his green eyes focusing on me. They were all teared up, to the point it made me want to punch the concern out of him.

“For the tenth time, yes, I’m sure I don’t need shit,” I rasped, repulsed by the metallic taste of blood I still had in my mouth. “I mean it, man, I’m fine,” I promised him after he continued to look at me like I’d drop dead at any second.

To be fair, I couldn’t blame Andrei or the others who were currently flooding my room after I gave them all a slight heart attack. Or a big one. After going in for an emergency surgery with my life on the line, followed by seven days of me being knocked out cold, wired to machines and filled with drugs, my guys were sure they’d lost me. Again. With how shitty I currently felt, unable to even sit up straight, I, too, was shocked to be alive. And while I was glad they all came here to see my fucked-up face, bringing chocolates and balloons with them, the fact he wasn’t here formed a knot in my stomach—one that had nothing to do with the surgery I went through.

“Don’t you think it’s odd how we always end up in the hospital?” Jessie asked from the corner of the room, where he was munching on my chocolates.

“Jessie.” Levi slapped his arm.

“What?” The moron frowned, mouth full. “I mean it.” He swallowed. “First we had Miles, then we had Jordan, Shay-Lee, Chief.” It looked like he was done counting us poor people when he snapped his fingers. “I forgot Soren—he got shot earlier this year.”

“Thank you for the pleasant reminder, Jessie,” the lawyer muttered while Levi sighed.

“Kotik, how about you stop talking?”

“He sort of has a point, though,” I said, a faint smile on my lips. “We really do always end up fucked-up.” To prove Jessie’s point, I slowly lifted up my broken hand. Not that I needed to with how my face looked, all patched up, swollen, and bruised.

Jessie put the chocolates down and stood up. “I know, right?” He waved his hand at me. “It’s like someone’s out there wishing for us to get hurt—”

“Okay, champ, how about we change the subject?” Chief kindly offered while putting a hand on Jessie’s shoulder, calming him down.

The two exchanged looks when I turned to face Soren.

“You sure he’s coming?” I asked.

The lawyer smiled. “He called not too long ago, saying he’s on his way here. He’s probably running late because of the meeting with the insurance company.”

Soren told me that while I was knocked out, Shay-Lee’s old house went up in flames and that now Shay-Lee had to handle all that crap regarding insurance. No one got hurt, but the place was completely ruined. Soren also mentioned that a gas leak mixed with a short circuit caused the fire. Sure. That was what caused it, and not a 176-pound blond with anger issues who should have already been here by now. The fact that Shay-Lee wasn’t here scared me, mostly because I worried he’d do something stupid while I was bound to this bed, unable to do shit to save him.

“How did this even happen to you?” Jessie asked, his question grabbing my attention back.

“You already know how, Jess,” Andrei spoke, his eyes locked with mine. “He worked as a bodyguard and got into a fight with some drunks. It all escalated quickly.”

Oh, right, that was the lie we’d told the police when they questioned me earlier.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” I said, my voice rough.

Shit. My body was still sore and hurting all over.

“It’s just so scary, you know?” Jessie bowed his head down as he looked at his shoes. “Diesel… he almost died… It’s sick.”

I did almost die. In fact, if not for Shay-Lee and Jordan saving my ass, I wouldn’t be here now. Everything that happened was rather blurry, and I only had pieces of memories from that event, like when Shay-Lee first came running into the room they held me in, when he touched my face and told me he was there, or when Jordan held my hand in the van. My ass was fucking lucky they were there because this one was too damn close.

“What’s important is that we’re all here now, so let’s not think about what could have happened,” Chief said, cutting into the silence following Jessie’s words.

“That’s true,” Miles added from where he stood behind Andrei.

Surprisingly, I was even happy to see his annoying face. Go figure, maybe all the drugs they were giving me here had turned me a bit softer.

Andrei’s hand landed on my shoulder, and he squeezed me lightly. “You really scared us, D. Don’t do it again.”

I scared myself, too.

Before I could respond and say he had nothing to worry about anymore, the door to the room opened, and Shay-Lee walked in. His hair was a mess, as if he’d been running around all day, and his eyes were a bit red, but other than that, he looked good. More importantly, alive and well.