Chapter Thirty-One Caterina
My fingers trembled over the antique rosary in my hands. It had been a wedding gift from Orla, and one that had been in her family–the Byrne’s-for almost a century. With my eyes pinched shut, I whispered prayers of healing in my head. The silence of the room was punctuated by the pacing of Quinn and Dare. Kellan sat stoically beside me.
I don’t know how long I passed in desperate agony, fearing the worst and hoping for the best. When I thought I would lose it and start screaming, I rose out of my chair to walk the length of the small room that served as a makeshift waiting room. Standing in the doorway, I peered down the hall where the surgeons were working on Callum. In the shadowy hallway, I made out three other rooms with closed doors.
In all the months I’d lived in Callum’s house, I’d never ventured into the basement. As the daughter of a capo, I knew better than to want to explore underground areas. Like in the house I grew up in, there wasn’t only a medical/surgical room in which to treat the wounded.
There was also a torture room.
When I was seven, Gianni had dared me to peek inside ours. Scared out of my mind but too stubborn to let him win, I stuck my head in the door. To my horror, Leo and Rafe shoved me inside and held it closed. They claimed they were punishing me for snitching to Talia about them looking at my dad”s Playboy magazines.
In the pitch black, I’d fumbled for the light. When the fluorescents buzzed on, I started screaming. All these years later the image remained burned into my mind. As my brothers rushed into the room, they hadn’t anticipated my father’s latest double crosser to still be strung up by chains. Blood congealed on the floor from the gaping wounds on his chest and neck. His vacant eyes stared out at me.
The vividness of the memory caused a hard shudder to roll through me. At the feel of a jacket draping over me, I turned and met Dare’s smile. “So you won’t be cold,” he replied to what must’ve been my questioning look.
I gave him a small smile. “Actually I was remembering a memory from my childhood.”
Dare raised an eyebrow. “About your father?”
“Yes.” I swallowed hard. “His torture room.”
When Dare and Quinn exchanged a look, I asked, “Am I to assume that there’s one here behind one of those doors?”
While Quinn retained his usual silence, Dare flashed me a grin. “I plead the fifth.”
“I would have imagined as much.”
It was then that the door at the end of the hallway swung open. As one of the surgeons stepped out of the room and started for us, my breath hitched. At the somber look on his face, my knees buckled. I would’ve dropped to the floor if Dare hadn’t caught me. “I don’t like the look on his face,” I moaned.
At Dare’s snort, I jerked my gaze to his. “Dr. Feany’s face always looks like a slapped arse.”
“I heard that Darragh,” he replied sourly.
I closed the gap between Dr. Feany and myself. “How’s my husband?”
“He’s one of the luckiest bastards I know.”
My breath wheezed out of me. “Callum’s alive?”
Dr. Feany nodded. “When we went in to get the bullet out, we found that while it had slightly nicked his axillary artery, it did miss the brachial blood vessels and narrowly missed damaging his glenohumeral joint.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Dare demanded as Quinn nodded
“It could’ve been a lot worse of a recovery if his rotator cuff had been injured,” I replied. At Dr. Feany’s surprised look, I replied, “I’m in my undergraduate for nursing school.”
Dr. Feany’s sour expression turned somewhat appreciative at my comment. But it faded quickly. “He still is facing a painful recovery ahead of him along with some intense physical therapy to ensure he fully regains his range of motion.”
Quinn snorted. “He’s going to love the hell out of that.”
Ignoring him, I asked, “Can I see him?”
Nodding, Dr. Feany said, “He’s just now come out from the anesthesia. We wanted to make sure everything was good before we came to speak to you.”
I broke into a sprint to reach Callum’s room. Although I wanted to bust through the door, I eased inside, so I wouldn’t disturb him. Callum’s eyes remained closed, and I worried about the gray pallor of his skin. As I made my way over to his bedside, I heard footsteps behind me. Throwing a look over my shoulder, I saw that Quinn and Dare had come inside. I furrowed my brows at them. “Where’s Kellan?” I whispered.
Dare’s expression grew grim. “After what happened to Maeve, Kellan isn’t able to handle medical shit.”
