Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Cian
He was a fucking idiot, and I was going to kill him. Just as soon as I got stitches in my side and I could feel the left side of my face.
We ditched the van near our hotel and picked up our SUV from the hotel parking lot. Our time at the beach seemed a million years ago, when it had only been yesterday that I’d eaten greasy pizza while warning Dev about the dangers of feeding seagulls.
We stopped at a drug store, and I waited in the car while Devlin bought the entire first aid section.
While I disinfected and bandaged my wounds, Devlin ordered what seemed like the whole menu in a fast-food drive through.
I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until I smelled the flame-broiled burger.
I ate two before hand-feeding Devlin fries and chicken nuggets as he drove.
Neither of us had a phone. Mick had probably tossed mine after drugging me, and Devlin had never had one.
I couldn’t call Rhys to let him know I was alive, and he was likely out of his mind.
He’d been expecting us yesterday morning.
I didn’t even want to think about how Jace had been the last twenty-four hours.
The only thing to do now was get home as soon as possible.
With my belly full and over-the-counter pain meds working their way through my system, I leaned my temple against the window.
“Did you doubt me?” Devlin asked over the roar of the engine as he sped close to ninety miles per hour down the highway. “Be honest.”
I rolled my head to face him. “I’m always honest with you.”
“So?”
“I didn’t doubt you, but when the drug was still working its way through my system, I doubted my own judgement. Could I have been wrong about everything? But then I decided that if this had all been an act on your part, and I’d fallen for it, then I deserved whatever happened to me.”
He frowned. “So you thought I was going to betray you?”
“In the basement, when you wouldn’t look at me, I had doubts. And then… I decided to trust you. That’s why I didn’t cause problems and try to fight that big fucker. If you had a plan, I was going with it.”
“I did have a plan.”
“A stupid fucking plan,” I scowled. “What were you thinking going into Bianchi’s territory? Anything and everything could have gone wrong.”
“I was thinking,” he said through gritted teeth as he passed a slow driver on the right with a jerk of the wheel, “that this was my chance to get in front of Bianchi and make him pay for ordering the hit on you. I wasn’t about to run home knowing he was still out there.
” He glanced at me, eyes bright. “No one tries to kill my man and live.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Dev.”
“We’re a team.” He slammed the heel of his palm on the steering wheel. “We protect each other.”
I reached for his hand and linked our fingers together. I didn’t want to feel this moved by his declaration, but fuck, I loved this man. “You’re right. A team.”
He squeezed my fingers. “And it all worked out anyway. Because I’m good at being evil.”
“I saw you put that knife in your sneaker, and I still didn’t see that coming.”
“Like I was going to kneel for that bozo.”
“Bozo,” I repeated with a laugh. “I don’t know the last time I heard that word.”
He grinned. “It’s a good one, right?”
“Cretin.”
“Twerp.”
“Nincompoop.”
I laughed harder, and pain shot through my side, so I choked off a gasp. “Shit, stop. Don’t make me laugh.”
He made a zipping motion across his lips, and I had to look away so I didn’t laugh again.
I dozed off at some point and woke to a hand squeezing my thigh.
“We’re close,” Devlin said.
As we drove down our road, I pulled down the sun visor to get a look at myself in the mirror.
I needed to know what kind of reaction we’d get.
I immediately grimaced as I got a look at myself.
Fuck, I looked terrible. Sallow skin, split lip, bruising all over the left side of my face, and dark circles below my eyes. This was going to be hell.
I rubbed my eyes and saw the blurry form of our front gates. I mumbled the code to Devlin, who typed it in. As soon as the gate began to slide open, the front door of Frank burst open and a figure sprinted toward our car.
It felt like years ago that I’d had a similar view, when Jace had burst out of the doors armed with a knife, ready to kill Devlin.
Now he hauled ass, sans knife, but with the same angry determination.
Rhys followed at a much slower pace, and behind him more of the crew spilled out of the house to greet us.
Jace reached our car in record time, because he was a fast little shit, and Devlin had to slam on the brakes just as Jace smacked his palms on the hood of the car.
“Where have you been?” he roared. But when he caught sight of me through the windshield, his anger morphed into horror. “What the fuck happened to you?” He straightened and looked at Devlin. “You too! What the hell?”
Devlin looked better than me, but still not great. He was pale, and his neck was bruised from that fucker nearly choking him to death.
