Chapter 34
IVY
Iwring my hands in my lap as Freddie paces. Bram sits to my left, and Hale—who has just returned from getting his own care, despite his initial reluctance—is on my right. Callen and Seb have gone to the coffee shop for a caffeine hit.
Six hours have passed since Daisy was admitted to surgery, and they’re the slowest hours of my life.
“Thanks for looking after her overnight,” Hale says to Maria over the phone. He looks as shit as I feel. “I’ll call back when we have news.”
Alaric’s rule over the Killers Club has ended, but I can’t find it in my heart to care. He doesn’t matter. Him, the club, the Dukes… nothing matters but Daisy.
Hale’s foot taps on the tiles anxiously as doctors and nurses rush past us. The smell of antiseptic and death lingers in the air, filling the corridors and snaking into my lungs.
“Fuck!” Hale swears, making an elderly lady hobbling past jump. “How long is it going to take?”
“No news is good news,” I reply.
Right now, Daisy’s fate still hangs in the balance, which means there’s hope. Hope is something I can cling to. It’s all I have.
I try changing the subject to distract us both. “How’s Ivy?”
“Good.” Hale’s expression softens. “Maria’s taking care of her at ours.”
“How long have you two been together?” I ask.
“Five years,” he replies. “Well, that’s how long we’ve been partners. It took a while to win her heart, but from the moment I saw her, I knew she was the only woman for me. There will never be anyone else.”
Watching a tough guy’s heart break is like watching a car crash in slow motion. I feel his desperation, love, and the utter helplessness that comes from being out of control, knowing there’s nothing you can do.
“Coffee?” Seb offers, returning with Callen and drinks.
Me and Hale shake our heads as a doctor marches down the corridor in our direction. Hale jumps up, wobbling slightly and forgetting he’s hurt himself. Callen catches his arm to steady him as everyone gathers around.
“How is she?” Hale asks before the doctor even opens his mouth. “How did it go?”
The doctor’s face stays blank, making it impossible to tell the outcome.
“We have moved Florence into intensive care,” the doctor says. “It was a difficult operation. The bullet narrowly missed one of her lungs and also managed to avoid her vital organs. It’ll be a long road until she’s fully recovered, but she will be okay.” He turns to Callen. “Your actions undoubtedly saved her life. If you ever want to return to the medical field, we’d be happy to have you.”
Callen shrugs nonchalantly. “That time of my life is over now, Doc.”
“She made it,” Hale murmurs, still in a daze and processing the news. “You!” He grabs Callen and traps him in a massive bear hug, kissing him on the forehead. “You saved her!”
Callen wipes away Hale’s kiss sheepishly. “It was nothing.”
“She’s going to be okay,” Hale hoots. “She’s alive!”
“When can we see her?” I ask.
“We’re stabilising her now in the ICU,” the doctor says. “She’ll be unconscious for a while because of the medication but she still might hear what you’re saying.”
A nurse comes over to whisper something in the doctor’s ear while casting a suspicious look at the group of muscular men covered in blood. I don’t blame her.
“If you want to follow the nurse through,” the doctor says. “She can take two of you to Florence’s room. I’m assuming you’ll be seeing your wife first?”
I wait with bated breath, assuming Hale will leave me behind, but he takes my hand.
“Her sister will be joining me too,” he says.
“Of course.” The nurse nods. “This way.”
“We’ll wait for you here,” Seb promises.
“You’re married?” I whisper under my breath.
“Our aliases are,” Hale says.
Not all agents have permanent aliases, but the fact that Daisy and Hale do makes everything much easier. They have passports, national insurance numbers and full medical histories to avoid raising any eyebrows when seeking hospital treatment.
We follow the nurse through a maze of identical corridors to Daisy’s private room. I inhale sharply when I see her, my eyes misting over. Daisy’s attached to various tubes and machines, and a few doctors are still buzzing around, checking her notes to make sure everything is set up correctly.
It’s been years since I’ve been in a proper hospital. Unlike Daisy and Hale, the Killers Club never set me up with a true alias. Accessing any public service is nearly impossible when you’re supposed to be dead.
“Little Dove,” Hale says, pulling the chair over to her bedside and taking her hand. He lovingly strokes her hand, tracing small circles onto her skin. “I’m here.”
I sit on her other side, watching on. Although we’ve had reassurance, I’m still on edge. I won’t relax again until she opens her eyes.
“We’ll give you some space, but we’ll be right outside,” a doctor says. “Press the call button on this device if you need anything, the nurses will be monitoring her vitals at the nurse’s station,” the doctor says, showing us the patient call button beside Daisy.
