29. Chapter 29
Grace
“Take the cloth out.” Mickey’s voice cut through the hungover haze that weighed my head down. I lifted my head, opening my eyes slowly, even in the dim lighting. I’m not in a hospital. My hands shifted behind me but didn’t get far before the rope that bound them tightened.
Fuck me.
“No way! What if she bites me again?” The bartender looked at me like he had grown fed up with me hours ago. My jaw did kind of hurt. I bit back a smirk, trying to figure out if I had left bite marks. I didn’t see any.
“Then you punch her in the fucking face.” Mickey stepped toward me, and I glared at him. When the man pulled what looked like a dirty bar rag from my mouth, I moved my jaw side to side.
“You’re going to regret this,” I said, spitting at the cement floor. The bitter taste from the rag clung to my tongue anyway.
Mickey cocked his head to the side while Luca laughed from the shadows behind him. He stepped forward. “You’re the one who came in here,” Luca said, joining his brother. I tugged again at the ropes around my wrists.
“Oh, and I’m sure I tied myself up too.” I yanked again, kicking my legs like it made me stronger. Nothing made the ropes loosen. I scoffed.
“You came in here drunk and dancing on my counter. You’re tied up because you were causing issues.” Mickey leaned down, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him. “You’re lucky the only thing you are is tied up.”
I spit again, amused when the bitter wad hit his cheek. Mickey reared back. “I’m about to cause bigger issues.” I smirked when he glared at me.
“Are you?” he asked, grabbing hold of my hair and forcing my head back.
I sucked in a sharp breath when he pulled harder and it stung at the roots.
“It seems to me we have the upper hand.” I wasn’t surprised when Mickey pulled his gun from his waistband.
The thing was like an extension of his arm.
He held it in front of my face, like the sight of the barrel should scare me more than it did—or, at least more than I let on.
“Do you think I’m scared of you? I’ve looked death in the face my entire life.
I’m a fucking Moretti. I’ve lost more uncles and cousins than I can count.
I’ve been to so many funerals, I could plan yours after I’m gone.
So you’re going to kill me?” I leaned forward as far as my restraints would let me.
“Kill me. Shoot a woman in the face right now, you coward. See how that works out for you.”
The gun clicked quickly enough for me to second guess my words, but before he put his finger on the trigger, the door burst open, crashing into the wall behind it.
We all looked in the direction of the interruption, and when my eyes met his, I was flooded with a rush of mixed relief and frustration.
“If you shoot her, not a single one of you will leave here alive,” Connor said, stepping into the room with a small team of officers behind him.
“I wondered when you were going to show up here.” Mickey turned like he forgot about his plans to repaint his basement walls with my brain matter.
Connor stepped forward, keeping his gun drawn.
“I guess I’m sorry it took me so long.” He walked toward me, squatting behind me.
Luca and the bartender held their guns in a mirrored match with the other officers while Connor started to untie the ropes.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, and the gentleness of his voice stung. I cringed.
“Oh, would you look at that. By the looks of it, not even your little girlfriend trusts you anymore.” Mickey stepped forward, tucking his gun away.
“Is there anything in your life you haven’t ruined?
” His words made my stomach sink at the same rate that Connor’s face fell.
I tried to forget the empathy I felt for him. I missed him too.
“I’m going to get you out of here.” Connor ignored them. He acted like my body didn’t tighten when he pulled me against him.
I shook my head as he helped me to my feet, holding me until he was sure I was steady. “I can get myself home.”
Mickey and Luca shared a laugh while Connor narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going home. You’re going straight to a hospital.”
“Where I go is none of your business! You have no right to say what I do anymore. I’m fine.” I stepped around him, glaring at the Cassidys as I walked toward the exit. “Since he’s the one you want, I assume I’m fine to go.” They didn’t move to stop me when I got closer to the door.
“God damn it, Grace.” Connor grunted, and his heavy footsteps made my heartbeat race faster. “You guys deal with them. I’ve got to go.”
There was a small shuffle behind me as one of the officers started reading their rights to the more-frustrated-than-before Cassidy brothers. I didn’t have to turn around to feel Connor come up behind me. When he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, I slammed my fist against his back.
“Put me down,” I demanded. I kicked, sending my foot into the front of his thigh. He grunted but didn’t loosen his grip on me. “Damn it, Connor. Put. Me. Down.”
He shook his head, pushing through the door. “No. I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“Hey! I thought you were off today,” Mariah said when I walked into the emergency room. “Again? What is he doing here?”
