Chapter Three #2
I rushed to help him but was arrested by the sight of a hand wearing black leather gloves curling around my brother’s shoulder. It squeezed a warning meant for me while Shaun winced and groaned.
Seeing my brother in pain did the trick and brought me to a screeching halt before I could get too close.
Instantly, I recognized the pull demanding my attention, but I couldn’t.
Looking away from my brother for even a second felt a lot like the morning I woke up and found out that my parents had died in a car crash.
Bile rose in my throat from the fear of Shaun disappearing, but I knew I had no choice if I wanted to save him.
And when I met familiar dark eyes, I was shattered with the betrayal of seeing the man I fooled myself into thinking I wanted to marry standing over my brother like an owner would a dog on a leash.
And now that day would never come because Ocean had chosen another path—to stand between my only family and me. Already, I could feel the illusion slipping further away.
Usually, Ocean wore tailored suits.
Tonight, he dressed for war.
And his eyes…
I should be used to them watching me, studying me, slowly breaking me down with the promise of someday.
One day, he’d put down the drink he always nursed for the sake of the ruse.
He’d hold my gaze forever instead of watching me in secret, and then he’d walk down the long length of the bar and take me home with him.
I’m such a fucking idiot.
Shoving my disappointment away, I dismissed Ocean and focused on my brother instead.
“Shaun, what did you do? What’s going on?
” Everything about my brother’s posture was wrong.
His light brown skin was even paler now, and he was hunched over and sweating profusely. Roshaun looked moments from death.
“Coby, I need you to…” He grunted and inhaled deeply, but the simple act cost him dearly. “I need you to listen to me very carefully. It’s important that you don’t…” My worry quadrupled when he seemed to search for the right word and then settled on, “Resist.”
Like a magnet, my gaze flew to Ocean as I did the exact opposite. “What the fuck happened to my brother?” I snapped. Fuck my stupid romantic heart. And fuck Ocean too. For my brother, I’d take on the heir to the mafia. Shaun had given so much for me already.
“His ribs are broken,” Ocean stated bluntly and without feeling.
His ribs are broken, my mind echoed to me. It was the first time he’d ever spoken directly to me, and those were the words fate had chosen.
The dominating force of Ocean’s steady gaze took every ounce of will not to drop my own in submission. “I’m no doctor, but I think he might have punctured a lung, too.” My brother was dying a foot away, and all I could think of was how smooth and cultured Ocean’s voice sounded.
Shaking my head, I lifted my phone, then dialed 911 without replying.
No one stopped me. Ocean even looked…amused.
“Hi, yes,” I greeted when the dispatcher answered.
I kept my gaze on Ocean while he casually slid his hands into his pockets and cocked his head.
“Could you please send an ambulance to The Diamond Lounge? My brother, Roshaun Perry, he…” My gaze flicked toward Ocean, who lifted his brows as he waited for my answer. “He fell and broke his ribs.”
I hung up.
“Good girl.”
“Fuck you,” I snapped, ignoring the way my cheeks warmed at his words. “I don’t know what my brother did to upset you, and I don’t care.” Gathering my courage, I moved toward Shaun. “The ambulance will be here any minute. I suggest you get the fuck on.”
“Our business hasn’t concluded, Coby.”
“Your business with Roshaun is none of my concern. My brother is the only thing I care about, and we’re leaving.”
Without regard for Ocean’s personal space or the serious don’t-fuck-with-me vibes he was giving, I wedged myself between them and crouched to help Shaun.
It wasn’t easy in heels or with my petite stature, so when I rose with my brother under my arm, I stumbled a little trying to support his weight.
Shaun looked moments from passing out, but then he made a sound of protest when we stumbled forward, and I realized too late that it was a warning.
My brother was yanked from my arms and thrown to the ground, leaving him open to vicious kicks while I screamed at them to stop. Arms immediately closed around me the moment I tried to intervene, and I was lifted and pulled away from the violence while I kicked and screamed.
“I see that listening isn’t your strong suit,” Ocean whispered while he carried me away. “My business is with you, mo aingeal1.”
If not for Ocean holding me, I would have collapsed to the ground. “Pleeeease. Let me go,” I sobbed.
“I tried that,” he whispered so fiercely to me that I felt my body relax against my will, “but you kept coming back, Coby. What did you think would happen?”
A chill as I’ve never felt before washed over me, and then I was kicking and clawing again while Ocean simply tightened his hold. I weighed a measly hundred and five pounds, and he easily weighed double that, but still, he let me fight.
