Out of Nowhere (Balls and Brawn Bodyguard #4)

9. Chapter Nine Dex

Chapter Nine: Dex

“ D ex. Dex, can you hear me? Dex.”

Seo-jun sounded very far away, as though he were calling to him from another room. Had he locked himself out of the apartment? Dex remembered going back there to take a nap. Had he slept too long? Why was he having so much trouble waking up?

Carefully reaching out with his senses through a pounding headache, he heard a beeping sound—like someone scanning items at a supermarket—and the murmur of distant conversation. He was lying down, he thought on a bed, although it didn’t feel as comfortable as the one in the guest room of Brand’s apartment. HIs head was bound with something. The sheet? He tried to raise his hand to feel it but couldn’t seem to move. He couldn’t even muster the energy to open his eyes, he realized with sudden panic.

Meanwhile, the beeping sound continued, as if someone scanned product after product after product without rest. Dex could see them in his mind’s eye, running a box of butter over the scanner, a can of peas, a bag of walnuts…

“Don’t forget the energy drinks,” he murmured.

“Thank God,” he heard Seo-jun say. “He’s coming to.”

A female voice said loudly and succinctly, “Dex. Can you open your eyes and look at us?”

Dex really didn’t want to. He wanted to go back to sleep. His head pounded relentlessly, but the woman was more relentless. “Dex. Open your eyes. I want to see them. Can you do that for me?”

Why was this woman so desperate to look into his eyes?

“Not…into women,” he said, voice slurred. Was he drunk ? He did feel kind of swimmy in his head.

The woman chuckled. “Well, I’m devastated. Will you let me see your eyes anyway? Just for a moment.”

With difficulty, Dex peeled his eyes open, wincing when a light was flashed into them. “Ouch.”

“Can you bend your arm for me?” the woman asked.

Obediently bending his arm, he wondered if he’d slipped and fallen at the grocery store, not that he remembered going to one. Or, if he was drunk, was he at a bar? He was so confused, and his head ached so much, he was nauseous. He wished the fucking beeping would stop.

“Turn it off,” he grumbled. “The…beeping.”

“Silence that,” he heard the woman say, and, like magic, the beeping sound stopped. Thank fuck.

“It’s normal after a head injury to be confused,” the woman said.

A head injury?

Dex tried to sit up. “Seo-jun?” He cringed at the agonizing pain that shot through his head.

Seo-jun appeared at his side. “I’m right here. Everything’s fine.”

Grabbing him by the shirt, Dex sank sideways against Seo-jun’s chest, so relieved to have him there. “Did I hit my head?” Squinting, Dex pushed back a bit and focused on Seo-jun, who looked very concerned, and then at the woman next to him who wore a stethoscope around her neck. “Are you a doctor?” he asked her. “Am I…” He looked around the room at the monitors and the white walls. Was he in a hospital ? Dex struggled to remember what had happened. He was headed to Brand’s apartment to take a nap. That’s all he knew.

“Dex, I’m Dr. Knight, and you’re at St. Ignatius. Try not to move. If you would let go of your friend, I’ll help ease you back on the pillows. That’s it,” she praised as Dex did as he was told. “You’ve got quite a lump on the back of your head. Are you feeling dizzy? Nauseous?”

“A little,” Dex said. “Where did you say I am?”

“You’re in the emergency room at the hospital,” Seo-jun said at the same time the doctor asked, “A little dizzy, nauseous, or both?”

“Both,” Dex said, turning his head to look at Seo-jun and wincing at the sharp pain. “What happened? Where am I?” He suddenly felt like someone had taken an eraser and wiped his mind clean. Wait. The grocery store. “Am I at the grocery store?” No, that wasn’t right. A bar. No, Brand’s apartment. But who was the woman? “Did I oversleep?”

Where was he again?

Seo-jun slipped his hand into his and squeezed. “Calm down. It’s okay.”

“It might take him a while to feel clear-headed again. I’m glad to see him fully conscious. I’ll be back to check on him in a little while.” A woman wearing the stethoscope moved away from the bed. Stethoscope. Doctor. Hospital.

“Who has a head injury?” Dex asked, then jolted. “Is it Brand?”

Seo-jun squeezed Dex’s hand again. Seo-jun was holding Dex’s hand. Dex tightened his grip on it to be sure. Yep. Flesh and bone. Warm palm. He laced their fingers together. Good.

“You do. Do you remember going back to Brand’s from the gym? You were going to take a nap,” Seo-jun prompted.

Dex started to nod, but that hurt. “Yes.”

“Not long after you left the gym, Brand’s neighbor called him and said she’d seen a big guy she’d never seen before coming out of his apartment. Brand and I rushed there and found you lying unconscious in the hall. We called an ambulance. You really gave us a scare.”

“How’s the pain?” a nurse came out of nowhere and asked. “Dr. Knight said you can have a high dose of acetaminophen if you need it.”

“Please,” Dex groaned.

“Okay, be right back.”

Jase suddenly appeared in front of him. “Dex, are you okay?”

“Where did you come from?” Dex asked, startled. “I’m so confused. I think I fell down at the store.”

Jase frowned and looked at Seo-jun, who, Dex suddenly realized, was holding his hand. No, wait. He knew that.

“The store?” Jase asked.

“He’s a little confused. The doctor said it was normal,” Seo-jun explained.

Who’s confused? “Seo-jun is holding my hand.” Dex lifted their clasped hands and stared at them. “He has such beautiful fingers. Don’t you think?” He looked at Jase.

Jase smiled. “They’re gorgeous.”

