Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lance.
It’s been three days since the explosion. My hearing and vision are returning, but there’s a constant ringing in my ears. Between the beeps of the monitors and the hum of the machines in my hospital room, I can’t tell how much of my brain is making up the sounds or filling them in.
The boys came by after school today, loading me up with pictures and get-well cards. Izzy was treated for smoke inhalation but got off pretty much unharmed. Thank God.
I don’t have much memory of what happened after the explosion. I assume Alana carried me out. In the haze and noise, two angels stood beside me and saved my life. But I’m pissed at everyone too. What if Izzy had gotten hurt? What would happen to Drew? Why would Alana put herself in such a dangerous situation? Why did Specs shoot when he did? Why did I run in so unprepared? We have golden horseshoes up our asses.
The only thing I know for sure is Delta used his connections from Mastodon to free Mike from the holding cell. They planned their attacks to divide and conquer, to weaken Mastodon and the Four Families. If it had worked, Majesty would be hitting the streets in a week. But it didn’t. And now two of The Deviant’s agents are dead.
Still, it’s the timing of everything that’s bothering me. Drew’s father stayed away for ten years and suddenly showed up, attacked and stalked her aggressively. Alana was worried she had a mole in Mastodon. Best I can figure, Delta fed Mike Bringsea Izzy’s local address. But how did he find her down south in the first place?
Our insider at the FBI already scrubbed the network, and Izzy’s address wasn’t on file. Using Izzy to get to the Four Families doesn’t make sense. She was never involved. It all feels too…personal.
My nurses flutter in and out, adjusting things, asking me questions. I do the best I can to answer them, but I don’t know if my answers are right. The nurse drops off another set of flowers and gifts.
Besides the broken arm, the burn that will need skin grafting, smoke damage to her lungs, and the concussion, Alana is doing fine. She’s pissed that she needs to take a six-week brain break, where she can’t do any major thinking. Which is a herculean task for her. She gets fifteen minutes a day to use her gray matter, and it will eventually work its way back up to full time. It’s not like she has a whole business and an investigation she needs to run.
Izzy comes in and sits on the side of my bed. She still has a lingering cough from the smoke, but she seems to be uninjured. It’s the greatest gift I could’ve gotten.
She pushes my hair out of my eyes. Some of it was burned off, but it should all grow back. I’m kinda afraid to see the damage. She says it isn’t bad, but I don’t know what her definition of bad is. “How are you feeling today?”
“Pain meds are nice to take the edge off. They’re sending me home tomorrow. I’m not sure why they’re keeping me here tonight.”
“I heard the nurses talking. You’re getting gold star treatment since the owner of the hospital put in a special request.”
Owner of the hospital? Izzy hands me my phone, and after a quick google search, I’m surprised but not shocked at all. It’s a Cerberus Medical Collective hospital. Hadeon owns it. Because of course he does.
“How are you holding up?” I take her hand and press it to my lips. She tastes like hand lotion. Not the best flavor, but it makes her skin soft.
She gives me a little shrug. “So busy I haven’t had time to process all the terrible things. I almost lost my son and you in the span of an hour. It’s a lot.” Her eyes get all glassy as she blinks a few times. “I keep waiting for a moment when everything calms down, and I can breathe…without coughing.”
“I’m so sorry about this.”
She pulls her hand away. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But you’re sad and hurt, and I didn’t protect you from that.”
She shakes her head and rests it on my chest, careful not to tangle in any of the wires. “It’s not your job to protect me anymore. We’re a team now. We protect each other.”
My throat tightens, and my eyes burn, even without the smoke. She saved me. She saved Alana. If Izzy hadn’t come in when she did, Alana and I would be past tense. Alana would never leave me, but she was moving too slow. At some point, she must’ve reached that conclusion. She would’ve died carrying me instead of walking away and saving herself. Then, like an angel, Izzy comes out from the smoke and flames and helps us down.
Not Specs, who has been trained to do this.
Not any of the guys on payroll.
No one with military training.
Izzy ran into a burning building and saved not only me, but my best friend too.
And now she’s here laying on my chest telling me we’re a team, and we protect each other. There’s a feeling that swells inside of me, one I’ve never felt on this scale before. “You were our savior.”
“You and Alana have been protecting Drew and I for months. You’ve been our shield.” She nuzzles deeper into my chest.
My words come out faster than I can close the gate and keep them inside. “I think I’m in love with you.”
“Good. You should be. I’m pretty freaking adorable.”
Someone clears their throat, and our moment is destroyed the second I see who’s standing in the doorway. Phoenix.
“What are you doing here?” we ask each other at the same time.
Phoenix looks better since I saw him last. Less dead, so it’s a pretty low bar. He motions to Izzy. “I heard some staff from Mastodon was here. I thought they were working, I didn’t know you had been admitted.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Is it because of what happened last week?”
“No.” I state the obvious.
There’s instant relief from Phoenix, but it’s like his brain stopped buffering. “I got a message saying Mastodon is paying for my rehab, as long as, quote ‘I don’t do any of that horse therapy shit.’”
I laugh and instantly regret it as my body reels in pain. Alana, no doubt, left that message. And probably already has him admitted to a rehab center.
Phoenix exhales, and I’m kinda jealous he can do it so easily. “I don’t need you guys to pay for that,” he says.
But Izzy steps up. “It’s not negotiable, forty-five days minimum. Is there anything else we can do?”
Phoenix pushes his hair back and glances over his shoulder into the hallway. “Yeah, I feel terrible even saying this, but I think you should consider Delta’s employment with Mastodon. I don’t think he has what it takes to be a personal protection agent.”
Izzy looks at me with a glint in her eye. “Oh we agree. Delta has been terminated.”
