Page 42 of Exposing Adonis

I moved fast, jutting out my foot to land a kick to his calf.

“What?! Come on, I’m wounded, too!” He would have retaliated, but a quick jerk from the doctor made him lie still.

“I should have been an only child!” I snapped back.

My brother had a leg wound, but with a tourniquet and fast access to a surgeon, he’d be fine. He had to be fine. I saw Dr. Lauren’ts hand on his wound, touching the tourniquet to ensure it was snug, blocking off the bleeding.

“I told you I’d get him back to you.” Callum’s hands were sticky and smelled of copper. He smeared it on my cheeks, as his green eyes began to fade. “Does that earn me a bit of your faith? Or do I need more golden apples?”

I wanted to embrace him, but I couldn’t stop putting pressure on his shoulder. I wantedhimto holdme.God, how pathetic.

I took a moment to look at my brother, the good doctor hovering over him. She felt his forehead, probably checking for fever. My eyes lifted to her hazel eyes and if a look could kill, my skin would have melted off. She glared at me like I had just stolen all her hopes and dreams and lit them on fire. Like I had taken her puppy, skinned it and murdered it in front of her eyes. Her eyes flicked to Callum with a look of betrayal that I did not understand.

Chapter 19

Callum

Therewerebeepsagain.Blackness. The heavy, murky feeling of pulling your mind out of the thick, black tar of unconsciousness, and the distant high-pitched beeping of medical equipment, telling me that I was still alive, got closer and closer.

It was so familiar. I had been here not so long ago. The sound of the heart monitor, and the sterile scent. Then, even Geordie’s coffee was there.

“Where’s Lea?” I croaked, feeling the scratch in my throat. My fingers tensed, clutching at the blanket at my side.

“Not here,” said Geordie in his comforting, simple brogue. This was exactly what I had woken up to before. Geordie, alone in the hospital room.

“Why isn’t she with me?” The words spilled from my mouth, and I didn’t care if it made me sound pathetic. It was the only question worth asking.

“Well,” Geordie said, looking pointedly over my bed, “maybe becauseCabbagesaid you were still engaged.”

“What?” I turned my head. The clouds began to clear, and I looked around the white room. I blinked.

“Callum?” There was a high, contrived, melodic voice that I was all too familiar with and it grated my last nerve. “Are you okay?”

Her strawberry brow knitted and rose in the middle, and her face fell as her hands reached out towards me. I flinched away from her.

“Where’s Lea?” I asked Geordie, who smirked, giving Pippa a raised brow before looking back to me.

“I don’t know. Probably banished to the outer reaches of hell.” Geordie’s voice was drier than the Sahara. “Something about being told she’s a homewrecker might have been upsetting.”

“What?” I said, turning away from Pippa. “Get her back here! I need her!”

I tried to get out of bed, but the blinding pain of my ribs halted me and I fell back down. I let out a loud, “Fuck!” before taking several deep breaths to calm myself down again.

“Relax, man.” Geordie said, pushing back onto the bed. “The shot to your shoulder’s patched up, but you bruised your ribs. Took a bullet straight in the armor.”

“Fuuuuck.” I said in a groan. Breaking ribs were the worst injury imaginable. It made it hard to breath. Second to that was bruising them. You don’t know how much your ribs expand and contract until you get walloped in the guts.

I looked at Pippa, standing by the window, the engagement ring still on her finger.

“What the hell have you done?” I stared at her hand, as if it had personally offended me.

She raised a careless brow, and brought her bedazzled hand to her chest.

“Moi?” she mocked. “You’re looking at the wrong person. Our dear Cabbage banished your mistress. Not me.”

“She’s not a fucking mistress!” How dare she? How dare Chloe? Were the women in my life conspiring to kill me?

I felt the world fall again. Darkness, and fatigue, hitting me like a weighted blanket.

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