If his body was a wall of rock and stone, I was the furious sea crashing against it.
Neither would bend to the other, but at the moment, one clearly had the upper hand.
“Stoop!” I screamed until my throat was ravaged—as if I hadn’t daydreamed about this man holding me just like this since the start. I was short with toned arms and legs and some curves, but I was no match for Ocean’s brute strength, and I wasn’t no damn Karate Kid.
Even if I could disarm him, Ocean seemed crazy as hell. I’d probably have to dodge bullets to get away from him.
If only Hunter was here.
She’d gladly shoot Ocean in the face, fine or not.
“Stop this shit,” Ocean ordered when he realized my corset was slipping down and I was close to flashing my breasts to everyone in the alley.
I didn’t care, I just threw my head back.
Satisfaction and pain rippled through me simultaneously when the back of my skull connected with his nose.
Ocean’s grunt was my cue right before his arms loosened, and I dropped to the ground just barely managing to land on my feet.
I whirled around to face him and saw blood leaking out of his nose.
Good.
I hope it was broken.
Ocean touched his nose and nodded with carefully banked fury when he saw red on his fingertips.
He was still staring at them when his other hand suddenly whipped out, and he grabbed me by my throat.
There was no time to react before he dragged me forward and ignored my cries while he wiped his fingers across my face, marking me with his blood.
“Tugaimid onóir don fhuil2,” he rumbled deeply.
Ocean’s gaze was less patient when he added in English, “Now you are mine.”
The sound of sirens suddenly rent the air.
Ocean calmly set me back on my feet, but I was too shaken to react to the emergency lights I spotted from the street.
Feeling Ocean’s blood drying into my skin, I walked unsteadily back over to my brother and collapsed to my knees once I reached him.
Gravel sliced into my bare skin, but I was numb to it all.
My mind had already accepted that there was no way out of this.
“Shaun…” I touched his shoulder gently, careful not to jostle him. “Roshaun!” I screamed, losing it a little when I tapped his face and he didn’t respond. “Wake up! Please wake up! Shaun!”
I thought about checking his pulse, but I didn’t know how, so I stared at my brother’s chest rising and falling faintly.
Roshaun was alive, but for how much longer?
The back door of the club burst open, and two paramedics hurried through with a gurney. A grateful sob broke free as I leaned over and kissed my brother’s cheek. “You’re going to be okay,” I whispered. “Just hang on for me, please.”
“Mr. Kilpatrick,” the first paramedic greeted. “Did you call for assistance?”
“No,” I corrected on a shaky breath as I rose to my feet. “I did.” Ignoring me, the paramedics continued regarding Ocean as if waiting for permission. “Why are y’all just standing there?” I screamed. “Fucking help him!”
The second paramedic shifted uncomfortably but still made no move to save Roshaun. “Mr. Kilpatrick?”
Mouth agape, I too turned to Ocean.
He was leaning against the Denali now with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as if he had all the time in the world.
“Would you like us to help the gentlemen?”
Ocean shrugged while staring at me. “That depends on the lady.”
“Yes, I want you to help him,” I rushed to answer before those weirdos could ask me. I knew the Fola ruled the city, but corruption this deep left nothing but a crushing hopelessness.
“We’ll get to that. First, we need to talk,” Ocean dictated calmly. The paramedics stayed put while my brother lay dying at my feet. There was a sarcastic tilt to his smile when he said, “I think it’s about time we did that, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I confessed hoarsely. Hard to believe there was a time I wanted nothing more.
Ocean was unmoved, though. He was as rigid as my growing hatred of him. “The sooner you listen, the sooner your brother can receive medical attention.”
Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes as I shook my head.
I couldn’t lose Shaun. I couldn’t.
Other than Hunter, he was all I had. Truthfully, I barely remembered our parents, and that was enough guilt for me. “Ju-just hurry the hell up and tell me what you want,” I snapped once I’d regained some of my calm.
I swear his goons shifted nervously at the tone I directed toward his boss.
Abel, on the other hand, stood patiently at the helm as if confident that Ocean wouldn’t actually hurt me.
I wasn’t so sure about that when Ocean rolled his shoulders as if the physical strain to keep from living up to his reputation had already taken its toll.
“Your brother owes me a debt,” he announced as he slowly closed the distance between us, “and I fully expect to be paid, Coby.”