11. Match
11
MATCH
Life is all about the positives, and Lifesaver should be grateful that his childhood best friend is still fucking alive.
But it’s not Peter’s death Lifesaver should be concerned about now.
It’s his own.
I stifle a laugh. Lifesaver and I go back six years, and I’ve never seen him in this state. As the extrovert and compulsive joker of the group, bets have been placed at the clubhouse that we’d never see the day where he looks like he wants the ground to swallow him up. Lifesaver is the kind of guy that embraces the world with confidence, swanning in with no care in the world because, “Life isn’t that serious at the end of the day.”
I now owe Grizzly three hundred bucks.
“Law,” Peter says.
Quite the birth name.
Ironic too, since he’s very much broken the unspoken law that friends have about moms, exes, sisters, and daughters being off-limits in the dating pool.
“I’m so glad you were here.” Peter stares at him. “How is she?”
“Fine,” Lifesaver manages. “Nothing to be concerned about.”
Nothing? To be concerned about?
I side-eye Lifesaver.
He flashes me the deadliest fucking daggers I’ve ever received.
“Gosh.” Peter sniffs a laugh. “In a hospital of all places. I can’t believe this is the first time the two of you are meeting.” He takes a step back. “Al. This is Law, my friend from junior high. You remember? I’ve mentioned him to you a few times.”
Alice’s lips turn a blue color. Her eyes space out, like she’s disappeared from reality momentarily to relive a distant memory that hasn’t quite connected until now. The alarming look in her eyes suggests that she’s only now coming to realize that Law and Lifesaver are the same fucking people.
Credit to the girl—she hides the shock well.
“Hey.” She stages a smile, looking at Lifesaver. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” says Lifesaver.
Likewise.
My second stifled laugh fails and comes out as a sort of snort.
Peter directs his gaze to me. Then to Brander.
I mutter an apology, and Peter’s eyes continue to swap between me and Brandy. I know exactly what he’s thinking. Black leather biker jackets are worn by individuals who either wish they belonged to an MC club, or by those who are already part of such organizations. Peter’s loyalty to Lifesaver is the only reason he didn’t add Venom Vultures to his televised speech.
Peter sets his eyes and stares at us. The upturned lip is evidence enough to suggest his disgust in us. He despises what we do. We do things that are against the law, and Peter, according to Lifey, has always stayed on the right side of it. He went through his entire school life without receiving discipline, so his people-pleasing tendencies make sense—the speech just makes people adore him even more.
But boasting about new campaign ideas is what’s gonna get him killed.
In theory, a whistleblower could expose his friendship connection with Lifesaver and cancel his entire career in a second. Keeping his mouth shut and pushing us under the rug means he’s always walking on thin ice, but he does it out of love for their friendship.
“What are you two doing here, then?” His eyes flicker between us both.
“I called them,” says Lifesaver.
Peter twirls back around. “Why?”
Lifey clears his throat as if to buy himself some more time. “To keep a lookout. See if they could catch the attacker.”
“There’s security.”
“True,” Brander says. “But I also thought I’d come to check out the surveillance cameras. See if there’s anything on there.”
“And is there?”
“I haven’t looked yet.”
Jesus Christ. I’ve never seen terror consume Brander’s face like this before. Yes, Peter is the mayor of Vegas and Alice’s father, but there’s more bone on the guy than muscle. One strike with the hot iron rod would split the man into two.
But I gather it’s more complicated than that. Less about physical advantages, and more about dynamics. Peter is the father of a girl that Brander clearly has feelings for. Fights and hot iron rods are out of the equation. If me and Brander lay as much as one wrong finger on Peter, Alice would cut us off and Lifesaver would be injecting fucking propofol into our veins for fisting his buddy.
Things are too complicated.
And God doesn’t even know what Peter would do if he ever found out that all three of us married his daughter, tattooed our names onto her ass cheek, and slept with her in Lifesaver’s office.
Probably add us into his campaign, if Vlad hasn’t killed him by that point.
Peter’s connection to Alice means that Brander and I also have reason to involve ourselves in the fight against the Bratva now too.
