“And exactly how do you two know each other?” Rush asks with narrowed eyes.
I’m not sure if the light is playing tricks on me. The surrounding air is getting smokier by the minute, and it almost looks like she’s blushing. I cock my head to the side and wrack my brain. I’m having a hard time piecing these things together. It’s right in front of my face, but . . .
I snap my fingers as it hits me. “So he’s the one you’ve been meeting!”
Maddie shrugs a shoulder, her teeth worrying her bottom lip and her gaze flicking to the side.
I cock my head as I look at her with new recognition. That’s not quite all of it.
Matteo turns to face Maddie, crowding her against the back of the ambulance and leaning down, so his face is level with hers. “You been meeting other guys on me, baby girl?”
“Oh shit,” I murmur. Maddie meets my gaze, and I know she sees the confusion and apology there because she shakes her head a little.
Maddie looks back at Matteo. “You’re telling me you aren’t seeing other girls, hmm? I know how it is—I remember.” Her sugary-sweet tone belies the ice in her words and the fire shooting from her gaze.
“No, Madison, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Who is he?” Matteo demands, his voice pitched low but not low enough that we can’t hear him.
So I do what any best friend who’s worried about her maybe-sorta third boyfriend would do, and I step forward. “Can we get back on track, please? Matteo, where is Sully right now?”
My obvious distraction works because he takes a step back, but not before he grips her on the back of the neck and places a hard kiss against her lips. “This conversation isn’t over.”
Maddie’s eyes darken, and I realize that we have much more to discuss than I originally thought.
“I told you. He’s at O’Malley’s, in his upstairs apartment.”
I reach out and squeeze his arm. “Thank you.” Matteo nods, and I glance between him and Maddie. “You need a ride?”
“No,” she says, keeping her gaze on me. “Matteo’s bringing me home.”
I nod and give her a quick hug before walking to Wolf’s car and climbing into it.
Chapter Five
Alaina
We pull into the small parking lot behind O’Malley’s. It only has enough spaces for four cars, but since a lot of people in the city don’t own cars, we luck out.
Wolf pulls into one of the three open spaces, and before he even shuts off the engine, I throw open the back door. I’m out of the car in a flash and practically jogging down the alley toward O’Malley’s back door.
I don’t give myself the opportunity to think about the last time I was in this alley—even if I don’t remember all the specifics. I heard enough from Wolf to know that this is where the red-eyed demon—where Liam—took me.
Just the thought of him and his red eyes is enough to send a shiver down my spine. I shove all of that down, way down deep, to unpack another day. Right now, I have more important things to think about.
Like my ex-boyfriend turned maybe boyfriend who’s lying in some bullshit employee room while some backwoods doctor fixes him instead of taking him to a proper hospital.
Fear leaves a sour taste on the back of my tongue, and no matter how much I try, I can’t get rid of it. Luckily, anger is taking center stage right now, distracting me from my real emotion—fear.
And I am fucking furious. With everything and just about everyone. I know it’s irrational, and it’s a terrible coping mechanism, but I can’t seem to stop.
It’s easier to get angry than to let myself fall into the pit of emotional quicksand I’m hovering over.
I whip open the backdoor, hard enough that it slams against the brick wall behind it. I feel Rush right behind me, and I already know Wolf is right next to him without even looking.
I stalk down the hallway toward the little hallway with a staircase. It leads to Jack’s office above the bar, though I’ve never actually seen it. We walk through the hallways and the employee’s only doors as I absently wonder if I should be concerned that I have such a deep connection with these men.
It seems sudden. And alarmingly deep.
Maybe most importantly, it feels right.
These men feel more like mine than anything else ever has.
And I won’t let anyone take them from me. Not ever.
With that thought etching itself into my soul, I stalk the last few steps to Jack’s office door. I push open the door hard enough that it hits the wall behind it and bounces back toward me. Like I knew he would be, Rush is there. He throws his hand out, and those tattooed fingers I fantasize about wrap around the edge of the door and hold it still, stopping its momentum.
