Once I was on the highway, doing way over the speed limit to get to the hospital, I grabbed Tor’s hand in mine, linking our fingers together.
That kiss could have changed everything between us. It was a mere accident, but I couldn’t deny that the entire time we’d been in that shower, I’d been hoping he would turn his head and let his lips slide against mine. But fuck, now that it’d happened, I wished I could take it back.
And not because I regretted it.
I wished I could take it back and redo it all over because maybe Tor wouldn’t have freaked the fuck out. I’d seen the panic in his eyes. Seen the blood wash from his face all before he fell and damn near cracked his skull open on the side of the tub.
He’d been blind in his need to get away from me, terrified shit between us was about to explode once again.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped, my heart in my throat. I brushed my thumb over his knuckles before tightening my grip around his hand. “I’m so goddamn sorry I’ve destroyed everything.”
Delia: ANSWER MY FUCKING CALL, SALEM.
I sighed and rubbed at my forehead with the tips of my fingers, agitation swirling in my gut. She’d called me over two dozen times, and I knew why. When I’d rushed into the waiting room with Tor slumped in my arms, the bruises on both of us had been unmistakable from our fistfight the day before. We both looked like shit.
And someone had discreetly snapped pictures of us and posted them on social media, which started a shit ton of rumors about what had happened to both of us.
The biggest one being that we were abusive to each other and toxic and that everything we’d fed the public about us being a happy, loving couple was a lie.
I mean… it was. But I was working to try to change that. I was just a bit shit at it. And I’d probably waited way too long to try to fix things between us.
I swiped Delia’s message away, choosing to ignore her like the mature adult I was. I didn’t have the headspace to listen to her yelling at me. She would do clean-up, just like she always did. We were too important to Nightwork Records for her to do anything but that.
I’d deal with her some other time… like when my entire reason for still existing wasn’t lying in a hospital bed beneath starched, white sheets in a pale blue hospital gown.
Tor was suffering from a concussion—a pretty bad one. And they wouldn’t be able to give Tor anything for pain due to all the Oxy still in his fucking system. The doctor had been surprised Tor hadn’t overdosed, and that… well, it made me sick to stomach. Vomit had flooded my mouth.
Tor could’ve died last night.
All of this shit was my fault. And it was ripping my insides to shreds.
I set my phone in my lap before leaning forward and thrusting my fingers through my hair, blowing out a harsh breath. I’d already been here for fucking hours, and Tor hadn’t woken up. Dalton, Jesse, Spike, and Kalin had already come by one at a time to see Tor and check on him and also make sure I didn’t need anything. They’d offered to get me food, coffee, something to drink… I didn’t want any of it.
I wanted Tor to wake up and look at me with those gray eyes. Even if he looked at me with nothing but hatred, I would at least know he was truly okay. Because those doctors could say whatever they wanted to me, assure me however many times they wanted that Tor was going to be just fine aside from a major headache—and probably crashing from the pills—but I didn’t believe them.
A low groan sounded from the bed. Immediately, I jerked to my feet, and my forgotten phone clattered to the floor. The screen no doubt broke when it fell, but I didn’t even bother checking. I just stepped over it and hovered over the bed, my hand grabbing Tor’s left one. He slowly opened his eyes, a pained moan leaving his lips as he shut his eyes again.
“Light,” he mumbled.
Immediately, I let go of his hand and quickly walked over to the light switch by the door, flicking off the light. Only the low light of the bathroom shone, and it was only enough for me to be able to see where the fuck I was going. When I made it back to his bedside, I grabbed his hand again.
“Tor, baby, the light is off,” I assured him.
He slowly cracked his eyes open again. He blinked at me for a moment as if he couldn’t believe that I was standing there, hovering over him. “Am I in a hospital?”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I rasped. “We, uh, accidentally kissed, and you slipped and smacked your head on the side of the tub before I could catch you.”
Tor grunted and shut his eyes again, no doubt in a lot of pain. “I want to go home.”
I brushed my thumb over his knuckles. “I’ll see if one of the nurses can find your doctor so we can get you home, okay?”
He grunted again in answer. I gently squeezed his hand before laying it flat over his stomach and striding out of the room. The nurse working the desk right outside his room looked up at me. “Can I help you?” she asked, not unkindly. Just very matter-of-fact and business-like.
“Tor woke up,” I gruffly told her.
She smiled then—a warm one that reached her eyes. “I’ll get his doctor for you.”
I nodded once and turned on my heel, striding back to Tor’s room. He opened his eyes, locking his eyes on mine as I quietly shut the door back behind me.