“What about you?” Peter’s disgusted eyes scroll up and down my body. Granted, the tear in my jacket doesn’t look particularly appealing. The gasoline smell infused into my clothes probably doesn’t enter his nose pleasantly like it does mine. “Why are you here?”
“Brander and I came together,” is the best response I’ve got.
Peter nods and returns to his darling daughter, swinging an arm around her shoulders.
Alice, clearly playing into it, rests her head on his shoulder blade. “It’s late, Daddy. You should go home. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
“We’ll need to keep her in overnight to keep an eye on her concussion,” Lifesaver announces.
Subtly, Alice raises a confused eyebrow.
“Concussion?” Peter panics.
“It’s not severe.” Lifesaver wedges a clipboard under his arm. He clicks off the pen he’s been holding for several minutes now and pops it back into a chest pocket. “But it’s precautionary that we keep her in.”
Peter nods in agreement.
“Alice is fine, don’t worry,” Lifesaver assures him. “We’ll take good care of her.”
Peter rises from the bed to slap an arm around his friend. They embrace for a moment, and then he pulls away with a smile. “Thanks so much, man.”
“It’s no problem.”
“No, really,” he says. “I’m glad you’re on shift.” He extends his gaze over to Alice. “Don’t worry, baby. You’re in good hands. The best.”
“Thanks, man.” Lifesaver straightens a crease out of his scrubs and crosses the room to open the door. “Here. I’ll show you out.”
Peter kisses Alice on the temple, squeezes her hand, and then makes his way over. “I love you, sweetheart. Come straight home tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy. I love you too.”
The door closes behind them, and everyone relaxes.
“Fucking hell,” says Brander.
Alice relaxes her shoulders. “I know.”
“That’s your fucking dad ?!” My finger slices through the air as I point to the door. “Fuck me, Alice, a heads-up would’ve been nice.”
“I didn’t know !”
“When did you know?”
“Just now when?—”
The door flies open again, revealing Lifesaver. He slams it behind him. Locks us in.
Alice slowly travels her eyes up to him. How the hell will those two be able to see one another the same again? They flash each other a hesitant glance that lasts no longer than a second. The guilt. The sudden distance between them.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Lifesaver asks.
“I didn’t know!”
“Yeah right.”
“I’m serious! Fucking hell. You think I would’ve let you undress me and—” Alice cuts herself off, and I don’t blame her. “Sex” and “dad’s best friend” are two things that should never be talked about in the same sentence. Not even in the same paragraph.
“Look.” Her chest deflates as she exhales a breath. “I didn’t know until you guys started talking about the fucking Bratva wanting to kill my dad.”
“You referred to him as Peter,” Lifesaver says. “Why?”
“Because…I needed a minute to digest everything.”
“Was that your plan? To let me find out for myself?”
“Guys!” I interject. “Jesus fucking Christ.” It’s like I’m seventeen years old and in the middle of a domestic all over again. “Chill out. Yelling is unconstructive. It’s a shock to everyone, but we need to talk this out and come to some sort of resolution.”
“There is no resolution.” Lifesaver joins Alice on the bed and blows out a breath. “He’s my friend and I slept with his fucking daughter.”
Brander, over in the corner, wears the same anxious expression as Lifesaver. I’m not sure why. Lifesaver, out of all three of us, is in the biggest shit here.
“There’s no getting out of this.” Lifesaver nets his hands and swings them between his legs, thinking. I gather this is what he does most of the time at work when not diagnosing patients—thinking. Most things can be medicated and treated, and operations can be performed to surgically remove things, but this situation has no cure.
His features soften as he goes on thinking. The swinging hands stop, and he resorts to picking at his fingernails, staring intently at them until words finally pop into his head. “I don’t want to get out of this.”
This raises Brander’s head.
Mine too.
“What?” Alice and I end up saying simultaneously.
“There’s no solution, nothing we can do to make it better.” Lifesaver turns to Alice. “And I’d be lying if I said I wish I could reverse the past.”
She furrows her dark brows. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean,” he says, “is that I really like you, and all things considered, if it’s what you want too, I want us to keep seeing each other.” He lifts his head to include Brander and me. “All of us.”