I pause just inside the room, stunned at the sight. It’s less of an office and more of a living room with a desk shoved against one wall. But that’s not what captures my attention, it’s the scene on the other side of the room.
Jack stands at one end of a long rectangular white table, sleeves rolled up and hands bloody and busy as they move around. Some guy I’ve never seen before stands to the side of the table on the far side of the room, giving me an unobstructed view of the first love of my life.
A gasp leaves my lips before I can stop it. Even though Matteo told me Sully was hurt, it didn’t prepare me for this. Sully’s laid out on the table, skin pale and sweat coating his brow. His eyes are closed, and a half-empty bottle of Jameson sits underneath his fingers on the floor.
“Jack?” My voice comes out high-pitched, and I clear my throat.
“C’mon, kid. Get over here and help Doc out,” Jack says without taking his eyes off of Sully, voice gruff, shoulders tight.
I’m moving before he even finishes talking, Rush and Wolf at either side of me.
“I guess the Rossi kid found ya then, yeah?” Jack asks as he wipes away blood from the wound on Sully’s shoulder.
Fuck. Why is there so much blood? Is that normal? My thoughts spin around and around, unable to focus on one thing.
“Something like that. Someone better start talking.” Rush folds his arms across his chest, his voice taking on that deep, commanding tone that usually scares everyone shitless.
“I dunno, boyo. Rossi brought him in, and I called Doc here. I didn’t want to bring him to the hospital, seeing as I don’t know what happened. Said he was jumped before he passed out, that’s all I know.” Jack glances between Rush and Wolf.
Wolf drags a chair from the other side of the room and deposits it right next to the table by Sully’s head. With a gentle hand on my back, he nudges me to the chair. I take the hint and all but collapse in it.
Wolf nods and starts to pace right behind me. Two steps to the right, two steps to the left. “I’m going to check-in with Diesel.”
“Call Matteo, yeah? Make sure Maddie’s okay,” Rush says, eyes on Doc’s hands as he works on Sully.
“Thank you, Dec,” I whisper as I lean over and press a kiss to his shoulder.
“Of course, birdie,” he murmurs with a kiss to the top of my head. He turns back to the doctor, and his posture gets rigid, and his voice gets hard once more. “Talk to me, Doc. Explain what you’re doing.”
The doctor, however, seems to be immune to Rush’s dominance.
“I’m a little busy, kid. I’ve got my hand inside your brother here, looking for any problems, and I don’t have time for your posturing bullshit. So pack it away, yeah?”
“The fuck you say to me?” Rush uncrosses his arms and steps forward.
The doctor sighs and looks at Rush. I glance between the doctor’s hand holding Sully’s wound and his gaze and Rush’s gaze. My heart pounds, and the violence that I felt from outside the building starts to swell.
“I don’t have time to hold your hand. Not if you want me to save him—”
Rush moves so he’s flush against the table. “I’m going to fucking gut you and string you up in the middle of the five points with crows as your companions ju
st to make a fucking point—”
Something inside me snaps during Rush’s tirade.
I’m sure if I look back on it, I could better figure it out, but all I know is that it feels like this doctor is threatening Sully.
And I won’t allow it.
In one quick movement, I stand up, turn around, and grab the gun from Wolf’s shoulder holster on one of his passes. Spinning around, I wedge myself between Rush and the table, enough to get his attention for a split second. That’s all I need though. I look at the doctor, gun casually gripped in my hand and laid flat on the table. Everyone stops moving, and the noises of the city filtering in from two floors down is the only sound.
Good. I have their attention.
“Fix him now.” After a pause, I add, “Please.”
Wolf whistles as he slaps Rush’s shoulder and brings him back a step. “We’ll just wait until after he’s fixed Sully to kill him, yeah, brother? Unless our girl here does it first.”
I glance over my shoulder to see Rush glare at the doctor with murder in his eyes. Hell, if he doesn’t fix Sully, I just might make good on my threat. Wolf stares at me with lust in his eyes, and the hunger sends a shiver down my spine.