I heaved a sigh and reached for the door. “Let’s deal with this. Then I want food, sleep, and a fuck. In that order.”
As I stepped out of the car, Jace was on me immediately. I stumbled, remembering too late that my one leg didn’t want to cooperate. He gasped and slipped his shoulder under my arm to keep me upright.
Rhys’s jaw worked as he stopped in front of me. “You could have called.”
“My phone is probably in a ditch somewhere,” I grunted as I tried to take a step using Jace as a crutch. “Trust me, I would have loved to tell you all about how I was bound in a basement about to be handed over to Paolo Bianchi like a piece of meat.”
Devlin came around the hood of the car to prop me up on the other side. “We need Dr. Bev.”
“Already texted her as soon as I got a look at Cian,” Rhys said.
“It’s all superficial,” I muttered.
“Superficial, my ass.”
“You have blood all over your shirt.” Jace lifted up the edge and gasped when he saw my wound. “Were you stabbed?”
“A shallow prick, really.”
“Shut up, Cian,” Devlin growled.
My men surrounded us to pat me on the back and wish me well. A lot of them still gave Devlin a wide berth, which I understood. That would change, though.
We somehow made it up the stairs, which proved to be more painful than I’d anticipated, and I breathed a sigh of relief as we entered my apartment.
“Need a shower,” I said. “I’m not getting in bed until I wash the past twelve hours off me.
I can still smell Paolo’s cigar smoke, and it makes me want to hurl. ”
Jace and Rhys stayed in the apartment while Devlin helped me with a quick rinse that was nothing but business. I could barely put weight on my left leg, and Devlin looked like he was two seconds away from passing out.
We emerged from the bathroom a bruised pair, and I was about done with this getting-beaten-up shit.
I collapsed into bed with a groan just as Dr. Bev arrived, looking incredibly peeved.
She stitched my side and confirmed the rest of my injuries were bruises that would heal with time.
Devlin had a mild concussion. We were both dehydrated.
While we drank water and ate some of the food Jace brought us, I gave Rhys a brief recap of the shit show that was the last twenty-four hours.
Devlin picked through a plate of Randy’s freshly baked cookies, claiming he was in search of the “chewiest one,” while I detailed how he’d saved our lives in the riskiest way possible.
Rhys stared at him with a tense jaw, while Jace batted his eyelashes at Devlin in what I could only describe as hero worship.
“So we won’t get any blowback from this?” Rhys asked, refusing to verbally give Devlin any credit. “Who’s this Nik guy?”
“He’s not a liar,” Devlin said. “If he says he’ll take care of it, then he will.” He and Jace sampled the cookies while discussing their rating based on chocolate chip-to-dough ratio.
Rhys sighed and rubbed his forehead, fatigue and strain weighing on his shoulders in a way I hadn’t ever seen. “I’m tired of this shit, Cian. I’m just…” He glanced at Jace, who sat cross-legged in front of Devlin. Both of them had chocolate on their faces. “I’m tired.”
“I know,” I said as I settled back on the pillows. The stitches on my side pulled, and I winced. “Me too.”
A look passed between us, a promise to revisit this topic later. I had already made up my mind to mitigate the risk to the men I cared about. Or get rid of it altogether.
“Let’s go,” Rhys said to Jace. “They need to rest.”
“They always need to rest,” Jace grumbled as he walked toward the door. “How about everyone stops getting stabbed and shot? Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Rhys gave me another look. I nodded. When the door shut behind the pair, I settled my head on my pillow and pulled the sheet up to my chest. “I feel like I could sleep for a million years.”
Devlin lay down beside me. His fingers ghosted over the top of my head. “Well, maybe not a million, but sleep as long as you want. I’ll be here when you wake.”
“You sleep too.” My eyes were already closed.
“I will.”
I woke up with a hard dick and my arms empty.
I was immediately pissed at Devlin for not being where he belonged until I opened my eyes to find him awake and reclined next to me on the bed.
Sometime while I was asleep, he’d dragged the TV stand to the end of the bed.
The screen flickered with some documentary, the volume on mute.
He wore a pair of tight boxer briefs and nothing else, with his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle over top of the sheets.
His hair stuck up in all directions, and his face was puffy from sleep.
He drank from a glass of water and crunched an ice cube between his molars before he realized I was awake.
He glanced down and smiled. “You feel better? You slept like ten hours.”