Scarless & Sacred (The Chicago War #3)

by Bethany-Kris

  Theo relaxed into the bed. “Eve.”

  Evelina lifted her hand and waved two fingers. “Hey.”

  The nurse scowled over her shoulder. “He hasn’t been approved for visitors after his episode when he woke up.”

  “Actually, he has,” Evelina replied sweetly. “I just talked to the doctor after the man finally made time to sit down with me. We had a nice chat about why Theo reacted the way he did, like the fact he had a difficult past that was wrought with—”

  “Eve,” Theo said quietly.

  “—abuse,” his lover finished, ignoring his warning.

  The nurse stiffened. “Oh.”

  “Yes.” Evelina sighed, adding, “So when a patient begs for you to let them go, and that patient’s friends and family asks you the same thing, perhaps you should listen the next time.”

  Theo’s throat felt damn tight, but his respect for Evelina climbed higher. He didn’t know how much higher it could get than it already was.

  “Perhaps you should have told us beforehand.”

  “I tried when he was waking up. None of you listened.”

  The nurse’s hands fluttered, dead in the air. “Well, I’ll just leave you two be for a second.”

  Evelina smiled tightly. “Thank you.”

  Once the nurse was gone, Theo finally found his voice again.

  “Someone doesn’t like the nurses.”

  “I really don’t,” Evelina admitted.

  Theo smirked. “Me, either.”

  “Yeah, well, you slept through most of it.”

  “Sleep, coma, same thing.”

  “Lily brought you some comfortable clothes. She’ll bring them in when you’re ready.”

  “Good. There is nothing manly about this thing,” Theo said, grabbing at the flimsy piece of crap he wore. “These hospital gowns are fucking indecent.”

  Evelina leered. “Stand up, turn around and show me how much.”

  Goddamn.

  “Really? Jokes?”

  “One of us has to.” Evelina glanced down at the floor. “You really scared me.”

  Theo knew what she meant. The shooting, the bullets, his coma. All of it.

  “Somebody’s got to save you, princess.”

  “You sound like you need some water.”

  Theo shrugged. “My throat feels like it, too.”

  “I’ll sneak you some in. They told me not to give you anything, but …”

  Hard and loud, even though it hurt like hell, Theo laughed.

  “I am such a shitty influence on you,” he said when his chuckles calmed.

  “Bad. We’d be bad.”

  “I don’t know. I think we’re pretty good, Eve.”

  Evelina took another step forward and said, “You still scared me.”

  “I’d do it again.”

  “I know.” Evelina bit her bottom lip and then released it just as quick. “How do you feel?”

  “Like someone ran me over with an eighteen wheeler. The nurse was kind enough to show me the mess from the surgeries. I need a fucking haircut. They won’t get me a toothbrush. And it took the nurse asking if I’d like to try and take a leak to realize there was a tube shoved up my dick. That’s gone now, by the way. Thankfully, it’s still in working order.”

  Evelina coughed out a quiet laugh. “So, not so good, huh?”

  “Wonderful. I am wonderful because you’re looking at me, Eve.”

  “Theo …”

  “Hmm?”

  “I love you.”

  Theo’s gaze cut to Evelina’s fidgeting form. “I know.”

  He’d known it the moment he woke up and saw her crying for him. Maybe he’d even known it for longer than that.

  “Okay,” Evelina said in a whisper. “I just wanted—”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t be nervous. Don’t twist your hands together and avoid looking at me like something bad is going to come now.”

  “But—”

  “Nothing. But nothing, princess.”

  Evelina released a shuddering breath. “Okay.”

  Theo loved this girl, too.

  “You’ve been mine for a while, Eve. You were mine years ago when I told you to break the rules and you did it. You were mine when you trusted me and no one else would. You were mine when I told you to get on your knees, and you didn’t even hesitate to do it. You were mine when you didn’t ask me for a thing. You were mine when you said you would give up everything for a chance. And you were mine when I took three bullets that were meant for you. You are mine, Evelina.”