I turn around and hold the doctor’s gaze for a moment before he nods and gets back to work. I tuck my hair behind my ear as I set the gun down on the table next to me and lean over Sully. I place a kiss on each one of his closed eyes, his inky black lashes dark. I sweep his dark-blond hair off of his forehead, the long strands stuck to his sweaty skin.
The doctor’s hands are a flurry of movement in front of me, and Jack’s assisting. I pivot to block them out and focus my attention on the man lying unconscious in front of me.
Maddie always talks about the power of intention, and while I don’t necessarily think it’s the only thing at play, I think it can’t hurt.
And I’d do anything—pray to anyone—to make sure he comes back to me.
So I close my eyes and rest my forehead against his, still running my fingers through his hair.
“Come back to me, James. I need you. They need you. There’s so much I have to say to you still and we—”
“Ahh, there. Nothing vital was hit, but I had to be sure.”
Lifting my head, I glance over my shoulder to see the doctor with a triumphant grin on his face.
“He’ll be okay, then?” I don’t miss the small tremble in Wolf’s voice.
“He’ll be alright,” the doctor agrees with a nod. “I’ll stitch him up, and you’ll need to watch for infection. I’ll leave you with some pain meds and antibiotics, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I’d say he’ll be good as new in no time. Until then, rest and recuperation.”
Wolf’s shoulders sink as he exhales, but Rush doesn’t budge from his perch on the wall facing us. His narrow-eyed glare hasn’t left the doctor for a second.
“Where’d you go again, Doc?”
The hair on the back of my neck stands up at the controlled malice in Rush’s tone. I don’t understand what the real question is, but I know it’s not a simple inquiry about his vacation habits.
“Hmm?” The doctor doesn’t look up from his precise stitches on Sully’s shoulder.
Rush pushes off the wall with his shoulders and crosses the small room to stand next to me. The old floorboards creek as Wolf shifts his weight closer to us.
“I thought you were going on an extended vacation, Doc? When did you get back?”
I feel it then, the change. Suspicion sparks in the air, and without much thought, I hunch over Sully’s upper body, shielding his head from whatever’s brewing between the doctor and Rush.
Doc doesn’t lift his attention from placing the last stitch. “We just got back.”
“Is that right?”
Doc cuts the excess thread, and Jack wipes the edges of the stitched-up wound. He applies a layer of thin ointment to the wound and then places a thick gauze bandage over the entire area, securing it to Sully’s skin with medical tape.
Doc strips off his blue latex gloves and levels Rush with a tired sigh. “Look, Rush, I don’t want any part of . . . whatever this is, okay? I came because Jack called me. And because I’ve known you boys since you were in diapers.”
“Aye, you have. Which is why I’m wondering why you went on vacation suddenly a couple weeks ago. Strange that it happened when I needed you.” The tone of Rush’s voice says he’s leveling Doc with an accusation despite his seemingly harmless words. Rush idly straightens some bandage wrappers on the edge of the table. His forced nonchalance doesn’t fool anyone in the room.
Jack finishes cleaning Sully up, and the doctor balls up his gloves and tosses them in the garbage can behind him. I’m trying to curb the impulse to drag Sully out from between them, but it’s hard. My nerves are fried, and I can’t tell if my instincts are too because right now, the urge to flee from this doctor who literally just saved Sully is riding me hard.
There are too many questions without answers and too many unknowns and variables. The worst part might be that I don’t even know what I don’t know.
I’m adrift at sea, clinging to a life raft made of three men. I know the sharks are coming closer, they can smell my blood in the water, but I have no idea what else lies in the darkened belly of the sea. She’s indifferent on the best of days, and she’s unforgiving and cruel on the worst.
I know one thing to be true—I’d be lost without Sully, Rush, and Wolf. I would’ve been ripped apart weeks ago if it wasn’t for them.
I want to think that they’d be lost without me, but I can’t be sure. Maybe momentarily, they’d be crushed. But as I look at them exuding power and confidence, I don’t think they’d be without company for long. So what ties four people together—especially one who doesn’t always want to be tied together?