Seo-jun huffed, catching Dex’s attention.

“You’re here.” Dex couldn’t help the stupid smile that spread over his face. Seo-jun was so pretty. And hot.

The nurse returned and gave Dex the medication in a little white cup with a drink of water. After taking it, Dex closed his eyes. “Make the noise and light go away, babe,” he said to Seo-jun.

“Did he just call you babe ?“ Jase asked.

“He has a brain injury.”

Someone adjusted the blanket covering Dex, but he didn’t open his eyes. He was too tired.

“Footage from the cameras in the hall of Brand’s apartment show Pierce both entering and leaving the apartment,” he heard Jase say. “Police picked him up a little while ago on I-95 going north.”

“Where is Brand now?” Seo-jun asked.

“In the waiting room. Colt’s with him.”

Brand. The apartment. A moment of clarity had Dex blinking his eyes open and focusing on Jase. “Sorry,” he murmured.

“Sorry for what?” Jase asked.

Dex’s mind flashed back to the door of Brand’s apartment. “Bottom lock wasn’t engaged. Should have been more careful.”

Jase patted him on the arm. “Just rest. We’ll talk about it later.”

Dex couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He felt Seo-jun’s hand pulling out of his grip, and he held onto it tighter, happy when Seo-jun stilled. As sleep consumed him, he heard Jase chuckle.

Jase made Dex rest for a week—that meant lying around uselessly. He couldn’t even get on his laptop. After the first day, his confusion and dizziness dissipated. The guys on the team took turns taking care of him. Seo-jun was put on another case. Brand came by to see him, relieved that Matt had been apprehended and was facing several charges, including assault. Dex was relieved for him.

By the end of the week, Dex was going stir crazy. He had managed to have a couple of phone conversations with his sister the first few days of his convalescence, but Jase put a stop to them when he realized they were making Dex’s headaches worse. After that, all he could do was stare at the ceiling. It hurt his head to read a book or to watch TV, as did his short conversations with his coworkers. Every day it got a little better, though. He missed Seo-jun. He hoped he hadn’t said anything incredibly stupid to him when he was so confused. He asked Jase, but Jase just kept saying that Seo-jun had seemed happy with everything Dex had said to him.

The following week, Dex felt well enough to go back to some of his old duties, although the headaches continued, just not as debilitating. He was happy to be up and moving around. Gradually, he began exercising again. He missed Taekwondo, but that would have to wait for Seo-jun to get back.

West walked into the office late on Thursday afternoon a week after Dex’s enforced bedrest.

“Hey, man. How you doing? Should you be on the computer?”

Pushing away from his desk, Dex swiveled in his chair to look at his boss. Tall and green-eyed, West had a boy-next-door look to him even though he was in his early forties. He wore jeans and a navy tank, and had a tat of a princess crown on his inner right arm that had resulted from a lost bet with Logan. Dex had heard that the two had made crazy bets with each other for years when they were in the Marine Corps, and that it was a bet that had eventually gotten them together as a couple. He would love to hear the full story of that sometime. He probably would have asked by now if he hadn’t felt uncomfortable around West and Logan since the whole thing with his sister happened.

“I’m allowed a couple of hours a day this week,” Dex told him. “I’m following doctor’s orders.”

“Good. How’s Anna doing?” West asked, because he was a nice guy. After the crazy things she’d done, most men wouldn’t have asked. But West maintained that he cared about Anna and wanted the best for her.

“She goes through good periods, but then she does something that gets her privileges taken away at the facility,” Dex said. They talked a little more about her condition, and then West handed Dex a folder. “We have another case for you.”

“You do? Really?”

“Yeah. Why do you look so surprised?”

“Maybe because I royally fucked up the last one and landed myself in the hospital,” Dex said.

“That’s not how I heard it. Things go wrong sometimes, Dex. And according to Seo-jun, it was his fault for sending you back to the apartment alone. And, while we’re at it, Jase, Logan, and I are at fault for giving you so much extra work while you were on a case that you were falling asleep on your lunch plate.”

Dex made a face. “He told you about that.”

West chuckled. “Yeah. I’ve heard avocado’s good for the skin.” He laughed again at Dex’s expression. “Don’t worry, I got the feeling Seo-jun thought it was really cute, although it’s hard to tell with him.”

“How’s his case going?” Dex asked, embarrassed. Seo-jun could not have thought it was cute. West was teasing him.

“It’s wrapping up. In fact, he should be able to join you on this new one on Saturday,” West said. “It’s in Newburg. The owner of a gay club there has been getting a lot of vandalism that he can’t seem to catch on camera. He wants a couple of our guys to hang out as customers and see if they can catch someone in the act. Do you mind doing that?”

Dex chuckled. “Did you miss the memo?”

“Well, I didn’t want to assume.”

Dex shook his head. “I don’t mind playing a clubber at a gay club. In fact, I think it’ll be fun. Being out of the closet is awesome. Now I just need to figure out how to tell my family.”

“Okay, great, then. Here’s the file. Tomorrow night we want you to go on your own, just to scope out the place. Then, like I said, on Saturday, Seo-jun will join you.”

Dex took the folder from West. “Okay. I’ll read up on this and then see if I can find something to wear to several nights at a club.”

Excitement stirred in his gut at the prospect of a new case.

“Oh, and Dex,” West said. “We’ve hired another tech guy to help you out in the office so you won’t be overloaded.”

A year ago, Dex would have felt threatened by that, but now he found he didn’t mind in the least. He was going on another case with Seo-jun.