Chapter 16
GAVAN
I was angry when Vadim was taken away from me. So fucking angry. The kind of rage and hatred that eats its way inside you until it poisons your very soul. An anger to be drowned in chemicals and strangers and violence.
Those were dark days—even darker for anyone who had the misfortune of even looking at me the wrong way.
There was a solid month where I disappeared and almost went feral.
It was my sisters, Lizbet and Mara, who finally found me: half-dead, a near-lethal amount of cocaine up my nose, holed up in the Presidential Suite of The Plaza.
It was them who got me cleaned up and back to society.
And still, as angry as I was back then?
It’s not touching the rage I feel surging through my system like sizzling hot lead as I gaze at the girl sleeping in the hospital bed in front of me.
My hand reaches out, curling around Eilish’s small, still one as my jaw grits so hard it hurts.
I hate that I wasn’t there. I hate that I wasted ten long minutes pacing outside the front of that goddamn bar, dreaming up creative ways to punish her for deciding to thumb her nose at me.
I walked back in expecting to see her flipping me off with another drink in her hand.
Instead, I saw her friends—Calliope Drakos and that other girl, Dahlia, from school.
No Eilish.
I combed through the place. I checked both bathrooms before noticing the back door to the place was ajar. That’s when I found her, bleeding and unconscious on the ground.
My body tenses up so hard I quickly snatch my hand away from hers before I accidentally crush it.
When I find those responsible for doing this to her, they’ll beg for hell. I’ll make a fucking Olympic sport of skinning them fucking alive inch by fucking inch.
I’m going to avenge her , I vow to myself as my eyes trace the softness of her cheek, marred by an ugly bruise.
Behind me, the door to the hospital room bangs open with a crash. When I whirl, I come face to face with a terrified-looking Neve Kildare. She skids to a stop as she realizes it’s me, suddenly very confused, and her expression when she looks at me is dangerous.
“Neve,” I growl quietly, dipping my head.
Her throat bobs heavily, her nostrils flaring before she deftly pushes past me. She takes Eilish’s hand in her own, her shoulders hitching as she brings her sister’s hand to her lips. After taking another shaky breath, she glances back at me.
The room is silent except for the hum of the air conditioning and the steady beeps from Eilish’s heart monitor. Both of us are keenly aware the dark history between our families. Neve’s clearly weighing that dark history against the current need to make sure her sister is okay.
“What happened a few months ago between our families was…regrettable,” I murmur quietly. “And I hope it’s been made clear how much of that was the fault of my former captain, Leo.”
Neve’s lips thin. “We don’t need to talk about that right now.”
She glances back at her sister, sucking in deep breaths and squeezing her hand again. Then she turns back at me with a slightly softer look.
“They told me when I arrived that you’re the one who brought her in.”
I nod.
“ Thank you .”
Before I can respond, the door bangs open again, even louder this time. I’ve just started to turn when what feels like a fucking truck slams into me, driving me right into the wall with a barely-contained roar.
“ You son of a bitch ,” Castle snarls, his face livid with rage.
“Take your fucking hands off—”
He hauls back and punches me in the face.
I grunt from the force of it, black stars dotting my vision as I try to shake off the quite honestly monster of a hit.
Snarling back, I slam into him, catching him in the middle and using his weight against him.
I wince when I take another brutal punch to the ribs.
“CASTLE!”
Neve’s voice booms through the room, stopping both of us cold. She uses the pause to elbow herself between us and shove Castle back against the wall.
“ Enough !” she yells. “He’s the one who brought her in!”
“Yeah?!” Castle hisses at me. “And how is you just happened to be right there like a good fucking Samaritan, you motherfucker?!”
My eyes draw to slits. “Watch what you say next.”
“Oh? What if I mention exploding fucking bars and lighting children on fire?!”
Anger surges inside. Both those events—the Banshee being blown to hell during its soft opening, as well as the son of one of the Kildare vassal families being jumped and lit on fire, which was truly horrific, even to me—were done on the initiative of my former number two, Leo Stavrin.
Events, I should add, I would have happily cut him into small pieces with gardening shears for having brought about, if someone else hadn’t beaten me to it and killed him first.
I can’t blame Castle for the accusation. But it still makes my blood turn to fire and my temper flare. I grit my teeth as I take a step toward him.
“You’re going to have to let that go.”
“I don’t have to do a goddamn thing!”
Neve screams as Castle slips past her and tries to haul him back. But he ignores her and slams into me again. His huge hand goes around my throat.
My knife is up in a flash, pressing to his jugular.
Then I stiffen when I feel his gun barrel pressed to my stomach.
Castle’s teeth flash dangerously. “I should blow you to hell right fucking — ”
“What’s going on?”
We stop the grappling and the fighting in an instant, whirling to see Eilish looking at us with a hollow, confused look on her face. Then her lids slowly close again, her head dropping back to the pillow.
Neve swallows heavily and turns to Castle.
“Please,” she hisses quietly. “Let me handle this, all right? She is okay , Castle. I need you to step outside. Please .”
He turns to glare at me. Then his gaze drops back to Eilish—with a sort of fawning love in it that I’ll admit makes my blood boil—before he nods.
“I’ll be right outside,” he growls, dragging his eyes back to me. “ Right outside.”.
When he’s gone, Neve takes a deep breath as she holds her sister’s hand. Then she turns back to me.
“Okay. What were you doing with my sister?”
I’m honestly not quite sure how to answer that.
It’s not like I thought Eilish would tell anyone about the two of us.
But it’s also quite clear that we’ve moved way past our initial blackmail situation.
We’ve never openly talked about it, but what there is between us right now is there because we both want it, that much is clear.
“Neve?”
Neve whips her gaze back to Eilish at the sound of her soft voice. So do I, just in time to feel my heart lift a little when I see Eilish smile at her sister. Then, slowly, her eyes slip past Neve to me.
Her cheeks turn pink.
Her smile widens.
And fuck me, so does mine.
Eilish blushes as little deeper, still looking at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Gavan brought you in, Eils,” Neve says gently.
“You did?”
I nod.
Neve squeezes her sister’s hand and then turns to me.
“I’m not done asking what you were doing with my sister,” she says quietly. “But thank you for finding her, and for bringing her here.”
I nod again, my jaw clenched.
“Right now, though,” Neve says tightly. “I need you to leave.”
My gaze slips past her, to Eilish.
“ Thank you ,” she mouths silently, smiling at me.