The Right Kind of Love (15 page)

“Huh?” They were trying to talk to me, but I just couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying to me. I was really out of it. It felt like I was in a fog.

“You hit your head pretty hard and you have a concussion. You need to stay awake.” He stepped away from me and Reeve replaced him.

He started checking my eyes again and looked at my face and head. Damien came walking back into the room with a glass of water, ibuprofen, and an ice pack. He placed the ice gently on my head and eye. “You’re going to have a shiner tomorrow.”

“Shit. I think I’m going to be sick again.” This time they were prepared. They had a trash can next to the bed.

“I’ll stay the night on the couch and check in on her every hour,” I heard Reeve say.

“No, bro, I can do it.”

“Are you sure? I’m the doctor after all.”

“Yeah, I got this.”

“All right. I’m gonna head out. That Mag’s chick was all over me tonight, and I’m gonna see if she wants to come over for a little night cap.”

“Really? You, too?” I asked. I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. Apparently, the haze I was in wasn’t so bad.

“You tapped that too, Damien?” Reeve asked.

“That was a long time ago, and I’m definitely not interested now.”

“Cool. All right. I’m headed out. Make sure you check on her every hour.”

Zeus jumped up on the bed and cuddled up with me. “Zeus, I love you.” My head fell back into my soft pillow and I relaxed my tender head.

That night, I didn’t sleep much. Damien woke me up every hour to check on me. He was very attentive and always made sure I was okay before I went back to sleep. He had really made me feel
special
.

Sydney

I
felt someone nudging me, and I slowly opened my eyes. Damien was sitting next to me holding my phone in my hand, which I now realized was ringing.

“Here, babe, your phone is ringing.”

Looking around the room, I noticed we were in the dark. The sun hadn’t even come up yet. “What time is it?”

“It’s five in the morning.”

Uh, oh. No one ever called me this early. I took the phone from him, looked at the screen, and saw it was a Detroit area code. I was hesitant to answer it thinking it could be Wes. But I pushed my luck.

“This is Sydney.” My voice was still groggy. And my throat hurt from all of the throwing up I’d done.

“Hello, Sydney Summers?” The lady replied.

“Yes, this is she.” Who the hell could this be?

“This is St. Peter’s Hospital. You’re step-father has asked us to call you. He was brought in by ambulance with chest pains and suffered from a heart attack as soon as he got here. He’s in critical care at the moment...”

I placed my hand over my mouth as my eyes filled with tears. “Is he going to be okay?”

“We’re monitoring him now and doing everything we can for him. But before he had his heart attack, he had asked for you to be here. At the moment, he’s being prepped for open heart surgery.” The woman on the other end of the phone was trying to be as sweet as possible. I’m sure it was hard for her to deliver this kind of news to loved ones.

My heart sank for him. We hadn’t been that close, but it still didn’t mean that I didn’t want the best for him and for him to be all right. “I’ll be on the next flight out,” I said before I even thought about what the repercussions would be if I saw Wes.

The thought of going back home scared the hell out of me. I prayed that Wes would behave given the circumstances. If I had any problems, I would be surrounded by people at the hospital, and I could always call for security. My body shivered thinking about it and I chilled to the bone.

I would go there to make sure he was going to be all right, and then I would leave on the next flight out. There was no way I could stay there and possibly have a repeat with Wes. His texts had been coming more frequently, and they were extremely creepy.

Setting the phone back down on my nightstand, I looked at Damien. His face was etched with concern and curiosity.

“Where are you going?”

I explained to him what was going on with Dale.

“I’m not letting you go alone. I’m going with you.” Tears were still streaming down my face, and he gathered me in his arms and kissed me on the top of my head.

I untangled myself from his embrace and looked up at him. “You don’t have to go with me, Damien. I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“Nonsense. First of all, you shouldn’t even be going anywhere with the condition you’re in. And secondly, this is what friends do. They help one another out in the time of need.” He paused for a moment. “If something ever happened to one of my family members, I wouldn’t want to be alone.”

