by Emilia Finn
“Quinn!” Uncle Alex tosses a towel at William’s chest, then he kneels over Ripley and slams his wrists into cuffs. “Is Romeo dying?”
“No, I…” William bunches the towel and frantically searches for the source of blood. “I don’t fucking know! ETA on medics?”
My heart pounds as I look back to Uncle Alex. I find myself waiting for him to answer Will, so when William then barks out, “That’s too far away!” I realize he’s talking to whoever is in his ear.
“What’s going—”
“Livi,” Uncle Alex snaps out. “Move, sweetpea.”
“I don’t…” I look around in stunned shock. From William, to Alex, to the two unconscious criminals on the floor, then to Romeo, who isn’t unconscious, just… dazed. “What’s going on?”
“Baby, you have to move.” Alex grabs me under the arms and draws me to my feet, but then the apartment door crashes open, and EMTs in blue uniforms race in.
“Report!” Mitchell Rosa takes the lead and snaps out, only to stop on a dime and skid when his eyes land on his brother. “Troy?”
“Fuck!” Alex releases me so fast that I stumble back, then he’s diving forward and shoving Mitchell backward when his face contorts with terror and rage.
Mitchell tries to drop onto Troy’s body, he panics and tries to save his bleeding brother’s life, but Alex grabs him.
“You!” he shouts at the other EMT. He points at Troy in silent demand, then he and Mitchell battle in an effort to be the strongest, the fastest, the most insistent on pushing the other back.
“I’m William Quinn,” Will murmurs to Mitch’s partner, as the EMT drops a med bag to the floor and tears the shirt off Troy’s back. “Badge number zero-four-nine-three-seven-seven-three,” he continues. “I don’t have ID on my person, but I’m not your enemy.”
“What happened?” demands the guy whose nametag reads Smith. He whips things from his bag and drops them down by his thigh.
“Single bullet,” Will murmurs robotically. “Hit him somewhere in the back. Dropped him, and now you’re here.”
“Where’s Rosa going?” The EMT looks to me with fear in his eyes. He’s drawn to me, like I’m the lesser threat in the blood-splattered room.
“This is Mitch’s brother,” I tell the guy as William’s eyes come to me in surprise. “Mitchell Rosa is your partner,” I explain to the medic. “Troy Rosa is his big brother.” I look to William. “I don’t know who you thought Romeo was, but he’s not like… he’s not a…” I swallow, then lick my lips. “He’s not a criminal.”
“I don’t know what’s…” He looks back to Smith. “Please. You need to help him.”
“You’re a cop?” I sit on the very edge of a hard-plastic hospital chair and try my damnedest to stop my bouncing knee. My hands are stained with Romeo’s blood, my nails caked with more. My lips quiver, and my shoulders bow in from the cold.
Except, I don’t think it’s actually cold. That’s just me. Just my body shutting down on the world.
William sits beside me, and these chairs are too narrow, his body too wide, so his thigh touches mine, and his shoulder pushes me off center.
I don’t want to touch him, I don’t want him anywhere near me, so I fold further away and have to stop myself from falling straight out of my seat while I have my existential crisis.
“William Quinn,” I rasp past the ache in my throat. “The cop.”
Mom and Daddy are here. Ben and Evie. Jamie and Quinn. Spencer Serrano and his wife Abigail, who just so happens to be Mitchell and Troy’s baby sister. Abby sits with tears in her eyes and Spencer’s beefy arm slung over her shoulders.
When William says nothing, I glance up to find Ben’s eyes on mine.
He’s concerned. He’s angry. He’s terrified for his baby sister having been in a room filled with angry men and loaded guns. It’s all of his worst nightmares come true, and he wasn’t there to save me. He’s pissed at William. But I think he’s actually more pissed at himself for not being there to help.
Shaking my head, I let my gaze shift to the left, only to find Daddy staring too.
He’s confused. Scared. Shocked. His entire world blew up today; first with Brenten and my involvement with his fall, and now with William.
