Page 170 of The Revenge Plan (Forbidden Descendants 1)

He snorted out a harsh laugh. “That isn’t even remotely what I’m talking about, sweetheart. You think I give a shit what’s going on with your coochie? Guess again. My best friend is lying in a fucking hospital bed and he won’t wake up.” Tears filled his eyes, but he shook his head as if to deny them. “And I’m stuck here waiting with Nicholl’s girl of all people until I find out what’s going on with him. How the fuck is that right? Web wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you and that fucker you let between your legs.”

I didn’t immediately respond, because two emotions warred inside me for immediate release. The pain and guilt sliced through me first because, shit, he was right. Wick wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for me. And damn, I did feel gross for ever being with Topher. But then, hell, the bastard knew how to tick me off, too.

I knew he was upset and lashing out. I was here, so of course I was going to receive the brunt of his abuse. But dammit, I didn’t take abuse well. I kind of really wanted to lash right back at him.

A minute passed. I still said nothing. He seemed fine with ignoring me. But I wasn’t fine with being treated like crap. Or feeling like crap.

So I said, “I know this is all my fault, okay? Wick wouldn’t be going through any of it if I’d never met him.” Great, now I was the one tearing up. “And if there was any way for me to change that, I would in a heartbeat. I would even move out of my apartment tonight and never talk to him again to keep him from receiving any more harm. He’s the best person I know. He doesn’t deserve any of this.”

Cannon glanced at me sharply when I said that, and his eyebrows furrowed as if he w

asn’t sure if he could believe that I meant what I was saying or not.

“You can just go ahead and hate me all you like for hurting Wick. I do deserve that. But don’t ever lump me together with Topher again. If I’d known about him then what I know now, I never would’ve given that son of a bitch the time of day.”

Cannon watched me solemnly a second longer before he sniffed and slowly shook his head. “That’s funny,” he murmured, not looking amused at all.

“How is that funny?” I muttered, scowling at him.

“Because you still don’t know shit about him and everything he’s done.”

Hugging myself, I shivered, a little horrified to realize there were even more, even worse parts about Topher I wasn’t aware of. My curiosity wanted me to ask and find out what Cannon knew that I didn’t. But then again, if it was about Topher, I didn’t really care anymore. I was over the bastard.

Whatever secrets he still had… Well, I just wasn’t interested in them.

I left Cannon alone after that and commenced to ignoring him. Talking to him sucked, anyway. Not only was he mean and evasive, but it didn’t help distract me from all the worry nibbling at my gut. In fact, it only made me miss Wick more and his remarkable ability to keep my mind off things I didn’t want to think about when I was upset.

God, he better be okay.

I wasn’t sure what I’d do without him.

“Sun’s coming up,” Cannon said out of nowhere about an hour later.

I lifted my face and glanced toward the windows, where the night outside was beginning to lighten. Blinking, I checked the time to discover it was just after five in the morning.

My nose began to burn. “Wick should be taking his morning jog right now,” I rasped unsteadily.

When I covered my mouth with my hand, Cannon glanced at me. He seemed too tired to be full of any more bitterness. Fisting his hand, he bumped it gently against my leg. “He’ll be okay,” he assured. “Web’s strong. He can handle this.”

I nodded even as I said, “Why haven’t we heard anything yet?”

Before he could answer, a woman in scrubs entered the waiting area and called Wick’s name.

Cannon and I popped to our feet. The doctor nodded and led us off toward a small room. When I met Cannon’s eye, he shook his head and frowned as if he didn’t like this private talk situation either.

“We just did a CT scan,” the doctor reported after introducing herself. “And we found an epidural hematoma that’s growing. So we recommend aspiration to relieve the pressure from the brain and drain the blood clot he has.”

“Okay. Okay.” I nodded, not quite sure what I was saying okay to. I just knew they’d identified a problem and were going to fix it. That was good enough for me.

Cannon nodded as well, looking as clueless as I felt. The doctor said a bit more, mentioning surgery and terms I didn’t understand.

As soon as she left, I called my parents.

“They said he has an epidural hematoma,” I said. Hematoma. A bruise. Just a bruise. “So they’re going to do aspiration to relieve the pressure?”

“Aspiration?” my mom repeated, sounding alarmed. Wait. Why did she sound alarmed? What the hell was aspiration?

I nodded. “Yeah. The doctor said something else after that. Something about burr. Burr something asper… I don’t know.” They were just going to do something to help him and make him better again, that’s all I cared about.

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