Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Frank sighed. “They need to check for shattered bones, make sure the nerves are okay. You have to be patient.”
“But Knox wanted me there with him, and it’s taking too long,” Liv rasped, massaging his aching throat.
“It needs to take as long as it needs to. This is not helping him. Calm the fuck down,” Cy said in a cool voice, seeming a bit less like an actual cyborg now that he’d dropped the mask and the bulletproof vest and sat there in a tight black long-sleeve.
With air burning in his chest, Liv stepped closer. “I will calm down when I see with my own eyes that he’s fine!”
Frank got up and approached the vending machine. “I’ve seen bullet wounds, and recovery is a bitch, but he’ll be okay. You can go downstairs and donate blood if it gives you a sense of purpose. It could help pass the time.”
Liv’s fists burned, but despite the impulse to be a monkey attacking a gorilla just because he felt bad, he knew Frank wasn’t at fault for any of this.
“You don’t fucking get it. He literally stepped in front of me to take that bullet.”
Even Cyborg didn’t have a snarky comment, and the only sound following his words came from the vending machine.
Frank went back to his seat and pushed a Twix into Liv’s hand. “Eat something.”
But when Liv glanced at the chocolate treat, all he could think of was that there were two pieces to a Twix. They were only a Twix together. Like him and Knox. That somehow spiraled into him not wanting to eat one at a time. He’d just have to bite into both at once.
Tears came out of nowhere, and he turned away from Frank, mumbling thanks as he discreetly wiped his face and then opened the wrapper before digging in as he stared at a poster informing about symptoms of sepsis. The sweetness did help, but the only thing that would truly calm him would be holding Knox’s hand and making sure he was comfortable.
The steps of someone approaching the door almost made him choke on the last bite of the Twix. When the doctor stepped out with a frown on his face, Liv’s heart galloped and knocked at his breastbone.
“Jesus Christ, that took for fucking ever,” the doctor said, rubbing his wrinkly forehead and glancing to his nephew.
It seemed people who were here off-the-books didn’t get the courtesy of politeness. But it didn’t matter.
Liv dropped the wrapper onto the seat and rose. “How is he?”
The surgeon burned him with the gaze of his pale eyes. “Better than he might have been if he hadn’t spoken up literally moments before we started.”
Liv’s cheeks cooled as he closed Cy’s jacket around him. Even his gums were pulsing from all this stress. “What?”
“The patient has serious heart issues. I should have known this way beforehand, not seconds before we put him under. It could have ended badly.”
Oh fuck. Oh God.
Liv licked his lips. “I didn’t know it mattered, since it was his should—”
The surgeon continued, not caring for his explanation anymore. “At this rate, his state will gradually worsen anyway. He should have had surgery long ago. Ideally, as a child.”
The ground started crumbling under Liv’s feet as the edges of his vision blurred. “‘Surgery’?”
The doctor squinted at him as if this was Liv’s fault. “Yes. If he died on my table tonight because of a bad reaction to the anesthesia, it wouldn’t have been my fault!” He looked at Cyborg with a snarl. “You need to get smarter prospects. This one told me he knew about the need for surgery but said that he ‘doesn’t have plans’ of going through with it.”
Cy took a deep breath, as if trying to calm down before he approached his uncle. “Let’s talk business in your office.”
As rude as the surgeon was, he had saved Knox, so Liv shook off the discomfort of having to deal with him and headed straight for the door.
The doctor stopped him, clicking his tongue as if Liv were an unruly horse. “No. The nurse is preparing him in the post-op room. She will come and get you. Don’t disturb her.”
Liv wrapped his arms on his chest, trying to take deep breaths. He had to fight the urge to storm into the room so he could be there, like he’d promised Knox.
The doctor mumbled something Liv couldn’t hear anymore and rushed down the corridor, closely followed by Cyborg who towered over his uncle like a bodyguard over some short celebrity.
The screech of their shoes on the polished floor soon died down, and Liv was once again stuck with Frank watching him like a parent might a child.
Dark thoughts formed a dense cloud around his head, but he fought through it and turned around. “I can’t fucking believe it. He told me he just needs the pills.”