Page 28 of Hard as Steel

Steel’s chest hurt so badly, he wondered if his heart was about to stop too. Kuba had made that claim with zero hesitation. He was an MMA fighter. A man people wouldn’t expect to say he needed his husband. Krystof had raised such an amazing human. Steel had spent the past six months kicking a puppy. He really couldn’t breathe. What had he done? If Krystof saw him, would his heart stop again? Steel had literally almost killed him. What in the fuck was wrong with him? He was such a piece of shit. Steel’s pulse pounded in his ears. He might kill the love of his life. What kind of person did something like that? His dad, that’s who. Holy shit, he was just like that piece of shit. How had he not realized it? Because evil didn’t tend to be self-aware, that’s why. Steel hadn’t known he could hate himself this much. What was he supposed to do? Steel heard his ragged breathing, and nothing would come into focus. He didn’t notice because he was too busy falling apart.

“Oh, dear. Not you too. I need triage.”

Steel barely heard the words and couldn’t tell who spoke. He didn’t care. They should let him die. He was nothing without Krystof. Steel would know. He had lived without him once already. Steel couldn’t do it twice. He wouldn’t.

A weight draped over his midsection moved slightly, waking him. Krystof blinked at his surroundings. The room was dim. He looked around. Confused didn’t begin to cover how he felt. He looked down. Steel was in a chair next to his bed, asleep on Krystof’s stomach. His arm draped across Krystof’s lap, as if he were scared Krystof would disappear while he slept. Adding to his bewilderment, Steel wore a hospital gown, one of those plastic wrist bands patients wore was on his wrist, and an IV bag hung from a pole next to him. Before his brain cleared even a hair, a noise to his left brought his gaze in that direction. A nurse changed a bag on what seemed to be Krystof’s IV. What in the world?

Krystof ran his fingers through Steel’s hair, brushing the locks aside.

“We gave up trying to keep him in his room. He won’t leave you, even though he needs the same level of care.” The whispered words only served to baffle him further.

“What happened?” He sounded like shit, as if he hadn’t used his voice in days.

An understanding smile flashed his way at the question. “I’m not allowed to talk about other patient’s conditions without their explicit permission.”

He got it, but still. “What happened to me?”

“Stress cardiomyopathy. Your doctor should be in again to talk to you in a few hours. Can I get you anything in the meantime?”

Krystof blinked at how casually he had just been told he was lucky to be alive. “Um.” He scrubbed his hand across his face. “I’m thirsty.”

Steel shot upright in his chair. “Thirsty? Did you say something about being thirsty? I can get you some water.”

“You absolutely cannot. You need to go back to your room. There’s nothing you can do for him in your condition.”

Steel blinked several times as if slightly out of his head. “Just wheel another bed in here. I’m not leaving my fiancé. I need him.”

Krystof stared at Steel. He looked horrible. His eyes had black circling them. He was pale and looked ready to drop.

Krystof patted his lap. “Come here, baby. Go back to sleep.”

The nurse sighed. She handed Krystof a Styrofoam cup with a straw. “I’ll be right back with fresh water.” She walked out, leaving them alone together.

With Steel’s head back in his lap, Krystof went back to stroking his hair. He had awakened enough to remember their fight and his intentions. Steel was here, still fighting for him and calling him his fiancé.

Krystof felt too bad to argue, and—pathetically—he still loved Steel to his core. “What happened, baby?”

Steel didn’t open his eyes. He looked weaker than Krystof had ever seen him. “My heart broke.” The words were slurred. Horror raced over Krystof. A monitor next to his bed went off, sounding like an alarm. Krystof didn’t notice. His soul cried out. Steel had said he couldn’t live through losing Krystof twice. Had he hurt himself? What in the hell happened when he was asleep? Krystof wasn’t surprised that he had suffered a heart event. His panic attacks had gotten to the point of feeling like a heart attack when they were bad. But Krystof never would have dreamed Steel would harm himself if he left.

The door swung open. The nurse from earlier pushed a second bed into the room and then raced to silence the machine. She stared at numbers for a moment. They must have steadied because she went back to setting up the bed as close to Krystof as possible.

With that done, she moved to Steel’s side. “Come on. You have your own bed now.”

Steel’s head lifted. He focused on the bed as if trying to decide if the two beds were close enough for his liking. Steel nodded and let her help him into bed.

Krystof’s gaze never left Steel.

“Okay, buddy. This had better do, because I’m setting an alarm on the bed and you get the red socks.”

“Oooh, I’m getting the naughty corner,” Steel slurred out, making Krystof laugh. Steel sighed. “I love that sound.”

The nurse didn’t laugh or comment, but she was smiling.

Once Steel’s red socks were in place, she hooked him up to the same machine attached to Krystof. From there, she put his legs into compression cups to randomly squeeze to help stop blood clots.

She looked appeased. “Okay. No more antics. Heart angioplasty is no joke. If you want to stay with your man, I suggest you act like it.”

Krystof stared harder at Steel. Angioplasty? Had he meant he had a heart attack when he said his heart broke?