It doesn’t escape me that Uncle Alex wasn’t the least bit surprised with what happened at the apartment today. He wasn’t surprised when William recited his badge number, or when he produced a gun. He wasn’t surprised when William made it so he and I could ride here in the ambulance with Romeo, and he wasn’t surprised when William repeated the story of what happened in the minutes leading up to Romeo’s injury.
Uncle Alex knew he had an undercover cop in town this whole time, and he didn’t tell his best friend about it.
“You lied to me,” I rasp out when William still doesn’t speak. “You just…” I shake my head. “You lied.”
He clasps his hands together and swallows. “I opened doors,” he chokes out. “For you.” Slowly, his eyes come to me. “I did it for you.”
Shaking my head again, I let my gaze drop. He doesn’t deserve my eyes. “You lied, and now you pretend it was for my benefit.”
“I straightened my life out,” he tries again. “Before, I…” He folds forward in an effort to catch my eyes. “Olivia. I was a nobody before. No career, no future, no money. I was presented with a chance to go straight and do something really important.”
“So you took it.”
“For you,” he repeats.
I shake my head once more and move another half an inch away. “You lied to me, and to help cover it all up, you deserted me. For a year.”
“Olivia, I had—”
“You deserted me!” I draw eyes from every person sitting in this godforsaken hospital waiting room. “You left me here all alone, William. And you pretended to not know me once you started calling.” I look up with tears spilling onto my cheeks. I look at his sister. “You called her, because you love her. You made damn sure she knew you were safe. But you dropped me like I didn’t matter.”
“You were there during almost every single phone call,” he growls. “I fucking saw you, Olivia.”
“Yeah, and you pretended we were strangers.”
“You pretended right back!” he snaps. “I refused to lie to you, so I cooled us off for a second. But every single week when you were there for the phone call, I made damn sure to look into your eyes. You knew where I was. You knew I still saw you.”
“Actually,” Quinn murmurs and draws her brother’s gaze. “Nobody knew where you were. And nobody knew you were off at the academy getting a damn badge.”
William’s eyes fire with a potent mixture of rage and weariness. “I will deal with you once I deal with her.” He shakes his head as though to shake her off, then he looks to me and burns me with his glare. “You will not punish me for trying to become worthy. You will not use that against me like a weapon.”
“You lied to me.” I stand when Aunt Jules pushes through the door and stops. I look back to William and meet his gaze. “You didn’t have to do that for this to work.”
“Olivia!”
“If you can look me in the eye and make a promise, but I still don’t believe you because you’ve given me reason to doubt in the past, then we’re doomed.” I lick my lips and recite a sentence I’m certain I’ve penned for him in the past. “Honesty is non-negotiable for me, Will. It was the only rule I ever asked in a relationship.”
“Will,” he chokes out and pushes to his feet when I turn and make my way to where Jules stands. “So we’re strangers again, huh?” He casts a glance toward my family and spits out, “Little Miss Truth and Honor… You fucking lied too! Did you tell them your truths, Olivia? Did you tell them you’ve been in love with me for years?”
Ben’s fiery gaze burns my face. Daddy’s shocked glare. Quinn’s stunned stare.
“You want truth above all else,” he continues. “But did you tell them we’ve been together since that second year of S
tacked Deck? Did you tell them we’ve been together since I got back to town?”
“No,” I spit out and glare. “There’s truth, and there’s privacy. They’re different.”
“You’re a fucking hypocrite!” he roars. “You cheated on your fucking boyfriend to be with me! Several times, and maybe now we all know you weren’t in love with him, but the lie fucking remains. You’ve been looking for reasons to be pissed at me, Olivia. You damn well know I did what I had to do, and that I did it with the right intentions. But you want a reason to be mad.”
“I want a reason for this to be okay!” I shout at him. “I’ve been searching for so long, for a loophole, a gray area, some kind of fine print that would make you and me okay. But I keep coming up empty.”
“You don’t have a boyfriend anymore! You don’t get to use him like a crutch.”
“No, but I have a strong desire to trust the man I love! I don’t think it’s too much to ask.” I turn to Jules and demand in a more cutting tone than I intend,” How’s Troy?”