I cocked my head to the side and rolled my eyes. “I’m fine.” Mariah squinted at me, even more confused about why I was there at all if that were the case.
“I just want her to get checked out.” Connor’s presence wrapped around me and wrung all the patience from my body.
At this point, I just wanted to go home.
I wasn’t even sure what time it was, but I could smell the bad, likely undercooked bacon in the cafeteria that told me it was still before nine.
“Checked out? Why? What happened this time?” Mariah was dry and didn’t look away from me. “Spill.”
I sighed. “It’s a long story. Can we just…” I pointed to the small room behind her with the lights off. No patient.
Mariah hummed like she had to think about whether she was going to require the details before she checked my pulse. Then, she glared at Connor long enough that my throat started to feel tight from the tension in the air. “Fine. Do you want me to go grab someone?”
I shook my head. “Can you just do it so he’ll let me go home?”
“Okay.” She dragged out the word and followed me into the room, sliding the door closed behind us and turning around. “Now, somebody better start talking.” She braced herself like she was prepared to attack Connor at the first sign of him making the wrong move.
“I got a little too drunk last night.” Both Mariah and Connor looked at me like they expected me to say more, and I groaned. "Okay, I got a lot too drunk, and I guess Mickey didn’t like it when I got up on the bar, and the next thing I knew, I woke up tied to a pillar in the basement.”
Connor scoffed angrily and rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t have been there at all,” he said, adjusting his weight from one foot to the other. I sucked in a deep breath while Mariah took my blood pressure, noting it was higher than usual.
“You don’t get to say who should and shouldn’t be somewhere.” I leaned away from him when he stood closer to me.
“Why were you there?” Mariah pushed me. She swallowed back her own frustration that I hadn’t called her—either to go out or to save me when things went awry. She glanced over my shoulder at Connor, as if she was trying to put the pieces together.
“When it became pretty obvious that my cab driver was a skeezball and that I didn’t want to end up on the morning news, I jumped out of the car.
The bar was the first place I recognized.
” Mariah nodded and half-shrugged when she accepted my explanation, knowing she had probably planned her own escape route from a could-probably-be-dangerous man herself. What woman hadn’t?
Behind me, Connor strained his words with his held breath. “You’re lucky they didn’t kill you.”
“You’re lucky none of them did the same to you. If either of us was going to be their target..." I didn’t have to tell him I knew of the severity if the Cassidy family found out who he really was. I grew up in this life. And he knew that better than anyone, apparently.
“As long as they left you alone, I would’ve let them.” He stepped closer to me, his face twisting into a half-frown.
“If I’d known that was an option—” I looked away from him, yelping when Mariah stuck me with a needle.
I glared at her. She was known for getting the vein on the first try, every time.
Mariah was the gentle hand in the department.
That meant she also knew how to make it hurt intentionally; if a patient was a really big asshole to her, she would make the discomfort match their attitude.
Connor moved to stand next to Mariah, making it harder for me to ignore the remorse carved into his face. “Grace, I’m sorry. I never meant to—”
“To lie to me? To hide who you were? To arrest my brothers?”
“To hurt you,” he said, shaking his head.
“Well, you did.” I looked away from him.
If I stared into his golden eyes for one more minute, I was going to remember the way my heart betrayed me the first time he had me alone.
I didn’t need more of a reminder than seeing him as it was.
“Do you know what it’s like to fall in love with someone and then find out they were never who they said they were? ”
“I never lied to you about who I am.” How could he say that?
I glared at him, looking at Mariah to make sure she was done before I stood off the bed. “How can you say that? I don’t know how to believe you anymore.” I shook my head. “Am I good to go?”
Mariah nodded, looking more concerned about me leaving than she was about my elevated heartrate or my story from the night before. “I’ll take you home,” she said when the anxiety won. “I’ll get Bonnie to take over.”
“I can take her,” Connor said, clinging to the hope for forgiveness.
“No,” I said. “You should go.”
He sighed, running his hands through his hair and tugging at the roots. “Just give me a chance to explain. Just a few minutes.”
“You can’t. Not anymore.” I hooked my arm through Mariah’s. “Go home.”
When I started to walk away, I felt the tug pulling me back to him. I resisted it, sure if I turned around, I’d see his heart breaking as easily as mine. “I’ll show you that you mean everything to me. I’ll make it up to you.”
My shoulders sank. I had to get out of this room. I opened the door, taking the first step. “I highly doubt that.” Mariah put her arm around me to pull me closer—call it best friend’s intuition. “Goodbye, Connor.”