Chapter Thirty-Four
Cian
I heard the door open and close. My headache hadn’t faded, and I just wanted to be left to die in peace. Fuck, I didn’t even remember having anything to drink. I tried to lift my arm, but the weight felt wrong.
I opened one eye—the other seemed to be stuck—and found Caity glaring at me.
“I am so fuckin’ pissed at you, Cian McCarthy!” she snapped.
My open eye widened, but pain shot through my head when the other eye wouldn’t follow.
“What the fuck did I do?”
All at once everything came flooding back like a bad 70’s movie on fast forward. The pain in my skull, waking up tied to a chair with Ty standing over me. Sylvia St. James walking down the steps into the room and demanding my daughter.
“Where’s Maddie?” I croaked, trying to sit up.
Caity rushed forward and pushed my shoulders back. “Stay still, asshole.” I looked into her eyes, and that was when I saw it. She was scared, not angry. Tears welled in her eyes. Tears I knew she’d never shed in front of me.
She was so fucking strong, and I hated it.
“Maddie is safe,” she told me, then quickly turned away, grabbing a tissue and blowing her nose. God, I fucking missed this woman. I hated that she felt like she couldn’t feel in front of me.
“She can’t come to the hospital.”
“I know. Dread told us what you said. She’s safe, I promise. She doesn’t even know you’re here yet.”
“I WANT A DRINK OF WATER!”
My body jolted at the yell. “Who the fuck is that?” I asked, looking around the room.
“Your roommate,” Caity said, swishing the curtain aside. “Sir, use your call button and the nurse will come in.” She came back to my side of the room shaking her head.
“Why am I in a shared room?”
“Because there is a shortage at the moment.”
“Find someone to get me a fuckin’ room,” I demanded. “And what the fuck does Dread know about Maddie?”
“Dread was the one who saved your sorry ass. He saw Sylvia leaving the building and planned to follow her when he heard you scream. He found Ty about to clock you with a wooden table leg.”
“Where is Ty?” I growled.
Caity lowered her voice and said, “Dead.”
“What? Why? He had information we need.” I winced in pain, once again trying to sit up.
“Because when Dread found you, he was about to hit you over the head with a wooden table leg, so Dread shot him. You’re welcome!”
“Who’s with Maddie?” I asked, ignoring the part where the asshole who had lunch with my woman saved my fucking life. “They need to know Maxim is having her followed. Sylvia said she couldn’t get to Maddie because of the Russian bastard following her.”
Caity rolled her lips between her teeth and looked away.
“What?”
She sat on the edge of the bed and laid a hand on my stomach. I covered her hand with mine and rubbed the back of it with my thumb. I’d needed to touch her so fucking much.
Caity stared at our hands and sniffled.
“Caity, who’s with Maddie?”
She blew out a breath and bit her lip. A sure sign I wouldn’t like what she was about to say. She opened her mouth to speak when the guy on the other side of the curtain said, “Someone come spit in my mouth. I’m thirsty.”
Her eyes widened, and I shook my head. I’d have Sal talk to the hospital about getting me a private room.
“Our daughter—Caity?”
“I need you to try stay calm, okay? Don’t freak out.”
“What?” I ground out.
“Lucille talked to Freyja.”
“Jesus Christ,” I groaned. “What did the fuckin’ woman say now?”
“You know I love you, right?” Caity said, startling me with her confession.
Before I could say it back, because I did fucking love her more than anything in this world, she continued, “But I’m so angry with you.
You should have told us about Sylvia. You don’t get to fuckin’ kick me out of your life on some misguided notion of keeping me safe.
I am a grown-ass woman capable of making my own choices.
I have survived more than you even know, and your birth mother doesn’t scare me.
I lived with Eamon O’Malley for crying out loud. ”
“First, I love you too. I always have and I always will. I’m sorry for not talking to you. It was never going to be permanent; I just needed to confirm she was dead. Only, now I know why I couldn’t. Second, what does that all have to do with Maddie?”
I was almost afraid to ask, knowing that Lucille was a fucking psychopath who only wanted Freyja to have bits and pieces of whatever was happening. It was as if the woman thrived on drama. Lucille, not Freyja.
Honestly, if the woman wasn’t already dead, I might consider killing her myself. We’d be better off not knowing anything than the information Lucille gave us.
I reached up and rubbed the back of my head. I must have been hurt worse than I thought if I considered Lucille a valid source of any information, as scarce as it might be.
“Lucille told Freyja that Maddie would find love again. That the man had already chosen her, and he would protect her.”
I stared at Caity, not knowing how to respond, or even react. I wanted Maddie to be happy. I wanted her to have her son back, and I wanted her to find love and have more babies. I wanted more for her than what her mother and I had endured.
But at the same time, Lucille’s words sounded ominous. Caity’s delivery wasn’t any better. I was protective of Maddie; I always had been, even before I knew she was mine. Though, looking back, deep down I’d always known despite Caity’s denial.
“Who?” I asked, closing my eyes against the thoughts going through my head. Because with those few words, everything I’d feared when Sylvia told me that Russian bastard was in the way suddenly fell apart.
Maxim wasn’t having my daughter followed; in fact, I now believed Maxim had no idea she was being followed.
“Does Maxim know?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“How did you find out? And what’s the fucker’s name?”