“Yeah, he was fired.” I pinch my lips to stifle the laughter.
Izzy adds, “But he feels bad about what he did. I’d go so far as to say, he’s in pieces over it.”
I snicker into her shoulder.
Phoenix tilts his head to the side, like a confused dog. “Why are you saying it like that?”
Izzy pauses and starts to talk to him like he’s a five-year-old. “The Mastodon building exploded.”
“Oh my god. Is everyone okay?” Phoenix gasps.
Seriously?
Izzy slaps her hand to her forehead. “No.”
The gears start working. “That’s why you’re here? You were in a fire? Shit, you’re having a rough couple of days,” Phoenix says and takes a few steps closer to me. He reaches into his jacket inside pocket and pulls out an envelope. “Um, I know you don’t like me, but I wanted to say thank you for saving my life.” He turns the envelope in his hands. “But now, I don’t think it’s enough.” He shakes his head. “I’ll extend it to two years.”
“I don’t want anything from you.” There’s literally nothing he can give me that will restore my trust in him.
He swallows and nods. “Well, maybe your girlfriend might want it. She probably had a rough few weeks too.” He hands the envelope over to Izzy.
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you,” Phoenix says. He opens his mouth to say more, but stops and turns away.
Once he’s gone I mutter, “Asshole” under my breath.
She peeks inside and whistles. “He bought you box seats for a year. Sounds like a real fucking asshole.”
I grumble, “Don’t let the expensive gifts trick you. He’s the Devil.”
She leans over and kisses me, and her hair tickles my face. “I vote for the guy who blew you up as the Devil.” She taps me on the head with the envelope. “This guy is thirsty for attention.” She turns the envelope in her hands before returning it to the table. “What did he do? Sleep with your mom?”
“It’s not my story to tell.” But I don’t like keeping lies from Izzy either. “He left.” She watches me for a few seconds, waiting for me to expand on that. I don’t.
“That’s your trigger, isn’t it? Men who walk away?”
Mother fucker, are you kidding me? Not only do I hate the guy, but it’s all because of my fucking daddy issues? “When shit gets tough, real men don’t run.”
She drops the envelope on my stomach and grabs my hand, careful with the cord. “Do you still want the tickets?”
Maybe Drew and Ian would like to see a game or two. Dimitri has been watching both boys for the last few days. Drew was a wreck when he found out what happened, but at least he’s had Ian to help him. I think it’s even helped Ian, too, to not feel like the victim for once. “Yes. But you can let the Four Families use it too.”
“And that’s how you win boyfriend of the year.”
Between the beeps of the machines, the fuzzy edges of my vision, and the pounding of my heart, I know this is my future. I want her and only her, for as long as she’ll have me.
But where does that leave me?
My mind is swirling with questions, and none of them have logical answers. Thumbing through my phone, I pull up a picture of Delta and Sage, the former owner of Mastodon, trying to figure out the connections.
Izzy lifts her head up from my chest, and her eyes narrow. “Um, why do you have a picture of my cousin on your phone?”
My heart stops.
“What?”
She points to Delta. “He’s one of Rita’s sons.” She squints her eyes. “Actually I think they both are. Different dads, but they’re both Rita’s. You can tell because they have the same nose and their earlobes are unattached.”
Holy shit. A new level of panic hits me, and my heart monitor sounds like the beat dropped at a club. “Who’s Rita? Is she part of the Four Families?” Why don’t I know this name?
Izzy furrows her brows, concern and confusion on her face. “Hold on, Joey knows the whole story. I was out of the loop for a while.”
She FaceTimes Joey, who’s all smiles. “Lance, nice to see you alive.”
Pleasantries go out the window. “Tell me about Rita and her sons.”
The smile vanishes to his more natural facial expression. “What’s to tell? She spawns shitty humans. They open shady businesses. One of her kids went on the run with his family after he was busted scamming widows out of their husbands’ pensions. A tip to the FBI got him thrown in prison for a few years. Came to us for a job when he got out, and all four families sent him away.”
My mind spirals. “Why didn’t you hire him?”
“Rita’s kids are always trying to manipulate for more power. I think she’s pissed she was never brought into the fold.”
My head throbs, and the beeping from the monitor isn’t helping. I turn my attention to Izzy. “Did she ever contact you?”
The color drains from her face. “She sent Drew cash for Christmas.” She covers her mouth. “Oh no.”
I lift up my phone and show the screen to Joey. “Do you know either of these guys?”
He nods slowly. “The one on the right is Cunningham, the one who asked for the job.”
“We called him Delta.” I talk out my thought process. “So Rita’s angry her kids were never brought into the family business, gives her motive to work with The Deviant. Sage opens up a security company and hires his half-brother, an estranged member of the Four Families. Sage uses his connections to help The Deviant push Majesty when the Four Families reject the offer. The Deviant reaches out to Rita who gives Mike Bringsea Izzy’s address to fully punish and destroy the Four Families.”
Fuck.
“We saw Rita’s ex-husband at the wedding. Mike attacked the apartment the next day.” Izzy rubs her temple. “Adding more insult to injury, I was doing a job for my dad at that wedding. A job Rita’s own kid couldn’t get.”
Delta had access to Izzy’s files.
There’s a long silence before Joey speaks. “So you killed Delta Cunningham, which is going to give Rita even more of a reason to hate us.”
“Well I didn’t kill him, he blew himself up,” I grumble, but details like that won’t matter.“Hmmm, kinda feel bad about making fun of your cousin a few minutes ago.”
Izzy sighs, “Normally my Catholic guilt would crush me, but fuck that guy.”
Joey exhales and rubs his face. His shoulders slouch with the weight of an empire. “Shit…it’s a good thing we like you, otherwise this would suck.”