“I can always have Bee meet me there so I’m not alone.” In all reality, I wasn’t even sure I was going to tell Bee I was there. She would want me to stay longer, and I only planned to make this a quick trip. Maybe stay one night and then come back the next day.

“I’m going and that’s final.” He looked at me, espresso to jade.

“Oh, all right.” I took my hand and placed it on my head. It was so tender to the touch. “Ouch, my head really hurts.”

“Are you sure you should be going?” He looked concern.

“Yes, positive.”

He grabbed Zeus from under the blanket and then got up off the bed. “I’ll take out Zeus, and then get us some plane tickets. You go get showered.”

“Oh, shit, what am I going to do with Zeus while we’re gone?” I hadn’t even thought about him. I was such a bad mom.

“I got it covered. I’ll call one of my siblings to see if they can stay for the night.” He settled Zeus on the ground, grabbed his phone out of his back pocket, and started texting like a madman.

“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to bother anyone.

“Positive, now get ready.”

I swung my feet over the side of the bed and headed for the shower. I stopped at the mirror to check out how bad the damage was on my head and eye. “Oh, my God,” I screamed.

Damien came rushing back into the room. “What, what’s wrong?”

“My face, look at it. I look like I went several rounds with Rocky.” The tears started to fall down my face. “How am I going to go out in public?”

“Well, with all the girly shit you have, I’m sure you can cover it up. Just relax, Sweets, it’s going to be fine.” He tried to reassure me.

“Shit, this is bad, and my head and eye won’t stop throbbing.” I tenderly touched my eye and then my head. I had taken one hell of a spill.

“I just got a text back from Justice. He says he can watch the rat.” He grinned at me.

“I’m not in the mood, Damien.”

He just laughed and walked out of the room.

I made quick work of getting ready, applying several coats of make-up to cover up my bruises. They were a deep blue, black, and purple. The foundation I used helped some, but I still saw a little discoloring.

Walking out into the kitchen, I found Damien drinking an energy drink. “Can I have one?”

“Here you go. I got us a flight that leaves in a couple of hours. We should probably get a move on.”

We had just touched down in Detroit and my heart rate was already beating in triple time. My hands were sweaty and I felt shivers course their way up and down my spine, although it did make me feel somewhat more comfortable knowing Damien was with me. I was still scared, but I knew in the back of my mind that Damien wouldn’t allow anything to happen to me.

We settled everything in our rooms at the hotel. We weren’t sharing one, but we did have adjoining rooms, which added to my comfort. I knew if Wes tried anything, Damien would be right there.

Once the cab pulled up to the hospital, my nerves heightened and I began to panic. I tried deep breathing, but it wasn’t helping.

“Baby, are you okay?” Damien looked at me with worry. His eyebrows were knitted together, and he ran his hands through his hair.

“Yeah, fine. Just worried about Dale.” I lied. Yes, I was worried about him, but I was just more concerned about seeing Wes. I had to keep reminding myself that Damien would protect me.

We stepped out of the cab and I looked all around us. I tightly wrapped my arms around my body as we proceeded to enter the hospital. My heart about jumped out of my chest when I saw a guy that I thought was Wes. He was tall like Wes and wore his hair in the same buzz cut style. I heaved a breath and my body began to tremble. It was like I could feel the weight of him on me again, taking me with no regret. The man turned around and showed a face not at all familiar. I felt like I could breathe again. But it wouldn’t last long.

We found out that Dale was still in surgery. So we headed to the OR waiting area.

My eyes were wide as I took in every single person that crossed my path.

My phone chirped with a text and I pulled it from my back pocket. My hair stood on end as I read it.

Wes: I know you’re here, you whore. Don’t think you can hide from me.

I didn’t understand. He was sweet earlier. The sudden change in tone was eerie and it was just like that night all over again. My body began to shake and I my throat went dry. Tears were starting to hit the back of my eyes.

Damien looked down at me. “Baby, are you sure you want to do this? You look pale, and I can tell you’re shaking.”