My stomach clenched. Callum hadn’t shared with me how horrible the repercussions of the rape had been. Once again, my heart splintered in agony for Kellan.
At Callum’s moan, I whirled back around and hurried to his side. “Callum? Are you in pain?”
He grimaced as he shifted in bed. I took his hand in mine and squeezed it. “My love, I’m here.”
His eyelids fluttered before opening to pierce me with his ocean blue eyes. “Kitten,” he croaked.
“You were moaning. Are you in pain?”
A lazy smile curved his lips. “I was dreaming your mouth was on my cock.”
At my horrified shriek, Dare and Quinn chuckled. After glaring at him, I huffed, “You can dream on.”
Callum laughed, causing him to wince. “Are you sure you’re not in pain?” I asked.
“No. They gave me the good stuff.” His gaze slid from mine over to Quinn and Dare’s. “I need one of you to get in touch with Rafe.”
At the mention of my brother’s name, my breath hitched. Although I knew he didn’t like me asking about his business, I couldn’t help questioning, “Why do you need Rafe?”
Callum drew in a ragged breath. “I want to give him the courtesy of knowing I’m putting out a hit on your father.”
His words didn’t surprise me at all. I didn’t need confirmation to know that today’s attack had been from my father. If Callum was out of the way, it would sever the alliance with my brothers. As a widow, my father could marry me off to Carmine or any other man he wanted to.
Dare eyed me momentarily before taking his phone out of his pocket. I held my hands up. “Don’t look at me to defend him. Give me a gun, and I’ll end him myself.”
Both Dare’s and Quinn’s eyes bulged while Callum merely chuckled. “You’ve got the claws out today, haven’t you, Kitten?”
“There has never been any love lost between my father and me. Especially not now after he tried to kill the man I love.”
Callum gave me a cocky grin. “I like hearing those words from your lips.”
While I eased over to kiss him gently, Dare groaned. “Knock it off, Casanova. You’ve got several weeks of healing ahead of you for that shoulder.”
At my blush, Callum only laughed. Crooking his finger at me, I turned my head where he could whisper in my ear. “I think I could benefit from some sexual healing, don’t you?” he replied.
“You just came out of surgery,” I countered.
“I still want you.”
“Not on your life. I don’t want to be the reason you’re in pain the rest of your days.”
“The longer I go without sex, the more pain I’ll have from blue balls.”
“Stop talking that way in front of your brothers,” I replied as I righted myself.
A wicked gleam burned in his eyes. “Since a bullet can’t take me out, I’m sure you’ll be the death of me.”
As I rolled my eyes, Dare dialed on his phone. “Speaking of dying, I’m going to go make that call to Rafe.”
“Thanks,” Callum nodded.
With a wink, Quinn said, “I’ll leave the two of you.”
As Callum’s brothers exited the room, Dr. Feany entered it. “I see he’s back to his old self and barking orders,” he mused.
“If he was a normal person and in a hospital, how long would he stay?” I asked.
“Two to three days.”
“Does he need to stay down here?”
Dr. Feany nodded. “I wouldn’t advise jostling him up the stairs today. We don’t want to risk popping open any incisions.”
“Then I’ll have a rollaway bed delivered, so I can stay with him.”
“Are you going to be my nurse, Kitten?” Callum asked.
“I want you to have the same level of care you would have in a hospital,” I replied. With a smile, I added, “It’ll be good practice for me.”
“Will you wear one of those sexy nurse’s costumes?”
I rolled my eyes. “Dr. Feany, can you please put him back under for a while to see if he’ll wake up less horny this time?”
Dr. Feany’s lips actually turned into a small smile. “I could arrange for some laughing gas to knock him out from time to time.”
While I laughed, Callum scowled. “I had no idea healing was going to be the 7th ring of hell.”
“Good patients get rewarded, so I hope you’re going to be a good boy.”
Cocking his head at me, Callum asked, “What kind of rewards are we talking about?”
I grinned at him. “The kind I can’t discuss in front of Dr. Feany.”
Biting down on his lip, Callum replied, “Oh Kitten, I plan on being a very, very good boy.”