page36 (1/2)

Connecting the call, I put the phone up to my ear and tentatively, with no small amount of fear in my tone, answer, “Hello?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Dax asks, sounding confused

“What’s wrong withht? Moan?”

“We’re all fine,” he replies a bit stiffly “Outside of playing like shit the day before yesterday in the first game”

“Yeah… I read about it,” I co it but of course, I’m too proud to reach out and ask

“Listen,” Dax says with enough hesitation that I go on high alert “I have a few people on the phone with me”

“Is everyone all right?” I screech, unable to control my fear that someone in my family is dead and the rest are on the line for moral support

“We’re fine,” he insists again “I swear But I do have Mom and Dad on the phone, and well… Dominik, too”

The o nuine in a million years why he’d be on a phone call with Dax, my parents, and me

“We’re worried about you, honey” It’sonto the bed

“Worried?” I mumble What in the hell had Dominik told them about our relationship?

“About the danger level of your job,” my dad pipes up, and the numbness disappears at the hard tone of his voice “You were fucking injured by a grenade, Willo could you keep that from us?”

I’ain because my dad just dropped the “F” bomb Never in my twenty-seven years have I heard hiotten shrapnel frorenade blast

“I take great precautions—”