“They’re moving him to a different bed, then you can,” Xan replied. “The nurse said he’d tell us when.”
Xan and Asher spent the next ten minutes giving them the rundown of what had happened at the club. Then Zinn called Jordie and Ked to check in on Lachie and Ryde, updating the teens on the Pashuks’ conditions. Calder was mildly concerned that the boys were in different houses, but he figured Xan was right. The threat from Bergam had been neutralized.
And in the end, Bergam hadn’t been much of a threat. A cartoonish buffoon set on making Valentin’s life miserable without truly having the smarts to do it.
Still, he was a cartoonish buffoon who’d shot three men.
Ten minutes later, the nurse led Calder and Zinn to Wes’s room. When he’d asked if they were family, Calder had replied “yes” using hisalpha voice, and the nurse hadn’t questioned it.
Calder was relieved to see that Wes looked okay, his cheeks rosy and his eyes alive with indignation.
“Thank stars!” Wes exclaimed when they entered. “Have you heard anything about Assa and Valentin? The nurses won’t tell me anything.”
Zinn sat down next to the bed and captured Wes’s hand, kissing his bandaged palm. “Who would have thought when I left your house earlier that a little boiling water would be the least of your worries tonight?”
Wes choked out a laugh. “Leave it to you to find humor at a time like this, my omega.”
Calder’s head snapped up. Wes met his stare directly.
“Valentin is out of surgery and doing well. The bullet shattered some ribs, and they needed to remove the bone fragments. Butwe should be able to see him soon,” Calder said. “Assa is still in surgery. Another few hours at least.”
“I passed out before I could see. What happened?”
“He was shot in his upper chest, close to the shoulder,” Zinn said, a tear slipping down his cheek. “He made it to the hospital still breathing. He’s a fighter, but there is—” he swiped his eyes with the back of his hand “—significant damage.”
Wes squeezed his eyes shut, fisting the blanket.
Calder went into the waiting room to tell Xan and Asher to go home. They’d already given the police their statements, and there was nothing more to do at the hospital but wait.
“I’ll call Sandi and give him the update,” Xan said. “He and I can handle the club for a few days while we clean up. Please let us know if anything changes.”
When Calder returned to Wes’s room, he was glad to see that Valentin had been transferred there as well. He was groggy, having just come off the anesthesia, but aware enough to be worried about Assa.
The hospital staff didn’t question the men’s connection, never forcing them to stateIt’s complicated but we’re meandering our way toward being a polycule. They were family. That was all anyone needed to know.
In the early morning, a nurse came in to tell them Assa had made it through surgery and was recovering in the ICU. He would be in a medically induced coma for another day to keep his body immobilized.
“Will we be able to sit with him?” Zinn asked.
“Yes. But only one at a time.”
“Go,” Wes said to Calder from his bed. “He shouldn’t be alone.”
“Would you rather be with Assa, sunshine?” Calder asked Zinn. “I know how close you are.”
Zinn looked up from where his fingers twined with Valentin’s. “We might be close, but I’m sure he’d be just as happy to see you.”
“If you really think so.”
“Based on the number of times Assa has reminded us aboutthe magical time you and he met over the phone, I’m pretty sure you’re good,” Valentin said.
Calder chuckled. “Watch it.” He winked at him.
Wes rolled his eyes. “It’s bizarre to see our alphas beingplayfulwith each other.”
“Seriously,” Zinn said, shooing Calder into the hallway with a wave.
The nurses made Calder put on a mask and gloves before he entered Assa’s room. The lights were bright in the windowless, white-walled space, the rhythmic beeping of the machines the only noise. There was a tube in Assa’s throat, attached to a machine that sounded like the ocean.