Chapter 13
Fuck! I could feel my consciousness fade with every second I lay there after those bastards fucking shot me. Used to stab wounds during my time at the various fighting rings, I’d never been shot before, and it wasn’t something I planned to experience again. That was, if I survived it.
I could hear the loud groaning from Conor and the worried tone of voice that belonged to Liam.
Since the day I was rescued by King and Cillian after my great grandfather’s death, Conor and Liam had been beside me.
They’d grown up alongside me and had become like brothers to me.
I’d always wanted one of my own. The closest I came to a sibling was my cousin, Ciara.
She was two years younger than me, but was the bratty younger sister I’d never known I’d wanted.
“Who is that?” I heard King say from what had to be the phone. “Is that the girl?”
“It is,” Liam assured me. “She says we have to get Bossman to the hospital.”
“No hospital,” I heard my uncle tell Liam. “And fuck, you’re quite some distance from the nearest fucking safe house, too. The girl is a fucking nurse. Can she stop the bleeding?”
I was wavering in and out of consciousness, so I was unable to hear her response or what King wanted me to do.
I knew what mattered the most was the girl, and if I had to die to ensure my family kept possession of her, it was something I was expected to do.
My men would be forced to leave me here to die and bring her to them.
All that mattered was the empire. The Brannington fucking Empire.
It’d been an albatross around my neck my entire fucking life, and even now, when on death’s door, it was still a noose growing tighter around me.
Or was that something else? As I felt direct pressure being applied to my upper arm and shoulder area, I groaned and tried rolling away from it.
Seconds later, I felt something hard and cold being pressed to my lips.
Right after, the stinging burn of the alcohol dribbled over my lips and down my chin.
I licked at it like a thirsty man before more was poured between my now parted lips. I choked and spat out half of the alcohol as too much was poured all at once. Who I assumed to be Liam pulled back, and the next time, relief came in smaller drops.
When I’d drunk enough to mask the burning pain in my shoulder and the small hands steadily applying pressure to the wound, I closed my eyes.
I reopened them sometime later to find two of my Uncle’s medics there with us.
My head fell to the right, where Conor was now sitting up and grimacing as his own wound was stitched up.
It then lolled to the left, where I saw Aurora sitting on her ass against the car with her knees to her chest, and my jacket wrapped around the front of her. Her face was streaked with tears and had black from the smeared mascara mixing with the red of someone’s blood.
“Zarren,” I heard Liam say, and I groaned out in pain as I tried to locate him. He appeared above me as he looked down at me. “We’ve stopped the bleeding, but we need to clean the wound. King doesn’t want us taking you to the hospital. Are you going to be okay for us to do that?”
I gave a nod. Pain was usually an aphrodisiac for me, but I could honestly say that the kind afflicting me at this moment did anything but make me hard.
One of the medics kneeled down beside me.
I watched the needle in his hand and could remember back in my youth when I used to cry at the sight of one.
That had been until Ronan tied me down to a bed and had his men take turns sticking the sharp tips all over me.
Most had nothing in them, but the psychological factor was enough to do a five-year-old boy in.
Now, I merely looked at them with disgust. The medic moved over me, then began to inject whatever was in it all around my actual wound. It stung like a motherfucker, feeling like I was getting attacked by a swarm of bees. I groaned out in pain, but let him finish before the entire area went numb.
“It was just lidocaine,” the man said to me.
“It fucking hurt,” I muttered back.
“This next part is going to hurt worse. Do you need some more alcohol first?”
I nodded, then saw Aurora watching me from afar. Raising my uninjured hand, I motioned for her to come close. She was confused at first, until I moved my hand more profusely, grimacing when the rapid movement caused pain on my other side.
“Are you okay, Zarren?”
I reached up to stroke her face. It was slightly reddened, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the chill I felt on her skin, or something more. “Bellezza,” I whispered.
“I’m here,” she replied softly.
I wanted to stare into her face longer, but the medic returned to me. “We need to get this cleaned out as soon as possible,” he reminded me.
Aurora fell back and out of the way, but I grabbed her hand and refused to let her go. She sat down beside me, and I braced myself for what was to come. As I did, I rubbed my thumb over her soft skin over and over until I cursed aloud as something was poured over the wound.
“Fucking hell,” I cursed through gritted teeth. The medic pulled away as he looked at me. I turned away from him and over to Aurora. “Come here, beautiful.”
She inched her way closer and I pointed at my lips. “Do you want more vodka?”
“Yes,” I said and Liam handed her the bottle. She was much more careful as she poured a small amount into my mouth. I took in several large swallows before reaching out to trace her lips. “Kiss me,” I instructed.
“Zarren,” she said, either in shock or protest, not that I gave an actual damn as to which one it was.
“You heard me. Lean over and kiss me,” I said in a low tone.
She looked around and by the time her gaze found me again, I was grimacing once more. “I’ll just hurt you more by doing so,” she finally said.
“It’ll distract me,” I partially lied. It would do that, but I’d also wanted to kiss her for some time now, and I might never get the chance to do so if I didn’t take this opportunity. “C’mon on, Bellezza. Kiss me.”
Seconds later, she leaned over me and pressed her mouth to mine. Having dreamt about doing this for at least the last week nonstop, I wanted to savor every second of her soft mouth.
As Aurora’s trembling lips moved over mine, I pointed at the wound and sucked her tongue into my mouth, instead of screaming as the medic returned to me and pain ripped through my entire being.
So much for making it fucking numb.
Still, I was able to distract myself from it with Aurora.
Maybe it was the alcohol or the pain, but kissing her felt otherworldly.
My head was spinning, causing the stars above us to actually move on the dark canvas.
With every brush of her tongue against mine as I deepened the kiss, she whimpered more.
The sound was music to my ears, and something I focused on as the medic cleaned the wound, located and removed the lodged bullet, and wrapped my arm in gauze.
“He will need to rest and try not to put too much strain on his arm for a bit. He was very lucky that it hadn’t struck him an inch to the left or right. The bastard would’ve bled out before I even got the call to come here,” I heard the medic say to Liam.
Aurora pulled away at that, and I watched as she pressed one of her cold, dirt-stained hands to her lips. Despite my growl and attempt to pull her closer, she quickly stood up and moved out of the way. When I saw the medic reappear with a syringe in his hand, I groaned.
Seconds later, the man injected something into my uninjured arm, and it wasn’t long until the world became blurrier once more.
I heard voices swirl around me, but not from the one I wanted to hear.
My mouth opened as I tried to say her name but nothing came out.
From there, I was only briefly aware of being placed back into the SUV.
Once I was laid across the third row seat, Aurora and Conor took their places on the row in front, while Liam talked to the medic.
“Bellezza,” I murmured, and she turned around in her seat.
“Zarren,” she whispered.
I tried to reach for her, but my limbs wouldn’t move. I was growing weaker and more tired by the second. They must’ve given me something for the pain because I now actually felt very little of it.
“We’re headed back to Boston,” Liam said as he joined us in the back. “Everything’s going to be fine, Bossman. Kingston and Cillian will make sure these bastards pay for the ambush.”
My voice had already left me, so I could do nothing more than just limply nod my head in understanding. The vehicle jolted once or twice before I gave in to the dizziness.