Page 5 of Complications

“Okay, I won’t do that, but I will make you work with Joey, and I think you’d rather be fired.”

“The hell you will,” Joey yelled from the other side of the door. Clearly, he’d been eavesdropping.

Frankie stomped out of the room without another word and firmly shut the door behind him. Five seconds later, I heard the furious rumble of their bickering through the closed door. Well, I heard Joey ranting. Frankie limited himself to one- or two-word responses. Their animosity toward each other had started in childhood and would likely continue until one of them died—probably by the other’s hand. Whatever issues they had with each other never spilled over to the job, so I stayed out of it.

“Michel, be careful with him. He can’t, most likely won’t, say exactly what happened.” I sounded like a worried boyfriend, which made no damn sense, given I’d only known this kid a couple of hours. “He collapsed downstairs when he stood up.”

“Vomiting blood? Peeing blood?”

“No vomiting that I’m aware of and no clue about the piss.”

“Okay, let me complete the x-rays, and we’ll go from there.”

Michel bustled around the bed, kicked me out to do the imaging, and then scolded me for getting in his way while he tried to examine Connor. Throughout all of it, Connor didn’t wake up. He moaned and whimpered in his sleep but never opened his eyes. About twenty minutes after the x-rays were taken, Doc pronounced them finished.

“Teo, he’s going to be fine.”

Relief rushed over me, and I refused to examine the feeling.

“His ribs are severely bruised but not broken or cracked. There have been at least two previously broken ones, but they’ve healed. The good news is there’s no internal bleeding. He’s in bad shape though. Some of these injuries are older and can’t heal because he’s been reinjured. He’ll be all right with proper rest and food, but he needs to ease his way into recovery. There’s not much outside of pregnancy complications that we prescribe bed rest for anymore, but this is one of them.”

“Food?”

“He’s underweight, making it much harder for his body to heal. I would suggest getting him to eat as much as he’s willing. Thin is fine, but malnourished is not. Start him off with broths and move on to toast and easy foods as he tolerates them. I’m going to leave you some pain meds too. If he hadn’t complained about pain when he was standing up, then he’s keeping quiet about it.”

“It was a beating?”

“There’s a shoe-print-sized bruise on one of the ribs. Yeah, someone beat the shit out of this kid.”

“He’s not a kid.”

Michel rolled his eyes at my comment but returned to prepping the materials he’d brought.

“As a precaution, I’m going to do an IV round of pain meds, fluids, and some antibiotics. A few of the abrasions look like they haven’t been properly cared for, so if they aren’t infected yet, they could be soon, and I’d rather be safe than sorry. The meds and fluids will jump-start his recovery. Once we finish today, I’ll come back in the morning to check on him. Ideally, he won’t have any reasons to leave this bed.”

Michel bustled around the bed, and I resisted the urge to demand he take his hands off the man in my bed.

“He’s not going anywhere.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Connor

The bright sunlight streaming in the windows made me wince, but for the first time in a while, I woke without my brain feeling foggy. It still took me a minute to remember I was in Matteo’s bed—I’d finally learned his name—and not in the back of Uncle Jasper’s trailer or on the mat in Ralphie’s apartment. My body still hurt, but it wasn’t the all-consuming pain I’d felt over the last little while, and I finally felt strong enough to lift myself to a sitting position.

“Whoa, whoa, pup, what are you doing?” Matteo asked from the doorway.

He was dressed casually in jeans and a pullover, but it was enough for me to take notice. His broad shoulders and barrel chest with a thick pelt of black hair visible in the V of his sweater caught my eye.

Jesus, Connor, what the fuck are you doing?

It was hard to concentrate on his words. Uncle Jasper would say this was why I got myself into trouble. I got distracted. He was probably right about that part.

“I’m sorry. I zoned out. What did you say, sir?”

“First off, call me Matteo. Second, I brought you something to eat.”

Matteo waited until I sat up against the headboard and then settled the tray across my lap. The delicate china set held toast and broth, while the crystal glass was filled with plain water.