  “Yours.”

  “Every single part of you.”

  Evelina smiled a sweet sight. “All right.”

  “And you’re still not asking me for a thing, Eve.”

  “What could I ask you for that you haven’t given me, Theo?”

  “Three words. A proper response. The one a person usually gives back when someone says they love someone else.”

  “You just did,” she said, “but it was even better because those three words don’t mean a thing if you don’t know why, Theo.”

  “I’m still going to say it.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Yes, he did.

  “I love you, Eve.” Theo swallowed hard, wishing his voice wasn’t so weak and his throat didn’t feel like acid had been poured down it. “Will you sneak me in the water, now?”

  She laughed lightly. “Whatever you want, Theo.”

  “Water. You. Something decent to wear.”

  “In that order?”

  “You first,” he said.

  Evelina obliged. Theo forgot about the water once she was tucked under his scratchy sheets and in his arms. He forgot about the decent clothes the second she kissed the underside of his jaw.

  “Thank you,” Evelina said against his skin.

  “For what?”

  “Waking up for me.”

  “I should thank you,” Theo said.

  “God, for what?”

  “Asking me to.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “You look … better,” Damian said lamely.

  Evelina passed the usually quiet man a look. “Thanks? I didn’t realize I looked terrible before.”

  Damian chuckled. “You looked like my wife did, I suppose.”

  Ah.

  She got it.

  “Tired and worried.”

  “Yeah,” Damian said. “A night in a real bed does a person wonders.”

  “Theo didn’t really give me a choice in the matter. He threatened to take me off the approved list of guests for his room if I didn’t go home and get some rest.”

  “I’m aware. Good man.”

  “Something like that,” Evelina muttered.

  Theo had been especially difficult over the past three days since he woke up. Evelina was trying to understand his sudden attitude and snappiness, but it didn’t always make sense. Last night when he demanded Evelina go to Lily’s home, get some rest, and stop worrying over him, she had went because she couldn’t find it in herself to argue with Theo.

  Damian tossed the newspaper he’d been reading down to his lap. “He knows you’ve been here every single day, Eve. He knows you waited for him and that you didn’t leave. That’s the most important thing. Theo can only get better from here, all right.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Cut him some slack and let him make some rules. He’ll feel like he’s got some say. It’s got to be hard on a person like Theo to be stuck immobile and prone in a bed for over a week, only to wake up and find out that you were that way.”

  “He’s independent, and he just learned all of his control was taken away.”

  Damian nodded slowly. “Essentially. He’s trying to get some back. You should have heard him with the nurses when they tried fretting over his surgery stitches this morning. I think he was mostly getting irritated because they kept touching him, and Theo … well, you know.”

  “Theo doesn’t like to be touched.” Evelina took in D
amian’s spot outside of Theo’s room. “Is that why you’re out here in a chair?”

  “Partly.”

  “What’s the other reason?”

  “My wife’s having an overdue discussion with her brother. I don’t do well in situations where Lily is liable to end up a crying mess. I try to find a way to fix it. She won’t like it if I hit her injured, hospitalized brother for being an idiot, and for hiding their family secrets.”

  “Ben’s abuse.”

  “Yes,” Damian said quietly.

  “How did she find out?”

  “I told her shortly after she started to question why the nurses were so skittish around Theo after he woke up.”

  Evelina raised a brow, surprised. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t lie to my wife. She asked me not to. And frankly, she deserves to know the truth about her brothers. Both the living and the dead. Lily is the way she is, and she was given the freedom she had, because of the things they suffered so she wouldn’t have to.”

  “I think he needs to talk about it for once. Honestly and openly. When I figured it out and tried asking, he shut me down. I understand why but he shouldn’t do that.”

  Damian sighed. “Monsters can only hurt you if you keep them hidden, Eve.”

  “Well, mine are dead now.”

