Forever Mine

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

JAY

Everything after the gun hit the floor was a blur. I remember SWAT raiding the place and tackling Dr. Kiley to the ground. There was a lot of commotion and Dakota was pulled away from me, as they got me outta the chair.

I was screaming for him, and I could hear Kota responding, but he sounded so far away. By the time the paramedics stabilized my leg and got me out of the house on a gurney, I was starting to lose consciousness again. The last thing I remembered was Dakota’s face and his mouth moving before he kissed my cheek. Then the world went black.

“He’s staying with me while he recovers.”

“Dakota, honey, you’re recovering from your own concussion, and you’re on the 6 th floor. With his injuries—”

“Ma, I get you’re worried, but I’m not budging. No offense, Beck, but you and Riley don’t know how to treat post-op gun wounds, I do. I’ll also make sure he does rehab and follows his treatment. I know I have to take it easy, but by the time Jay’s released, I should be almost recovered from the concussion anyway, and all my other injuries are superficial.”

Voices started to filter into my consciousness. It was a jumble and took me a long time to make sense of it and who was talking. My whole body felt heavy, and I couldn’t find the energy to open my eyes. It felt important that I did but I didn’t know why.

The voices went in and out as I fought to stay awake, but eventually I managed to push through the fog and my eyes fluttered open.

“Dakota, he’s waking up!” That voice sounded familiar, and by the time someone was next to me, holding my hands, it registered, “Beck?”

“Yeah, man, it’s me. You scared the fuck outta us.”

I was still trying to make sense of his words when everything came back to me in a rush. I tried to sit up.

“Hey, easy there. You just had surgery.” I couldn’t even think about that now.

“Dakota!”

“I’m right here, love.” A warm hand circled mine and squeezed, “I’m right here.”

I turned my head toward the voice and the blurry shape started to take focus.

Dakota stood next to me. He had a soft smile on his face even though his eyes were filled with concern. There was a nasty bruise on his cheek, and his lip was swollen, but he looked whole, okay.

“Dakota,” I croaked. It seemed to be the only words I managed. Tears filled his eyes.

“I’m okay. We’re safe, baby. We’re okay.”

I tried to nod, but the movement made my head feel like someone was taking a hammer to it.

“Take it easy, Jay. You just had surgery, and you have a nasty concussion.”

“Surgery? What happened?”

Dakota filled me in on the blank spaces of my memory. I passed out before I even got into the ambulance. Wes had been at the scene, but they forced Beck and Riley to stay at Shauna and Patrick’s place, which was apparently only a few miles away from where we were being held. Go fucking figure. Once we were out, the whole ass crew met us at the hospital. Even now, my room was pretty crowded with Dakota, Beck and Riley, and Shauna. Wes, Patrick, and a slew of Kelly kids were all in the waiting room. It was fuckin’ wild.

Anyway, I guess by the time my leg got treated, there was a lot of damage and blood loss and they needed to do surgery on it. I’d recover eventually, but I’d need to go through a lot of rehab. I had a shoulder sprain too, but that would heal with time and more fuckin’ rehab, and my face was pretty raw from the duct tape, but the doctor’s gave me an antibiotic ointment to apply on it.

Dr. Kiley was arrested, and even though the process was going to be long and annoying, he’d be in jail for a long ass time. I’d rather him in a grave next to Mr. Chase, but this was the next best thing, I guessed.

I started to get more and more sleepy as Dakota talked, and by the time he finished, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. He kissed my forehead. “Sleep love, I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

“You know you are both welcome to stay at my home until you fully recover. We have plenty of space, and Skye used to be a physical therapist in the Army. We’d have you covered.”

I grunted at Luca as I tried to figure out this fuckin’ crutch. Dakota tried to push for me to take the wheelchair but I refused. I was already gonna be too dependent on him for the next few weeks or months, I wasn’t gonna make it harder. Luckily it was the opposite shoulder that was injured, so the crutch was manageable even if it was a pain in the ass. Besides, neither of our apartments would work for a wheelchair. Which was one of the reasons Luca was trying to get us to move in. The other reason was that he felt guilty for not being there when everything went to shit.

Not that it was their fault. They’d been home for three days and I still had no idea what really happened, but all of them had sustained injuries, and they came back with an extra person, a teenager named Matty. Riley had been trying to get more details, but those fuckers were tough nuts to crack. Hearing all his tactics had entertained me while I was stuck in a damn hospital bed.

“We’ll be okay, thanks.” I probably should’ve taken him up on his offer. It would’ve been easier on Dakota. But both of us talked about it, and we agreed we needed space. Even in that fuckin’ mansion there were just too many people living there, and that wouldn’t work while we both healed.

Luca shrugged his agreement. “You okay, getting him out of here? I’ll go get the car.” He asked Dakota.

“Yeah. He has to take the wheelchair to the lobby, hospital policy.” Dakota glared at me, letting me know he wouldn’t be tolerating any arguments. Not that he’d get any. My leg fuckin’ hurt.

After Luca left, I kinda collapsed into Dakota, letting my guard down.

He accepted my weight easily, and kissed my shoulder. “We got this baby, we’ll be okay.”

“Maybe we should go to Luca’s. You’re still healin’ too and—”

“Enough. I’m not experiencing any symptoms, and I know what to look out for. Besides, you know damn well my Ma is gonna be in and out for the first week or so. We both agreed it would be too much to have all those people around. I just need some time with you Jay. Time for us to heal, just you and I.”

Dakota had barely left the hospital since I’d been here. His ma and I finally forced him out yesterday to shower and get a little rest, but he was only gone a few hours before he was back, claiming he couldn’t sleep away from me. I was starting to get worried. I noticed he barely slept, even when I forced him to share the bed with me, against hospital policy, he told me multiple times. Kota was also being extra clingy, and Beck had told me he was close to panicking a few times when the doctors wheeled me outta my room for tests and stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind an extra clingy Dakota, but the reasons he was being like that worried me. I hoped once we were home and had a chance to distance ourselves from all the chaos, things would settle, but I wasn’t sure. Whenever I tried to talk to him about it, he shut down. Which kinda hurt. I was the one who usually struggled sharing my feelings, I didn’t know how to handle it the other way around.

Even with his strong words, Kota looked so lost. He was so fuckin’ vulnerable, that I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I had wanted to tell him how much I loved him from the moment I opened my eyes in that hospital, but it never felt like the right time. There were always other people around, other things to worry about, between our family, the cops, and the doctors. We were finally alone though, and I couldn’t wait another fuckin’ second.

“I love you Dakota!” I blurted out the words, too loud, and too fast. Kota clearly wasn’t expecting it, because he stumbled before freezing in his tracks, those expressive brown eyes huge with shock.

“What?”

I took a deep shuddery breath, preparing myself to bare my soul. “I fuckin’ love you, Dakota Kelly. So much. You deserve so much better than me, but I’ll spend the rest of my fuckin’ life trying to be worthy of you. Because you’re mine, and I’m yours. I ain’t lettin’ anyone else try to take you away from me, and if someone else tries, I will kill them this time.”

As far as romantic declarations go, it maybe wasn’t the best. But Dakota cupped my face, unshed tears in his eyes, before kissing me right there in the lobby of the hospital.

I was breathless and shaking by the time we parted. “You do deserve me, Jay. You are so. So fuckin’ worthy, and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that to you. I love you. You’re it for me.”

Then he kissed me again, and nothing else mattered.