Page 53 of Cross Check My Heart
Cam is not worth him getting in a fight over.
Hands gently brush hair away from my eyes, and when I crack them open, his dark blue eyes are right in front of me. His gaze traces over my face as he tenderly moves his touch to check me over. There’s no stopping the wince as he finds the spot that hurts like hell. I don’t miss the anger that flashes across his face before he looks back over his shoulder.
“Shit.” He murmurs with an exhale.
Slowly, I tilt my head to follow his gaze. Greyson stands just over Landon’s shoulder, phone in his hand as he stares down thestreet. It takes me longer than necessary to realize that Cam is nowhere to be seen.
I place my hands on the pavement behind me, meaning to push myself up, but Dominik gently keeps me in place.
“You should stay still. Grayson called the cops. Plus, someone should look at your head.”
“I’m fine.” I peer up at Dominik, meaning to reassure him, but am cut short at the panic spread across his features. Keeping in mind that Landon and Greyson are both here, I give him a small smile. “Really, Dominik, I’m okay.”
My head throbs as I sit myself a little bit straighter and it’s then that I notice the blood on Dom’s free hand. Curiously, I reach up to touch the back of my head.
“Motherfucker.” I grumble. The bit of red on my hand explains why the throbbing hasn’t lessened, that and the fact that my head met a brick wall twice. Sirens grow closer and I groan.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“Like hell you aren’t. You’re getting checked out.” The tone in Dominik’s voice leaves no room for arguments. I sigh but realize he’s right. While I may have never had one, I do know that you’re not supposed to mess with head injuries.
“What are the chances of me convincing you guys to not call my dad?” Greyson chuckles, but cuts it off with a cough, as Landon smiles sympathetically at me.
“I mean we won’t call him, but that’s only because a text was already sent.”
I sigh, and let my head drop to the side, resting it on Dominik’s shoulder. Closing my eyes, I brace myself for the amount of questions that I’m about to have to answer with a headache.
“You okay, dude?” Landon asks as he leans forward in his seat, bracing his elbows on his knees. Slowly, I flex my fingers as much as possible while plopping into the seat next to Landon with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah. I only split a couple knuckles open, but they cleaned them out and bandaged them up.” Grey nods in response as he paces the length of the waiting room. It’s then that I notice how uncomfortable he is. A small bit of curiosity spikes as to why he doesn’t like them. Not that I blame him, hospitals sure as hell are not my favorite place to be either.
“Did you ask if you’ll be good to play tomorrow?” Landon pulls me from my thoughts. I nod and can’t help but smile a bit as I recall how the nurse was more worried than me about whether I would be able to play in the game or not. He rambled on for ten minutes as he told me how to take care of it, so it didn’t hurt as bad tomorrow. The guy also had no shame in asking for a selfie with me so he could show off that he treated me.
“Yeah, I’m good to go. Just need to ice it tonight and bandage it up under my gloves.” I leave out the fact that he also had no hesitations on lecturing me about punching someone. I had shut him up real quick when I asked if he would prefer me to standby while someone gets hurt or threatened.
Never mind the fact that the someone was Lilly.
When I had come around the street corner and saw that douchebag pinning Lilly against the building, I saw red. It was bad enough that the little shit decided to touch her at all, so when he pinned her hands down as she tried to push him away, I reacted without thinking twice.
I’ve never been a violent person. Even on the ice, I could count the number of fights I’ve gotten into during a game on one hand. Outside of those couple of tame brawls during a game, the only other time I’ve intentionally hit someone was when I saw Josh after Sarah’s death.
While my hand was getting cleaned and wrapped, I thought over everything that had happened. Even without having had a moment of privacy with Lilly, my gut was telling me that the guywas her ex-boyfriend. There was also no doubt that given the chance, I wouldn’t think twice about hitting him again.
I stand by my actions.
Having Greyson and Landon with me helped my case when the police questioned us. The prick was hurting Lilly and from what I overheard, trying to get her to go somewhere with him. They wrote it down as me defending Lilly but took down all our numbers in case they needed it. Considering the idiot ran off like a scared cat, there was very little room to question who was in the wrong.
One of the cops had made the mistake of asking a question that made it sound like this was all Lilly’s fault and before I could speak up, Greyson beat me to it and was telling him off. Not once since joining the team has he ever raised his voice, let alone yelled at anyone. But after listening to him call the cop out for trying to brush it off as a woman being dramatic, I’m glad that I’ve never been on the receiving end of his anger.
“If you guys wanna head out, I don’t mind waiting alone for Coach to get here.” Landon meets my gaze, clearly about to protest, but I nod to Greyson. Since I joined them, he hasn’t stopped pacing the length of the small waiting room. It’s not just that he is clearly uncomfortable, it’s way more than that. Grey doesn’t open up easily, so the fact that he looks ready to lose his shit, tells me all I need to know.
Thankfully, Landon notices the same thing and gives me a subtle nod before dramatically stretching in his chair.
“I mean if you’re sure, dude. Could definitely use a hot shower and maybe actually go to bed early.”
“Plus, it might make Lilly feel less overwhelmed if it’s just one of us here when she gets out.” Greyson says, striding over to the chair next to Landon to grab his bag.
“Exactly. I’ll text you guys if I hear anything.”
