ear. “If you’re good, I might talk you out of those pants.”
“I’m not wearing any,” Nate told him wryly, motioning at the sheet.
“Even better,” Tyler said.
Nate laughed at that, swatting his hand playfully before settling back onto the stretcher. Just seeing the peaceful, contented expression on his face was more than enough for Tyler as the ambulance drove off. Hopefully, they would have another good, solid moment’s worth of peace before everything crashed down around them.
He should have known peace wasn’t an option.
Oh, they’d been allowed a couple of hours to be looked over at the hospital. They’d managed to retrieve the bullet from Nate’s shoulder and stitched the wound up. Everything else had all been bruising that would heal with time, and they had, much to Tyler’s relief, claimed there was no concussion to worry about either.
Ironically, it was Tyler who had needed the most work. The wound on his side, originally a graze, had opened up further during the fight and he’d ended up with stitches. The bruising on his face had been of some concern, but they had eventually determined he didn’t have a concussion. The worst was the fractures, two to be exact, in his right arm, and the three cracked ribs.
That hadn’t stopped him from refusing to be stuck in a hospital bed, however. As soon as he was dropped off in his bed and left alone, Tyler had slipped from the sheets and went roaming. Thankfully, it hadn’t been too hard to find Nate in the hospital. An earnest conversation with one of the nurses, and he had Nate’s room number.
His pleasure faded the moment he stepped into Nate’s room.
The sight of Nate lying in bed was nice, but the man standing a couple of yards away from it ruined any good feelings he might have had. He bore the same look as Nate, sharp angles in the face, a hard brow, but he had none of the warmth or that strange vulnerability Tyler realized he had come to associate with Nate.
“All things considered,” Dane Carter was saying as Tyler entered. “This situation isn’t nearly as disastrous as it could have been.”
“Is that so?” Nate asked calmly, eyes held on his father.
Dane snorted. “No help from you, of course. This entire situation could have been avoided had you done what I had told you to do.”
“Undoubtedly,” Nate agreed, no shift to his tone.
“We can thankfully spin your downright stupid decisions into something that will work. With the attempt on your life foiled, the public can certainly be made to sympathize with your situation. You will, of course, be required to rest at home, where you belong. I trust you won’t give me any further trouble, as you have caused more than enough as it is,” Dane said, adjusting his cuff links.
Tyler couldn’t hold back anymore. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Dane looked up, surprise then anger crossing his face. “You. What are you doing here?”
“What you aren’t,” Tyler said, crossing the room to stand beside Nate’s bed. “Coming to make sure that Nate is okay.”
“You have no business being here,” Dane hissed.
“You know what,” Tyler said, taking Nate’s hand in his and holding it tight. “I think I do. As a matter of fact, I have more business being here than you do.”
“Excuse you?” Dane straightened abruptly.
Tyler sneered at him. “The only thing you care about is if Nate makes you look good, if he makes your family look good. You don’t give a flying fuck about him personally, and you’re his goddamn father. I belong here because he’s what matters most, not what he can do for me. You’re a selfish asshole who only cares about his own ego, you don’t deserve to be here, not me.”
“You will leave this room. And you will leave my son’s life immediately, or so help me,” Dane warned.
Tyler snorted. “I just had a bunch of guys willing to kill me and the ones I love because I stood in their way of getting to him. You really think some douchebag in a suit is going to scare me?”
“Enough,” Nate said softly.
Tyler turned to him, heart thumping. “Nate?”
The man was holding the call button in his hand, thumb jammed against it. His eyes flickered to Tyler before resting once more on his father. No one spoke as a nurse entered the room, the man glancing between them.
“Uh, did you need something, Mr. Carter?” the nurse finally asked.
“Remove this…” Dane began but Nate interrupted.
“Yes, Ethan. If you would, please