“He’s fine.” She peeks between me and the angry fighter at my back. “He, uh…” She swallows, and twists her body in a way to indicate toward her back. “Flesh wound and a few stitches.”
“He’s gonna be okay?” I had no clue how deeply I depended on Troy’s well-being until now, but fresh new tears spill over for the guy I know well enough, but I don’t know. “He’s gonna be fine?”
She nods and takes my hand in support, but her eyes are for Abby. “He’ll be completely fine, and he told me to tell you to stop crying.”
“I’m not crying,” Abby cries. “He, uh…” The tiny woman climbs to her feet and tucks herself under her husband’s shoulder for comfort. “You promise he’ll be okay?”
“Pinky-promise,” Jules agrees. “Mitch is with him right now. Nixon already spoke to him on the phone and promised he’ll be here as soon as he can, and the others are on their way. Everyone is coming, and everyone knows he’s going to be okay. You have my word.”
“Can I see him?” Abby whispers, but then Spencer nods and brushes past our small huddle.
“Yeah, Priss. You can see him. I’ll make damn sure of it.”
“He’ll be sent up to a room in a little bit,” Jules calls at their backs. “The nurse said to give them an hour.”
“An hour, my ass,” Spencer replies gruffly. “We’re going to find him now.”
“You played me,” William murmurs quietly so only Jules and I can hear him. He loses the rage he was tossing at me a moment ago, and instead searches Juliette’s eyes. “I thought Rush was a thug.”
“Rush is Romeo,” she smiles, “Romeo is Troy.” But then she stops smiling. “Troy got shot today on a job I sent him into.” She brings a hand up to rub soothing circles against her chest. “Not sure I’m gonna sleep well tonight knowing that’s on me.”
“But you said he’ll be okay, right?” I ask. “Aunt Jules? You promised.”
“Yeah, he’ll be fine. He was shot in the… uh…” She flattens her lips for a moment. “His derriere.”
“His de—” William chokes on the words. “His ass? He was shot in the ass?”
“Flesh wound,” she crinkles her nose. “In and out, it passed through the meaty section and made its way out again.”
“In the ass?” Will repeats much too loudly. “He dropped like a fucking tree… for a flesh wound on the ass?”
“Would you like me to shoot you in your ass?” I snap and take a step toward the door. “Have you ever been shot, William? Because I imagine it hurts really bad.”
“It was his ass!” he hollers. “I thought we were talking paraplegic and years of recovery. I’m over here sweating that kind of outcome, and for a thug, nonetheless. I liked that thug! And the way he dropped scared the piss outta me. But now you’re telling me…” He looks around. “His ass!”
“I’m done here.”
I grab Aunt Jules’ hand and drag her to the door, but before we leave, I turn back to our watchful crowd. I look to Daddy first, and nod like that somehow conveys the million things I want to say. “He’s a cop, Daddy. Not a criminal. So you leave him alone.” Then I look to Ben. “I’m fine.” I scan past everyone else in the room, and stop on William. “I hope you enjoy your new career. I’m certain you worked really hard to get here, and deep inside, beneath the betrayal, I’m genuinely happy for you. I hope you find fulfilment in this career.”
“Olivia…” He takes a step forward, only to stop when I step back. “You need to stop pretending like I did something horrible. You’re riding some kind of high horse right now, but it’s a load of shit.”
“You lied to me.” I speak calmly, quietly, completely in control. “And maybe I lied too. I know I did. But you dumped me for a year without a single care for how that would make me feel, and then you lied to me. Consistently. To my face. That kind of behavior is unattractive to me. Aunt Jules,” I continue pulling her to the door. “I would like to speak with you.”
The second we’re out of the room and in the hall heading toward Romeo, I squeeze her hand so tight she hisses.
“Ouch!”
“A cop!” I demand. “You sent him to the academy, and you didn’t tell anyone? I would expect this from…” I look around and thrust a hand toward another woman we know. “Sophia! This is Sophia-level espionage bullshit. Not you!”