I wait until the door closes before taking Daisy’s other hand and saying, “I’m right here.” I choke up, fighting back tears. “I’m so sorry. All of this is my fault.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Hale says gently, giving me more grace than I deserve. “No one saw Penelope coming.”
I sniff. “I’m not just talking about today. I’m sorry for everything. I know she blames me for what happened to her. For the life she has. I should have listened to her warnings about Spencer all those years ago…”
“Dove was hurting when she said those things to you,” Hale says. “She told me she knew you did everything you could to save her that night. She’s felt guilty about not being able to fight back ever since.”
I wipe my eyes. “You don’t need to make me feel better, Hale.”
“What the two of you went through was horrific. When I saw the state she was in when Stephanie brought her to me…” His voice trails off, and he shivers. “I thought she’d die, but she was stronger than she looked. She wanted to be like you. That’s what kept her going, and then Ivy came along. She’d go through it all again to get our daughter. Ivy is the best thing to ever happen to us, and she named her after you. Do you think she’d have done that if she didn’t care?”
I shrug.
“She spoke about you all the time at the beginning, but it was too painful for her to remember,” he says wistfully. “It was easier to shut you out than deal with how hard it was to lose you.”
As much as I want to believe Hale, I don’t want to get my hopes up. I need to hear it from her.
“I’m not going anywhere now.” I squeeze her hand. “You’re not losing me again.”
The door to Daisy’s room opens, and the nurse clears her throat behind us. “I know you’ve only come inside, but our patient needs her rest.”
“I’m staying,” Hale growls.
“You’ll have to wait outside,” the nurse repeats.
Hale doesn’t want to go anywhere but, after a few more minutes of arguing and the threat of security being called, he reluctantly rises from his chair. I squeeze Daisy’s hand one last time, and Hale kisses her forehead tenderly.
“You should leave and get some rest,” he says. “I’m not leaving until she comes around.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“Come back tomorrow,” he says. “I promise I’ll call if anything happens.”
I find myself nodding. After days of hardly sleeping and the relief of seeing Daisy, I’d become a walking zombie.
“But what about you?” I ask. “What about the club? Won’t you need protection?”
Hale smirks. “Everywhere is safe now.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“After Stephanie, I was next in line to inherit the Killers Club,” Hale explains. “I never wanted it, but as of now, I’m the boss.”
“Hold up! What?” I freeze. Maybe sleep deprivation is making me hear things. “Explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old.”
“Alaric is…was…my brother,” he says casually like it’s nothing.
“You can’t be serious.” My head spins. “This has to be a joke.”
Sure, they’re both tattooed and of a similar build, but I thought that was more due to coincidence and life circumstances than their being related.
“Why didn’t you say anything before?” I demand.
“Would you have believed I wanted to kill my own brother?” he asks. “You’d never have trusted us if you knew the truth. But Alaric had to be stopped. He’d always been unhinged. He drew me into his world, and the power went to his head. It was my responsibility to stop him.”
“So you’re going to continue with the club?”
“I wanted Stephanie to take over to free myself of him forever,” he says. “But I’ll have to think of something else. For now, you and the Dukes can consider yourselves safe. You’re not going to be targeted by any other agents.”
I nod shakily, struggling to take it in as I see the Dukes waiting for me at the end of the corridor.
“Go to them,” Hale says. “They’re good guys. They care about you.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I murmur, still in shock.
When I reach them, the guys huddle around me, smothering me in their muscular limbs. Instead of feeling like I’m suffocating, it’s oddly comforting to be surrounded by them.
“How is she?” Seb asks.
“She’ll be okay,” I say shakily. “Hale’s going to stay and will call us if anything changes. I’ll come back first thing tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Freddie says.
I look at the four men who changed my life. We’ve been on a rollercoaster of betrayal and deceit and have now, somehow, landed on the other side. Together.
“We need to find somewhere safe to stay,” Seb says. “With Stephanie gone, we don’t know what the club has planned.”
“Actually, we don’t need to worry about that,” I say. “It’s a long story, but Hale’s now the boss of the Killers Club. He’s Alaric’s brother.”
Everyone gasps in shock, but Freddie doesn’t appear surprised.
“You knew?” I ask.
“I had a suspicion,” he says.
“Smart arse,” Callen grumbles.
“Can we…” I pause. “Can we go home?”
Seb’s smile warms my heart as he puts an arm around my shoulder, and Bram takes my hand to lead me out of the hospital.
“Yes,” Seb says. “Let’s go home.”