5. Chapter 4 Soren
Ichase after the sound of Ginevra. Her little fucking squeals are those of a woman who wants to be hunted.
“I suggest seeing a doctor.” The front door slams, vibrating through their wood porch as I step onto the first stair.
I barrel forward and press my hands into my eyes as hard as possible, but it provides no relief from the burning. I stomp my foot on the ground, and tear one hand from my eyelid to bang on the door.
“Fuck!” I yell, the agony intolerable. I think I broke my hand on the concrete. The pressure of it zaps another painful throb into my wrist. I lift my left hand, pounding as hard as I can.
“I can’t drive like this Gin.”
“Not my problem!” she hollers, and the door slams again. Her voice has calmed down, sounding more honey like.
“Can you…” I grit my teeth, attempting to sound civil. “Please, take me home.”
“You get more with sugar than salt.” Her voice sounds from behind the door.
I suck in air, holding it in my lungs, waiting to respond.
“I am asking you very nicely.” My jaw aches with my attempt to sound friendly.
“Apologize,” she demands.
“Why would I do that?” I squeeze my eyes tighter, but it does nothing. Fucking hell!
“Walk home, Soren.”
My right hand lands on the door and I wince. “I can’t fucking see. I’ll get hit by a car.”
“I don’t see the issue.”
“Ginevra. Please. Help. Me.” The words are strained and I blow out another breath. Breathing is fucking hard right now.
I suck in more air, holding it in my lungs as long as possible.
“Apologize, Soren.”
I stomp my foot at the torment of my eyes and hand. “I’m sorry,” I growl through gritted teeth.
“See? That wasn’t so hard.” Her voice is full of sunshine and fucking rainbows. “Now, where are your keys?”
I dig into my pocket and dangle the keys from my finger. I can’t even see where she is to put them in her hand.
“You look lost, little man,” she coos, walking me to my car. I suck in a deep breath and clench my jaw to keep myself from responding. I just need to get home and I can fix this.
Her sweet, floral scent twirls around me and I know she’s close. One of her soft hands takes mine and the other hand rests behind my back as she leads me blindly.
“You better not let me walk into anything,” I grumble.
“Bend down.” Her hand leads my head into the car. I half expect her to push it into the metal frame. “That’s a good boy.”
She sounds like she’s talking to a four-legged creature. “I’m not a dog.” I hear her get into the driver’s side. “Do you even know how to drive a stick?”
She laughs. “Only one way to find out.”
I open my mouth to respond but feel two fingers at my lips. “Shhhh. I have a phone call.”
There’s no way she just shhhed me, but she did.
“Sienna. How are you?” she says as she answers her phone.
I’ve never heard of this friend of hers before, so I cross my arms and lean my head back as I’m ignored.
“Girl, you would not believe where I am right now!” her friend replies. “I’m in some small town where every store name has the word Crash in it.”
“Should I be asking why?” How does Gin sound so sweet and fun when talking to other people?
“No. I wanted to call to say it might be a few months before I get a chance to give you a call again.”
I grumble at the pain in my eyes, but it comes out more like a moan.
“What’s that sound?” her friend asks.
“I found a grumpy little man who was lost around my house today. I’m driving him back to the safety of his own house.”
My brothers are busting a gut while the doctor they called in flushes my eyes and inspects my hand.
“It’s probably just a boxer’s fracture, but without an X-ray there’s no way to be certain,” the doc informs me. “Just don’t hit anything for a few weeks and it’ll heal fine.”
I roll my tense shoulders, trying to loosen them. Only fucking Gin would have the guts to bear spray me. That girl has courage. I should find it annoying, but on her, it’s sexy as hell.
“What are you smiling about?” Cyrus questions, studying me like he’s missed something.
My brothers step forward once again and they can’t stop looking at my swollen eyes. They get right up close, pushing the doctor away, and a flash of light burns my eyes. They took a fucking picture.
I grab for my gun and point it at them.
“You forgot the safety,” Atticus points out.
“Tell us how this happened again.” Cyrus laughs.
“You could tell people you have pink eye,” Atticus unhelpfully advises.
I lower my gun. I’m half decent with my left hand, but I’ll have to sharpen my skills.
“I can leave some tension badges for you,” the doc responds, already pulling them out. My temple throbs at the sound of their voices.
“Splint it up for now, doc.”
He immediately digs into his medical bag. “Sure. That will help with the healing process. Keep it on for a few days.”
I want Gin to see what she’s done. I place my hand on the metal portable tray and nod toward the doc.
“How’s the new cargo ship?” Cyrus asks Atticus. My fiancée’s father has insisted that we include them in a part of our business deals as a show of good faith that the wedding will take place.
Atticus scratches at his eyebrow. “I hate middle men. But so far, so good.”
The doctor goes about casting up my arm. He’s been on our payroll since my grandfather’s time. He’s slow as hell in his old age, but he keeps his mouth shut. I never have to worry too much when he’s around, but we still try to talk in code.
With the topic of work now up, they have become serious. It doesn’t mean they’re done giving me a hard time, they’ll just put it on hold until we’re done talking about business.
“We need to be a united front when we walk into the meeting tonight,” Cyrus says.
“We always have your back,” I reply.
“Father is going to want to go in with guns blazing. We need to take our time with this counter attack. We can’t afford to miss like the Armatos did,” Cyrus adds.
“The cops are going to be watching us for a while. I paid them off, but they don’t want a war on their doorstep,” I advise. My mind continues to go to Gin. She’s not here and I’m still having a hard time concentrating.
“No,” Atticus snorts. “They don’t want it in the papers making them look bad.”
“Which is why we have to be diligent in planning this,” I respond.
No matter how hard I try to push Gin out of my mind, she’s still in there. First thing tomorrow, I plan to call her mother and personally invite them both to my birthday party. I wish I could be there to see her reaction when she learns she has no choice but to come.
“Father’s ego is heightened right now. He’ll want to taunt them, show them that he’s still alive and well. That will help to push off the immediate attack.” Atticus’s voice brings me back to the conversation.
I glance at my watch. We have an hour before everyone gets here.