“What, I’m not allowed to be sneaky smart?” Aunt Jules pulls her hand away and massages the ache from my squeeze. “I saw something going down in town more than a year ago. I saw what Brenten was doing, so I asked you to come on board and help me out. I saw that Oz and Alex needed someone undercover, and there was Will with his own finely tuned investigative skills already underway. He’s a good guy, Liv, he works hard, he wants so bad to be worthy of you, and I had a position open. I gave him a job option, he took it, he ran with it, and he graduated at the top of his class; in the physical tests, and academia.”
“But Aunt Jules! That’s not—”
“That boy never got to attend more than a handful of years in a real school, baby girl. He was always doing what he had to do to get his sister through life unscathed, so he put all his own needs aside. Uneducated, perhaps. But stupid…” she shakes her head. “Nope. William is smart, and what he doesn’t know, he makes damn sure to learn. He went into the academy unsure if he could make it, and he came out on top. Then I brought him to town, and now here we are. Oz’s job is safe, Ripley is off the streets, William is solely responsible for the removal of more than seventy-three kilograms of cocaine off our streets. Our streets, Liv. Not some faraway town we hear about on the news. Those seventy-three kilos is a lot for us. That boy busted his ass to clean this place up, and he did it all without anyone noticing a damn thing.”
“Of course we didn’t notice. He lied!”
“I lied too!” she snaps. “I organized this whole thing and I didn’t tell you. You gonna break up with me too?”
“What?” We stop outside another hall and wait just before the corner. “No, I—”
“You lied to your own father. You think he’s gonna break up with you now?”
“No!” I exclaim. “I did it because you– because I—” I swallow. “I was doing the right thing. I helped!”
“I’m pretty sure William said the exact same thing to you not five minutes ago. He was doing it for the right reasons, he was doing it to help. You don’t get to have it both ways, baby girl. If that excuse is good enough for you, then it’s good enough for him. And if it’s not good enough for him, then you’d better go apologize to every single person back in that waiting room, because every time you screeched that Brenten was your boyfriend, you lied. Oh, Troy.” Aunt Jules latches onto a hospital bed being wheeled along the hall with a massive soldier laid out on his stomach.
His back is bare, but his bottom half is covered by a sheet. And just ten feet behind the bed, Abby and Spencer follow.
“How are you feeling, Romeo?” Jules asks.
“Feel like I
got shot in the ass.” He turns his face on the pillow and presents us with the loopiest of all loopy grins. “This drug they gave me makes goats swim through the air in my head.”
Jules looks to me with wide eyes. “Wow.”
“They gave me extra,” Romeo sniggers. “Cause I’m big and my ass hurt.”
“You’re, um… so you feel pretty decent right now?”
“Uh huh. But my ass is on fire. You wanna see?” He reaches back and attempts to toss his sheet off.
“No!” I grab his hand before he exposes his ass to the world, only to grunt when he yanks me in, and the stretcher continues moving, which means the wheels roll right over my feet. “Ouch!”
“He looooooves you.” Romeo licks his lips, then sucks up a long line of drool that pools on his pillow. He wraps his arm around my stomach so we all keep moving, and I basically glide along the hospital hallways. “The dude, Willllliam. He told me about his take-home girl.”
“He… uh….” I shoot a glance toward Jules as she walks beside us. “Huh?”
“He told me he looooves you,” he repeats. “Said you were his forever, and that you like yellow.” He narrows his eyes for a second. “Yellow. Like, yellow the color, or yellow the flavor?”
“Yellow the flavor?”
“Hm, that’s a little bit weird,” he chatters to no one. “What does yellow taste like, anyway? Can I ask you a question?” He lifts his head just a little so he can look to Jules too. “Girls. Can we talk girls?”
“Oh jesus,” the EMT murmurs as we turn another corner. “Shit’s getting deep today.”
“Shuddup, Bitchy Mitchy. You’re bonking the florist anyway.” He looks back to me and flashes a goofy grin that steals half of my heart. “Do you think girls and drama are mutually exclusive?”
“Huh?”
“My take-home girl; she’s drama. She’s awesome in the kitchen, and bed, and she’s smart, and she can suck a—”
“Troy Rosa!” Abigail snaps from a few feet back. “You stop that!”