  Her father was gone, after all. His controlling ways and life-long goals to groom his children into the perfect mafia pets had failed. She was her own person who was capable of making her own choices.

  “Lucky you.” Damian looked up at her with a curiosity burning brightly. “What does that feel like?”

  “Freedom,” she answered instantly. “It feels like freedom.”

  “Oh, he’s looking at her in this one,” Lily said, a smile in her tone.

  Theo grinned wide. “I think she was scolding him for cussing or something.”

  Lily laughed and Theo followed along. Evelina soaked in the siblings’ happiness from her spot in the corner chair where she was pretending to read on her ereader. Lily had left the hospital earlier in the day and returned with Theo’s favorite takeout, and a photo album.

  Apparently, Dino had sent the family some photos to be delivered on Christmas back before the man was killed. Lily had them done up into some kind of family album, and she wanted Theo to look it over and see if he remembered anything about the day.

  “Dino kind of seems like his focus was elsewhere, doesn’t it?” Lily asked.

  Evelina peeked over the top of her ereader and caught the sight of Theo’s frown.

  “Maybe he was a little unfocused. I think he had a lot going on back then. He’d just moved out of the house shortly before that.”

  “At sixteen?”

  “Dad didn’t like him being mixed up in the Outfit as much as he was.”

  “Oh,” Lily said softly.

  “Yeah, so he went out on his own to do his thing. Dad had nothing to say after that.”

  Lily shifted on the bed to lay back beside Theo. The tiny little hospital bed wasn’t made for two people, but the siblings somehow made it work with the photo album stuck between them. Evelina would probably be jealous as hell if it were any other woman and not his sister in a close proximity to Theo, but the sweetness between the two wouldn’t let her feel anything but happiness.

  As much as Lily had separated from her family over the years, she missed them, too. Theo especially, Evelina knew. The two had been close when they were children even with the five-year age gap.

  “Do you remember Dino ever having a girlfriend back then?” Lily asked.

  “No,” Theo said instantly.

  “You answered that a little quickly, Theo.”

  Theo passed a pleading glance at Evelina. She pretended like she didn’t see it.

  Lily flipped a couple more pages.

  “I don’t think he was involved with someone publically at that time,” Theo finally said after a long while.

  “Privately?”

  “Do you remember Julia Trentini?”

  Lily’s brow furrowed. “No, but I’ve seen her pictures in the Trentini mansion. She was Terrance’s only daughter from his marriage, right?”

  “Yes. She was the same age as Dino.”

  “That’s who he …” Lily trailed off with a wag of her brow.

  Theo laughed deeply, but it faded fast. “Something like that. I think Dino cared a lot about her, but it didn’t last long once Ben found out about the relationship. He beat the hell out of Dino, and then me when I tried to step in. On the same night, he had Julia killed and made it look like an accident.”

  Lily’s face crumpled instantly. “But Terrance was Ben’s friend.”

  “It wasn’t about Terrance. It was about Dino.”

  “I don’t understand,” Lily mumbled sadly.

  Evelina had heard her friend say that very sentence more times than she cared to count over the last day. Lily was confused and hurt over the past her brothers had shared under their uncle’s abusive roof.

  Theo flipped a page in the album as he said, “Dino couldn’t have what Ben didn’t give him. Julia was just one of those things.”

  “I thought women and children were untouchable, Theo.”

  “Does anything about that generation of men scream honorable to you?” he asked.

  “No,” Lily admitted.

  “There’s your answer, little one.” Theo shrugged, adding, “Dino’s only way of controlling what happened to you and me was by accepting Ben, and whatever the man demanded of him. That meant adhering to the rules and expectations Ben set out for all of us. More often than not, Dino failed when he tried stepping out on his own. Ben took all the pleasure he could from that, I think.”

  Silence fell over the siblings for a long while. Evelina watched the two while Theo and Lily continued flipping through the photo album without saying another thing. Finally, Lily closed the album up and tossed it aside.

