Page 63 of Jacked and Jaded

“All of you?” The doctor’s brows rose to his hairline.

“Yeah. All of us. He doesn’t have any real family. We’re all he has.” That wasn’t true, he had two brothers and both his parents, but they all lived out on the east coast. Race dared him to question him about that. He stood with his fists shoved in the front pockets of his jeans, his feet shoulder-width apart. “How’s our boy?”

The doctor looked to the floor and shook his head before raising it and looking Race in the eyes. “It was a bad injury. Do you know how it happened?”

“I was told someone hit him with a ball bat.” The muscle in Race’s jaw ticked.

“That explains it. Although the the wound on the outside didn’t look as bad as it could, we found a couple of brain bleeds that had to be dealt with. We were able to do that and things look really good. However,” the doctor paused. Jackson hated when doctors saidhowever.It never lead to anything good.“He’s been in recovery long enough that he should have woken up by now. That has us a little concerned. We’re going to keep a close eye on him for the next few hours. We’ll let you know if there’s any change.”

“When will we be able to see him?” Dagger asked what everyone was wondering.

“Once he’s stabilized, we’ll transfer him to a room. After that, we’ll let you visit two at a time.”

“Thanks. We appreciate you taking care of our boy.” Race shook the doctor’s hand and watched him leave. “Well, hell.” He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at his feet. “You all can head out. I’m going to stay and wait for the all clear before I go. I’ll let you guys know when I find out anything.”

As expected, not a one of the brothers wanted to leave. They all opted to stay and wait with Race. Jackson wasn’t surprised when Race stepped up to him and told him he needed to take Calliope and Bellamy home. They didn’t need to sit around here. They’d been through enough already. Jackson reluctantly agreed. If it had been just him, he would be staying, too, but the women really needed to get out of here. He agreed and told Race to come by in the morning when he was ready to end this.

Calliope had a rough night sleeping.After the medicine wore off, lying flat on her back was no longer an option. Even rolling over, she’d jar herself awake when she hit the sore spot on the back of her head as she rolled. And it didn’t help matters that Jackson woke her up every two hours to check on her. She realized he was just doing as the doctor instructed and because he was worried about her, but it didn’t make her any less tired. Glancing at the alarm clock, she saw that it was nearly 10:00 a.m.

When they got home last night, she was shocked to see someone had been there to clean up the messes. The chairs were at the table. The toaster was on the counter. The blood had been mopped up and Bellamy said even her closet floor was clean. All the blood from Chris’s head injury just magically gone. It would seem her mom and Jane had been called into action. Jackson told her Maverick had gotten the two women to lend a hand. Not that he had to beg them or anything. They were glad to help, especially when it involved Jackson and Calliope.

Slowly, she rose from the bed, not wanting to jar herself in anyway. She didn’t want to set her head to pounding anytime soon. She was so sick and tired of being hit and having head injuries. That asshole Clint was going to pay for all of it.

She got dressed and shuffled out to the kitchen. She found Jackson and Bellamy sitting at the table, drinking coffee. They both looked her way when she entered the room. Jackson gave her a once over then stood and came to her. He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “How are you feeling today?” His gaze was scrutinizing her every facial expression and word she spoke. She would have to convince him that she was fine so he’d let her face Clint. She didn’t want him leaving to take care of him without her. He’d promised.

“I’m good. The back of my head is sore, but that’s to be expected considering I have stitches. No headache so far, so I have my fingers crossed.” She pulled a chair out and took a seat.

“You want coffee?” Bellamy asked, already on her way to get her a cup.

“Thanks,” she told her as she placed it in front of her. She took a drink and it was like heaven. Any lingering headache would be cleared up by a good dose of caffeine. That’s the story she would give him if she had to.

There was a knock at the front door and Jackson went to answer it. Several of the guys from the club poured into the kitchen. Trick and Dagger were carrying white bakery boxes. “Doughnuts!” They pulled the lids off and lined them up on the counter. Everyone helped themselves to the doughnuts, some having three or four piled on a paper plate. Bellamy handed out cups of coffee and started another pot. When it was finished she passed out coffee to anyone else wanting a cup, then worked on refills.

“Any word on Chris?” Calliope asked.

Race finished a glazed doughnut and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin before he answered. “We waited until they came out to tell us that they’d gotten him to wake up. His vital signs are good, he knows where he’s at and is sweet talking the nurses already. They expect him to make a full recovery. They want to keep him another couple of days just to make sure he doesn’t have a relapse or something.”

“That sounds like good news.” Thank God. She’d been so worried that he wouldn’t wake up or he’d suffer permanent damage to something.

“We have Darren sitting with him, keeping him company.” He smiled as if it was funny.

“Is that a bad thing?” she asked Jackson.

“No, baby. Chris is a talker and Darren doesn’t talk hardly at all. More than likely, unless Chris is asleep, he is going to drive Darren up the wall.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do, but it wasn’t her call to make. She wanted to ask about Clint and when she was going to get to confront him, but she held back hoping they would bring it up themselves.

“How are you doing this morning, Calliope?” Dagger asked on his way to toss his plate in the trash.

“Good. Thanks for asking.” She knew everyone was concerned about her, but she wished everyone would quit asking her how she was doing.

“Bellamy, what about you? How are you holding up? You’re not going to let what happened here yesterday keep you from moving to Redemption, are you?” Trick asked from where he stood next to the sink working on a jelly doughnut.

Bellamy snorted. “No, it’s not going to keep me from moving here and I’m doing fine.” She’d taken a custard filled doughnut, but had yet to take her first bite. Calliope was concerned that maybe yesterday affected her a lot more than she was letting on. She’d have to keep a close eye on her to be sure.

“Jackson? Can we see you in the living room for a minute?” Race’s not-so-subtle way of getting Jackson away from Calliope so they could discuss Clint was not cool. If they thought they were going to cut her out, they had another thing coming.

She waited for them to leave the room, then swore. “Damn it. They trying to cut me out.”

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