“Yes, I just don’t like hospitals. You know with my mom passing away and all.” I lied again.

We got to the waiting room and my eyes landed on Wes.

Then everything went black.

Damien

“Sydney, Sydney, wake up, baby, I’ve got you.” Why the hell did she faint? Good thing I was standing next to her and caught her fall. I knew she was nervous about being in a hospital, but something had certainly triggered that response. I wouldn’t pry, though. I would let her open up to me in her own time. The hospital staff was by my side making sure she was okay. They were on it like flies on shit. I guess she fainted in the right place.

I set her in a chair and walked over to get her a glass of water. When I came back, I noticed she was crying and had a light sheen of sweat over her brow. She was trembling and seemed fucking terrified of something.

“Would you mind going to talk to the volunteer at the desk and getting an update on Dale? His last name is Holt.” I started to get up when a guy who had been sitting in the corner came over to us. Sydney cowered and then clung on to me. I immediately wrapped my arms around her. She was petrified.

“I’ll give you an update. He’s in fucking surgery fighting for his life. Why the hell are you even here, Sydney?” What the fuck was up with this guy, and why was he talking to her like that? He obviously knew her, but what the hell was the motherfucker’s problem?

I felt her start to shake next to me. There was something about that guy that set her off. She didn’t speak. She just sat there with tears streaming down her face.

“Hey, motherfucker, I suggest you step back. Show some fucking respect to the lady.”

“She’s no lady.” He stared daggers into my eyes, and then looked over at Sydney.

I started to rise from my chair and Sydney grabbed me even tighter. “Don’t,” she said to me.

Obviously, there was some history between these two and he fucking terrified her. I really needed to know what the fuck was going on.

The guy stormed out of the waiting room. I felt Sydney as she began to relax a little bit but not much. She was still a quivering mess.

“Who was that guy?” I wanted answers. I was a minute away from hunting him down and beating the shit out of him.

“Ju… Just someone from my past,” she stuttered.

That much was obvious. I guess she wasn’t going to tell me anymore.

“I want to know. You and this fuckhead obviously don’t get along. I want to know who I’m protecting you from.”

“Damien, fucking drop it. I don’t want to talk about him. If you don’t leave it be so help me, I’ll move all of my shit out of the apartment when I get home,” she gritted through her teeth. Her expression on her face told me she was very serious.

“Fine. I’ll let it go for now.
For now
.” And it would be for now. Eventually, I would expect answers.

We waited for about an hour and the guy never returned. Sydney had since relaxed a bit further, but I could tell she was alert to her surroundings and kept looking around.

Finally, the doctor came out. He called us over to a private room. “Hello, I’m Dr. Reynolds.”

“Hello, I’m Sydney, Dale’s step-daughter. How is he?” She had a look of worry on her face.

“He’s in the recovery room now. We had to perform a triple bypass. As you know, he suffered a major heart attack here in our ER. He’s very lucky to be alive. Had he not been here at the time, it could have been fatal.”

Sydney started crying. I placed my arms around her and held her tightly to me. “Will he recover?” she asked between sobs.

“He should make a full recovery. He will be in critical care for a while. But once we get him out of the woods, he should be okay.”

“When—” She choked on her sob and couldn’t say anymore.

“I think she’s trying to ask when we can see him.” She nodded her head.

“As soon as we get him out of recovery, you can see him for a few minutes in his room,” he explained. 

“Thank you, Doctor, we appreciate it.” He got up, shook our hands, and left.

We waited another two hours and the asshole from earlier walked back into the waiting room. Sydney’s entire body went tense and her breathing hitched. I thought she was going to fucking faint again. Then she looked at me with pleading eyes. I didn’t know what she was pleading for, though. Did she want me to kick his ass, because I certainly would be happy to do just that...

The motherfucker glared at Sydney and then went and sat down across from us. He stared daggers at her. I noticed she would sneak glances at him. And then a few tears would fall. She grabbed me tighter as I felt her body shake. The motherfucker never turned his eyes from her. It was actually eerie.