  “Why?” she asked softly.

  “Why, what?”

  “Why did you hate Dino so much if you knew, Theo? Why were you so distant from him for all this time?”

  Theo cleared his throat. “Because I blamed him. For being weak. For not helping me. For not being strong enough and for not having control. By the time I realized that my anger and resentment towards my brother was just another one of my uncle’s games, it was too late. We’d gone too far. We’d cut too many scars into one another. We hated and we loved, but we couldn’t make it into something strong enough to withstand what had happened in the past.”

  “But you were getting there,” Lily pressed, “before Dino was killed.”

  “We were.”

  “Why?”

  “I learned some things that reminded me of the shit my brother had gone through with Ben separate from the shit he’d put me through. Like Julia and whatnot.”

  “Years later, Dino was still pining over her?” Lily asked.

  “No,” Theo said. “Eve, what time is it?”

  Stunned that Theo remember she was in the room since she’d been so quiet, Evelina said, “Nine.”

  “Visiting hours are over in thirty minutes, right?”

  “Yes.” Evelina met Theo’s stare. “Why?”

  “Who is out in the waiting room today?” he asked instead of answering.

  “They left after you went out and sat with them during supper,” Lily told her brother. “What is up with you?”

  “It wasn’t about Julia,” Theo said, pushing up from the bed. Every action he took was slowed and likely pained. He barely showed an ounce of his discomfort as he got up from the bed. “But I can show you better than I can explain, Lily. I need a phone. A safe one.”

  Suddenly, Damian was leaning in the doorway. Evelina wished she could be surprised that the man had been there and listening. He still shocked her all the same.

  “I could help with that,” Damian said, waving a cell phone.

  Theo turned to Lily. “You can’t be angry, okay.”

  Lily frowned. “Ab
out what?”

  “Someone. Two people, actually. You can’t be angry that he kept them away and safe.”

  “Theo—”

  “Lily, this is important.”

  Evelina was so confused that it wasn’t even funny. She had no clue what Theo was rambling on about, or why he seemed so entirely frustrated and nervous at the same time. Even with his mood swings lately, this franticness was new.

  “I won’t be angry,” Lily whispered.

  “They’re not a part of this,” Theo said, his tone brokering no room for argument. “They can never be a part of this, Lily. You have to understand that the most important thing is making sure they don’t become integrated into this like we are. Dino didn’t want that to happen.”

  “The Outfit?”

  “That, and us.”

  Lily looked back at Damian. “Because we are the Outfit.”

  Theo nodded. “We are. They aren’t.”

  “Visiting hours are over,” a nurse said out in the hallway.

  “Theo’s room has had special circumstances regarding visitors since his arrival at this hospital. It’s why the hospital is being paid double for the room than what the actual cost is. His afterhours visitors will not disrupt the rest of the wing, I promise, but they are unable to come during normal hours. Now, if you’re done being loud while the sick people are trying to sleep, I’d like to pass by.”

  The nurse huffed loudly at Damian’s rebuttal.

  Before Evelina even got the chance to look out into the hallway to see who he’d gone downstairs to meet, a little boy with wild blond curls and big brown eyes bolted straight inside the room. The child only looked to be maybe three or four-years-old, if that. His cute little wrangler jeans and puffy jacket practically swallowed his little body whole as he tried tugging off his mittens and hat.

  It was downright impossible to ignore the fact that the boy shared similar features to Theo. Like his brown eyes, light hair, and a crooked smile. Small Nike sneakers squeaked on the tile floor as the child searched the room. Then, the little boy’s gaze fell on Theo who was sitting on the side of the bed.

  “Hey, little man,” Theo said.

  The child’s eyes widened with happiness. “Chunkle Theo!”

  “Quiet, Junior,” came a voice from the doorway. “There are sick people who need to sleep in the other rooms. You have to be a good boy or we’ll have to leave.”