Shane nodded once, then continued marching out the door, towing me after him. And honestly, I was thankful for his manhandling and steering because my mind felt like it was splitting open.
X is in the hospital. It’s fucking bad.
He was attacked, Preston.
The strongest man I knew, the one who never even went down as a knockout in the ring against men even bigger than him, had been attacked. He was in the hospital.
It’s fucking bad.
Shane hadn’t even tried sugarcoating it for my sake like he normally would have, which meant X was in really bad shape.
If I lost X, I was going to lose myself. Didn’t matter that I still had Shane. Without X, I wasn’t fucking whole. And as I glanced at Shane while he directed me into the passenger seat of his car, I knew he felt the same.
We were a throuple. We needed each other. Without X, we’d have a hole in our lives that would never be filled again.
Chapter 25
Shane
Thankfully, X had been smart enough to list Preston as his emergency contact at the hospital. I didn’t know when he’d done it, but I could appreciate the thinking ahead he’d done. Even Preston had no idea when he’d done that, but if I had to guess, he’d had his now-dead tech friend hack into the system and add Preston in case X was ever brought in because of his career choice. And because X had listed Preston, we were able to get into his room the moment Preston told the receptionist on duty who we were.
X was pale. Too pale. Dried blood was being cleaned off his face by the attending nurse, and another nurse was stitching his head wound closed. There was a lot of swelling and bruising, particularly on the left side of his face. He looked rough and nothing like the man I’d come to know. And seeing him so colorless and still on that plain, colorless hospital gurney had rage pulsing through my chest.
I prided myself on always remaining calm and keeping a level head. I didn’t let shit get to me, even in the most intense, dangerous, stressful situations. No matter how close to home something hit, I didn’t let a fucking thing affect me. But seeing X like that?
I wanted blood, and I wanted the head of the mother fucker who’d done this to him.
I had a feeling I already knew who was responsible, but I needed to see some kind of security footage first. I’d done my homework on the underground ring X worked for and their bosses. Someone had to have footage. No one ran an illegal empire like that and didn’t cover their bases. I planned to make sure I got my hands on any video footage, no matter the cost. They’d no doubt have their security system locked down tighter than Fort Knox, but that wouldn’t stop me. And it wouldn’t stop Damien for sure.
“He’s going to be okay,” the doctor was saying. “He has a severe concussion, but I’m sure he’ll pull through with only some migraines and maybe some blurry vision for a little while to contend with. Right now, we’re just waiting for him to wake up. We’ll know more once he does and I can talk to him personally.”
I nodded once. Preston tried to force a smile to his lips, but it wobbled under the swarm of emotions he was drowning beneath, so he dropped it. “Thank you,” he rasped.
The doctor nodded and slipped back out to go deal with his next patient. Once the nurses were done, they told us to call for them if we needed anything or if X happened to wake up, then they left, too. Preston dropped into the chair beside X’s bedside and leaned forward, drawing in a ragged breath that made his shoulders shake.
“I need to go deal with this,” I told Preston, my voice low and quiet. He sat up so abruptly, he sent the chair scraping across the floor a couple of inches. Quickly I cupped his face in my hands and leaned down to kiss him softly, hoping to soothe him. “I want to stay with you both, baby, but I need to find who did this to X, okay?”
“I want you to stay,” he croaked. A tear ran down his cheek as he glanced at X before focusing on me again. Sniffling, he deflated. “But I understand.” He looked up at me through his big, pretty eyes and hiccupped. “Promise you’ll make them pay?”
I nodded. “I fucking swear to you, Preston, they won’t take another breath by the time I’m done with them.”
He nodded and seemed to steel his shoulders, preparing himself to be the strong one while I was gone. But he was already so fucking strong. He had no idea. It took a certain kind of man to love men like me and X, and he did it so fucking effortlessly.
“I love you,” I told him. I’d known how I felt for a long time now, but I’d never voiced the words. But I knew he needed to hear those words now more than ever, so I let them out into the open. Spoke them into the world and made them real. “Remember that.”
Another tear ran down his cheek. “I love you, too, Shane,” he whispered, his voice ragged. “I’ll keep him safe.”
I smiled—something rare and a little foreign on my face. Still, Preston’s eyes lit up at the sight of it.
“I know you will, baby.”
“I’m starting to think we’re best friends with how much you’re calling me lately,” Damien drawled. “My boy is getting jealous.”
Damien served at my side in the military. When I had to work as a duo, he was always the one paired with me. When I was discharged after my injury, he left, too, deciding to officially settle down with his boy, Trevor. Trevor was way too sweet for a callous, controlling man like Damien, but they were happy, so what the fuck did I know.
“Need your help again,” I told him.
He sighed. “Of course. You never call me unless you need something, Shane. My feelings are starting to get hurt.” I grunted in annoyance as I stared out over the parking lot, watching people come and go, not in the mood for his games and teasing. “Alright, asshole, I’m at my computer. What do you need?”