Page 8 of Tone Deaf
“That’s okay. I’m just glad we got there in time and found you,” Dom says with some measure of relief. But his tone belies what he and I are truly feeling. We are furious.
Not five minutes later, Dr. Monroe comes into the room. The older man spares us a glance before looking at Callum. “Mr. Fitz, I’m glad to see you are awake.”
“How bad are my injuries?” Callum asks with hesitation.
“Well… Your left arm has a hairline. Your nose is broken. The x-rays came back and I’m glad to say that the orbital area around your eyes is intact, but no doubt you’re concussed. You’ll be swollen for a while, along with the black and blue bruising. I have scheduled you for a CT scan and an MRI for additional evaluation.”
“He’s being admitted?” Dom questions.
“Yes,” Dr. Monroe conveys without looking at my partner.
“For how long?” I ask, taking a step closer to the doctor. I can’t stand when a person doesn’t look me straight in the eyes. It feels distrusting.
“Overnight—maybe two. It’ll depend on what the other tests show.” Dr. Monroe finally glances at me, and sneers before he departs the room.
“What the hell?” I turn to Dom, hoping he also saw what I saw from the doctor’s strange behavior. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah,” he admits and returns his attention to Callum, who’s groaning. “Are you in pain?”
“My face and arm hurt,” he admits.
Right then, Lyric walks back into the room with two syringes.
“What’re in those?” Dom rasps out, stepping in front of Lyric right before the nurse reaches the IV stand.
“One is for pain and the other for infection,” Lyric explains, his nostrils flaring with irritation. “Want me to test it out on you first?” He points the capped syringe in Dom’s direction, and my boyfriend quickly moves out of the nurse’s way.
“No thank you,” Dom grates out. He might be a big man, but where needles are concerned, Dom is a scared little boy.
As Lyric drains the syringes into the IV, he tells Callum, “I’ve also added something for the nausea, in case the meds make you feel sick.”
“Thank you,” Callum whispers.
“Yeah, thank you,” I say, but my eyes remain on Callum, whose body relaxes into the bed as he falls asleep.
“I notified hospital security and the charge nurse at the front desk of the impending horde coming in for Mr. Fitz. Hopefully, he’ll be in a room by then,” Lyric tosses over his shoulder as he leaves.
I glance at Dom, who is staring at the curtained doorway.
“He’s a feisty one. Whoever snatches him up will have their hands full,” Dom says, finally cracking a small smile before returning his serious attention to Callum.
I agree with a soft chuckle.
We remain in the emergency room with Callum until hospital staff arrive to take him for his CT scan. Dom goes with him while I wait. Soon after, a porter comes to take me up to the room where they’ll bring Callum after the imaging.
Four and a half hours later, an already long and stressful day gets worse when the room is bombarded by the rest of Warrior Black and their security team. Then it becomes a fuck-of-a-lot worse when Callum’s father shows up, and all hell breaks loose.
Chapter Four
Callum
I wake up to chaos. Shouts reach my ears, and I have no choice but to open my eyes—or try to, anyway, because they still feel swollen and it hurts to blink. I peer through slits at the blurry images before me.
After blinking slowly several times, I finally clear away the fuzziness and see who’s doing all the yelling. My damn father, and Danny. They’re facing off like two stubborn rams, ready to headbutt each other, all the while the security team is standing there—along with my bandmates, watching them.
“You have no right to be here. I know for a fact that Callum doesn’t want to see you—not after the last phone call he got from you,” Danny hisses, his face all red and his man-bun coming loose from the back of his head.
“I’m his father—you, on the other hand don’t have a say on what my son wants or needs,” Brian counters, but it’s a weak point. I might be his son by blood but Brian’s far from being a father figure in my eyes.