Caity looked down at our hands again, then she picked mine up and held it between hers. “I called Sinclair while you were in surgery.”
“Why the fuck did you call Sinclair?”
“Because he loves Maddie. He told me who it was, and if it helps, I don’t think Maddie knows she’s being followed. But Sinclair promised to call him and tell him about Sylvia and make sure he’s with Maddie every minute.”
“What’s his name, Caity?”
“He’ll protect her, Ci. Remember that.” Her pleading eyes met mine and I groaned. I knew I wouldn’t like the answer to my question.
“Who. Is. It?”
“Rurik.”
“I hope I have a heart attack!” the man on the other side of the room yelled.
Me too, buddy, me fuckin’ too!
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then I took another.
I kept my eyes closed trying to control my temper.
It wasn’t working. I glared at the woman I loved.
The mother of my child. Her calmness unnerved me.
I knew she knew who Rurik fucking Ryabkin was.
Yet she sat on the bed, holding my hand as if she didn’t just tell me my daughter was essentially being stalked by a motherfucking Russian bastard.
“You do understand he’s our fuckin’ age?” I asked, my teeth clenching so tightly it caused my jaw to ache.
“What I understand is our daughter has a man who’s in love with her, a man who will protect her.
There is a reason Sylvia went after you.
She knew she wasn’t powerful enough to go up against the Bratva.
Let’s be thankful for that right now. Once Sylvia has been dealt with, we can deal with Maddie and Rurik. ”
“Caity—” I began but was cut off by a sudden yell.
“MY EYES!”
A nurse came rushing in and immediately went to the other side of the curtain. “John, what’s going on?”
“Could I get a drink of water?” he asked, his voice syrupy sweet.
Caity and I looked at each, and I mouthed, What the fuck? She shrugged, confused as I was.
“Yes, John, but you can’t yell. You have a roommate who needs it quiet so he can rest and heal. Use your call button.” the nurse told him. When she walked by us, she mouthed, I’m so sorry.
As soon as she left the room, he began mumbling, “Fucking bitch wouldn’t give me any water. I’m gonna burn this hospital down.”
A knock on the door pulled our attention from the man behind the curtain. Sal, Duncan, and Mac walked in.
“Where’s Freyja?” Caity asked.
“I had Aidan take her home,” Duncan answered. “She said she’ll come see you tomorrow and bring her cards.” The fucker grinned at me because we both knew Freyja wasn’t talking about playing cards. She didn’t want to keep me company playing poker or gin rummy.
No, she was bringing her fucking tarot cards.
She’d been pestering all of us to let her do a reading. And now she had a victim who couldn’t get up and walk away from her.
“Don’t piss of the witch; she’ll put a curse on you,” Mac stage-whispered on the side of his hand. Duncan punched him in the shoulder, and he took two steps sideways to prevent his fall.
“What the fuck happened, Ci?” Sal asked, sobering us all.
“Ty got the jump on me. I was distracted and not paying attention to my surroundings.”
“Distracted by what?” Duncan asked.
“He was chasing after Caity and Dread,” Sal deadpanned as he glared at me.
“Caity and Dread?”
Caity quickly explained about their lunch. Mac grinned, and Duncan had the decency to at least try to hide his smirk behind his hand.
“He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the alley. He hit me over the head with something, and I woke up tied to a chair in the basement. I didn’t even know it was Ty until then.”
“I wonder how long he’s been working with Sylvia,” Caity mused absently.
“I would guess a long fuckin’ time.”
“Why?” Sal asked.
“She’s been watching me. She told me everything.”
I explained to everyone what Sylvia told me about why she gave me up and why she’d been watching me. I told them about Eamon not having as much information as he thought he did, and Tyran working with her since Eamon’s death.
“So she’s been biding her time waiting for you to have kids in hopes you would have a girl?” Mac asked.
I nodded. “Which means the word is out there about Maddie being my daughter.”
“Is there any chance we can contain the fact that she’s Sylvia’s granddaughter?” Duncan asked, and Sal looked at me.
“I’m not sure how long. She doesn’t have me to use as leverage, and she doesn’t have Ty anymore for muscle. She’ll scramble for a bit until she can make another plan. Meanwhile, Maddie is in danger.”
The men looked between themselves and I rolled my eyes, pain shooting through my skull. “Caity already told me about the fuckin’ Russian.” I glared at Duncan. “Your woman needs to be more forthcoming when she talks to Lucille.”
Duncan pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. He didn’t want to believe in Lucille; hell, none of us did. But we couldn’t deny that Freyja had, on a number of occasions, given us information she shouldn’t have known.
“Liam will stand guard outside your door tonight. He’ll switch with someone else in the morning,” Sal explained.
“Can’t you get me a private room?”
“The hospital’s full. If it weren’t for your surgery, you wouldn’t have this one; you’d still be in the fuckin’ ER, probably in the hallway.”
“You’ll survive,” Mac laughed. Amazingly enough, John had been quiet since the guys walked in.
“We’ll see you in the morning.”
The guys left, but Caity stayed. Sal left Flynn Sullivan, Aidan’s brother, to make sure she made it back to Sal’s place. I tried to talk her into going back to my apartment, but she said no. When I tried to talk about it, she shut me down.
It seemed I had a lot of work ahead of me if I wanted Caity to forgive me.