Like he has much choice. Our names stapled to her ass cheek lock us in for life.
I nod.
Brander does the same.
Alice’s eyes flit between all three of us. Sitting on her hands with her body folded up into a ball makes her look even more innocent than before. A girl with a very overprotective father is who we’re dealing with now—not just a beautiful bachelorette abandoned on her special night. This complicates matters. Extremely.
“It’s interlinked, then. Isn’t it?” Alice looks to me for an answer. “It’s no coincidence I was attacked last night. They’re trying to get to my father?”
“We can’t be certain,” I say. “There’s no concrete evidence, but yes, it appears so.”
Alice shuts her eyes and sighs. The heat of everything has blushed her cheeks. Turned her lips red. She rolls her short-sleeve scrub T-shirt up to her shoulders, desperate for more air. The nurse look suits her. The deep blue complements her olive skin tone and blonde hair wonderfully. Static and undone, cascading around her shoulders, it still looks perfect. She tucks strands behind her ear to expose two silver studs that would match the diamond wedding ring on her finger if she was wearing it.
“Did you tell your father about your breakup?”
“Nope,” she says. “With the new campaign and everything, he’s too busy. I will, though.” She winces. “We should probably steer clear about us, though. Daddy will flip.”
“We need to tell him what the Bratva are planning,” I say.
“What? And triple his stress even more?” Lifesaver says. “No. We can sort it out without him knowing.”
“And just how do you plan to ‘sort it out’?” Brander joins the conversation.
“I dunno. Something tells me it’ll involve a hot iron rod and a few borrowed Takeshis.”
I frown. “The Russians outnumber us by hundreds.”
“I know,” Lifesaver says. “But it won’t be our first Bratva…dual.”
“No, but there’s potential for it to be our last,” I say.
“We can’t rush into this. We need an action plan.” Brander crosses his arms.
“Yeah, but you can’t move like slugs either.” Alice nibbles her fingernail, anxious eyes flicking between us all. The fear between her brows suggests she’s betting on us with fucking oxygen to eliminate the Russians before they eliminate her father. “I can’t see him die.” Her jaw begins to wobble, and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. “I can’t lose both my parents.”
Seeing her upset makes my heart clench more than I’d like to admit, to be honest. Her effect on me is strengthening. This is exactly why we shouldn’t have tattooed our names to her ass cheek and slurred our vows in the presence of…someone who I at least think was a vicar.
But forget those vows. I made one to myself shortly after initiation to never put myself out for a girl. To never step foot into danger and risk my life for hers.
And this isn’t even to save Alice.
It’s to get her dumb-ass father out of the gutter he crawled himself into.
It’s not our fault Peter is a people-pleasing addict who can’t help but open his mouth to promise his subjects the entire world and more. He needs to learn how to shut it, for the sake of himself, his daughter, and his fucking three sons-in-law that he doesn’t even know about.
Maybe the Russians don’t even need to get involved. Maybe he’ll fall unconscious and die all by himself if we break this shocking news to him.
But that would upset Alice.
And upsetting Alice feels as immoral as killing an innocent.
“Send us all of your late shifts, Alice. Night shifts included,” Brander says. “One of us will be on guard, and we’ll follow you home in future to make sure you get back safe.”
She nods. “What should I do about my father?”
“Take your own advice,” Lifesaver says. “Do not under any circumstance mention anything about us. It can be our secret.” He eyes all four of us.
Alice grimaces. “What if I’ve already told Tammy and Rachel?”
“Then tell them to keep quiet,” I say. “Because this can’t get out.”
“No.” Lifesaver stuffs his hands in his pockets. Not even a photo could properly capture the look on his face. For the first time ever, the guy doesn’t have smooth sailing.
A pager beeps in his pocket. He pulls it out to examine the small screen, and then says, “I should go. They need me down in acute.”
The room falls silent when he leaves.
I twiddle my fingers to busy them because I can’t stand the silence. What a night. Fucking hell. Lifesaver loves his friend enough to jump headfirst into Bratva webs and save his life, but not enough to stop seeing his beloved daughter.
Betrayal doesn’t get much bigger than this.