Page 73 of Never To Suffer (The Hollywoodland #4)

“Keep it down, come on. Back outside. Quick.” With the pain meds he’s on, he’ll probably be out for a few more hours, but I don’t need him waking up to freak out again. I hold my finger up to my lips and lead her back out to the hallway, where Skylar stands with their bags from the show.

“What, is there like a surprise party for me or some shit? Bro, did you get hit by a bus? Please tell me you’re not mad because I didn’t come in and immediately get all cheerful and happy and yelling salutations or some shit.

We had a breakthrough, sure, but I’m still me.

” She crosses her arms and stares at me.

“We’ve had a day, man. Like a day where the van breaks down, the show gets moved around at the last minute, and we barely survive elimination kind of—Theo? Is that blood? Did you kill someone?”

“No, Dani. I…it’s?—”

“Xander?” Skylar asks, dropping the bags when I nod toward the door. They push past us and into the apartment, and I don’t stop them.

“Theo?” Dani chokes on my name.

The dryness in my mouth makes it hard to swallow.

“He’s, uhm—” I stop and close my burning eyes.

I’ve been holding the tears in since he walked in the door, but now that Dani’s here, I can’t hold them in anymore.

She moves for the door, and I stop her. “Someone attacked Xander. Oliver, same guy from Japan. Xander’s scared you’ll be mad at him, or you’ll blame yourself because you warned him not to work for that security company. ”

“That stupid son of a—” she can’t keep the angry facade up for more than a second before she’s breaking down alongside me. “He’s okay, right? Tell me he’s okay, Theo. I can’t… I can’t hear it if he’s?—”

“I called a friend of mine, a doctor. She left about an hour ago. We need to keep an eye on him, but she gave him something for the pain and stitched him up.”

“STITCHED?! Oh my god.”

“I had to tell you out here, Dani. I can’t let you go in there until you work through this.

It’s… it’s bad.” I brush the tears with the pad of my thumb, running through the injuries with her slowly, not wanting to overload her.

Taking care of one of them will be enough work.

I don’t need to send Dani into a spiral on top of that.

When I’m done, she stares at me like I’ve just told her aliens are real and they live in the apartment downstairs.

“Can I see him?”

We walk back in to find Skylar on their knees outside the bedroom.

Their shoulders shake, and Dani runs to them.

When she reaches over to turn on the light, I catch her hand and shake my head.

I want the lights off for two reasons, so she can’t see how bad he is, and because Marie said Xander’s headache would be like fifty hangovers all at once.

I’ve even got a trash can by the bed in case he gets sick when he comes down from the shock.

Dani helps Skylar up, and the pair creep over, cringing when they see how little isn’t covered by bandages and ice packs.

I expect tears, frustration, and for the self-blaming to start—but this is Dani, after all.

“Frankenstein’s monster on ice,” she mutters, her shoulders dropping.

Skylar glances over at me again. “Get some rest. I’ll watch him.” Then climbs into the bed, curling as close to Xander as possible without touching him, other than to hold his bandaged hand.

“Well. If you’ll excuse me,” Dani says, voice low but not a whisper. “I’m going to call my brothers, buy the most badass metal bat I can’t find at this time of night, and find the piece of shit who dared lay a finger on my boyfriend.”

“Dani!”

“What? Oh, come on!” The harsh whisper full of poison comes out as she snarls.

“He didn’t call the cops, did he? Theo, he may be a stupid rich white boy, but he’s my stupid rich white boy!

No one hurts my Xander. I let that bastard do it once and get away with it, but he’s in my town now. On my turf. I will end him.”

“Our.”

“What?” she snaps out of her rage.

“He’s our stupid rich white boy. All of ours.” Her face softens, and she blinks a few times. “You’re our mouthy loud strong Latina. Sky is our confused, sensitive, taller white person. And if you’ll have me, I’m your pretentious smug grumpy asshat.”

“You forgot to say old,” Xander croaks out a mumble from the bed. “You’re fucking old.”

“Don’t give me that shit,” I choke up as the words come out while I walk over and brush the hair out of his eyes. I don’t care what he calls me, I’m glad he’s awake and talking. “Morning, sunshine. How are you feeling?”

“Shit, is it morning?”

“No, assclown,” Dani chirps in, holding his hand and running her thumb over the bandages.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

“Xan, if every man in history listened to what his much smarter, much better-looking woman told him, we’d live in a utopia by now.” Skylar replies, kissing the side of his head.

“Isn’t that the car ride at the theme park?” Xander asks.

“That’s Autopia. I’ll take you there when you feel better if you want.” Dani’s smile weak smile stays hidden behind her hand, but Xander’s eyes aren’t open to see it.

“Alright, he needs his sleep,” I interrupt.

“Don’t go!” His hand latches onto Dani’s, breaking both our hearts. “Stay. Please. All of you.”

We exchange a glance in the darkness, and, as if climbing into a bed full of unbroken eggs, we all find a space.

Dani slips between Xander and Skylar, careful of his bandages and broken ribs, and rests her head on Xander’s shoulder.

I move alongside him, nudging the side of his head.

Skylar sets timers to make sure we wake up to check on him and give him meds.

“I love you. All of you. And I’m sorry I always fuck up.”

“Oh, honeybee, you don’t,” Dani coos, one foot in dreamland already, exhaustion hitting her hard. “You’re a novelty in a world that wants to classify you as whatever they deem to be normal. But it’s okay, we’ve got you now. And we love you, too.”

I couldn’t have said it better, so I don’t try to one up her. Why should I. Instead, I lean over and kiss the top of her head, and the side of his. “Get some sleep, sweetheart. Marie will be back tomorrow, and if she finds out we kept you up all night being sappy, she’ll kick my ass.”

“Who was she, anyhow?” His whisper crackles as he coughs.

“My sister-in-law.”

“Cool. I didn’t know…you had…siblings.” The last word is hard to make out as his head lolls to the side and the meds take hold of him again.