I’m not sure that I have the answer yet, but I’m willing to find out. And that has to be worth something, right?
“You better hope you bet on the right side, Doc. I can’t guarantee mercy when this is all done.” Rush delivers the threat with such little emotion. Once again, I’m thankful to have him in my corner.
And a little buzzed from the power and dominance rolling off of him. He’s such an alpha male—they all are. And there’s something so alluring about that. It calls to my inner woman. The one that’s just now being discovered, venturing out of this carefully constructed shell I’ve been living in for my entire life.
Doc sighs and looks at me. I hold his gaze for a moment before I glance at Rush. I feel like I’m missing something, but I’m not in the right frame of mind to dissect the threats behind the glares the boys are sending his way.
“This the girl then?”
“What girl?” Wolf steps into me and folds his arms across his chest, his thigh and leg pressing against my side as he partially blocks Doc’s view of me.
“Cormac mentioned you boys were getting a stepsister—”
“Nah. He was mistaken. She’s not our stepsister.” Wolf tips his head back and cocks it to the side. From this angle, I see his profile backlit by the streetlights shining in the open windows. His jaw looks sharp, his shoulders broad and the usually playful air is nowhere to be found.
“You’d do well to forget you ever saw a girl here tonight, yeah, Doc?”
I run my fingertips down Sully’s face and peek around Wolf’s body to see what Doc’s response is. I’m not disappointed when he nods and picks up his navy blue bag. I don’t even remember him having a bag, but I suppose I was preoccupied when we came in.
“Jack,” Doc says with a nod.
“Until next time, Doc.” Jack follows the doctor across the room and sees him out.
Chapter Six
Alaina
“We can’t move him. Not yet.” I wet my lips and prepare to make my case why we have to stay here for a while.
Wolf settles his big palm on the back of my neck with a sigh. His fingertips run back and forth over the sensitive skin on the side of my neck.
/> “Aye. We’ll stay here for a few hours. Jack won’t mind, will ya?”
The floorboards creak as Jack re-enters the room. “Nah. My songbird is dead on her feet. Mind telling me what happened?”
“It’s a long story.” My voice is soft as I continue to run my fingers over Sully’s face, memorizing the shape and cataloging the differences from two years ago.
“I’ve got time, kid.”
“I’m tired, Jack,” I say on a sigh.
“That’s alright. I’ll tell you a story then. You just relax and watch over our boyo, yeah?”
I nod, and Wolf’s hand leaves me for a moment before he bends down to brush his lips across my cheek. “I’m going to grab us some food. Rush’ll stay here with you, okay, baby?”
I turn my face and catch his lips with my own. “Okay. Be careful,” I whisper against his mouth.
“C’mon, boyo. I’ve got a spare bedroom up here with a bed. Let’s get your brother in there, yeah?”
I step back and watch as Rush and Jack pick Sully up and move him down the hall and into the first doorway. I hover behind them, ready to dive in and help, but the hallway is narrow. As it is, the three of them can barely fit on an angle.
I look around the room as they maneuver Sully on the twin-sized bed in the middle of the wall. A big bay window with a seated windowsill takes up most of the outer wall, and the noise from the street filters up, quiet enough to remind me of a white noise machine.
There isn’t much in this room, just a bed, a floor lamp, and a dresser in the corner.
Jack smooths his beard with one hand as he stands in the doorway. “I’ll give you guys a few minutes, yeah? You come find me for that story, Alaina. I think it’s time you hear it.”
“Okay. We’ll be there in a few minutes,” I say as I pull a thin blanket over him and try to adjust the pillow underneath Sully’s head.
Jack nods before stepping out of the room.
Rush leans against the windowsill again, one leg bent at the knee and the other firmly on the ground. The thick curtains are open, but the blinds are closed. Rush flicks one blind up and peeks out the window from the side. The afternoon light shines off the surrounding buildings, casting shadows on the floor of the room.
Sully: An Irish Mafia Romance (The Brotherhood Book 3) Page 4
