My head hanging, body limp, I look up finding Lip putting on a pair of brass knuckles.
“Phillip,” I moan, blood dripping from my mouth. “Brother,” I whisper, hoping to bring him to see who the fuck he’s about to slam those into.
“I’m not your fucking brother,” Lip growls, and slams his braced knuckles right into my rib cage. My knees give out, and I fall to the cement. The wind knocked from me in a burning rage.
“No! STOP IT!” Jillian screams bloody murder.
“Kane, shut that bitch up,” Bull orders.
Jillian’s cries are muffled. I try to get to my feet, anger racing through my limbs. Nobody touches my woman.
“I’ll kill you,” I slur, my mouth swollen. I swear with all my fucking might I’ll kill every one of them. Thinking about all the ways I’ll spill their blood, my heart throbs. I try to look up, see what they have done to my Rookie, but my head weighs too much to lift from my chest.
I hear a gun cock, and fear causes an adrenaline rush to burst through my system. I pull myself to my knees, my knuckles pressed into the cement to hold my weight, and I lift my head. Hair in my eyes, I find a blurry Lip aiming a pistol right at my head. All the blood from my body drains, my stomach falling…My little brother is about to kill me.
“Fucking do it,” I dare, blood dripping from my mouth. “Pull it, you pussy!” His eyes narrow, his hand shaking. Closing his eyes, he exhales, before pinning me with a cold stare.
“Say hello to Dad.”
Turning my head with all my will power, I glance at Jillian. Her cheeks are red, her eyes wide as Kane’s hand is pressed against her mouth.
The gun fires, and my vision swims black.
CHAPTER NINE
Zeek
WAKING FROM MY BLACKOUT I hear sobbing. Using my feet I push off the floor to a sitting position and grab at my stomach when it recoils in a burning rage. My body stings, and burns all over, but my stomach is on fucking fire.
“Looks like he’s going to make it.” A female voice states. My vision doubles, as a blonde-haired woman, pulls off a pair of blue gloves from her hands.
“You’re kidding?” Lip’s voice sounds around me.
“Nope. Through and through. Didn’t hit anything major. I pulled a bullet out of his arm, too, it’s infected, so I gave him a heavy dose of antibiotics. He’ll be sore, but he’ll make a full recovery.”
“Nice fucking shot, Lip,” Bobby scoffs.
“There was a ton of fucking blood. Fox is still out there trying get the shit off the courtyard for Christ’s sake, how is this possible?”
“What can I say, he’s lucky.” The blonde, I assume is their doctor by the pink scrubs she’s wearing, responds, her tone of voice sounding confused.
“So he’s going to make it?” Jillian asks. I try and stand, wanting to get to her, but I feel out of it.
“Whoa, cowboy, you’re on heavy painkillers, take it easy,” the doctor instructs, pushing me back down into a sitting position.
“So he lives, go fucking figure,” Lip exhales.
“Hey, you need to ease up, brother.” The voice of Bull echoes through my dazed state. “Regardless of what went down, he’s family.”
“No, he’s not, Bull.”
“You and him have the same DNA. Regardless of how much you hate him, or how big a piece of shit he is. You have to lock that crap down, and fess up to him being your family. You don’t think none of us have a family member we wished was adopted at some point? Get it together, brother, and stop acting like a pissed off teenager.”
Lip responds, but I can’t hear anything. My vision doubles, and everything goes back to black.
***
I WAKE UP. MORE LIKE JOLT AWAKE. My vision isn’t blurry anymore, and I can move most of my limbs without an excruciating amount of pain. My arm that held the bullet is numb, and wrapped up in clean bandages. Becoming suddenly aware of where I am, and what happened I begin to panic, needing to get to Jillian.
“Zeek?” Snapping my head in the direction of the voice, I find Jillian is sitting on a bed, her knees brought up to her chest, as she hugs her legs tightly. I try to push myself upright from the floor to get to her, but my stomach smarts, and I have to sit back down for a second.
“You’re awake. Are you hungry?” the blonde female asks, as she sets a plate with a sandwich and chips on a nightstand. She’s wearing blue scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck.
She hunches down, and my eyes narrow with anger. The urge to mangle her pretty little doctor face becomes overwhelming. I curl my fists instead, the blood on her shirt a reminder this chick probably saved me.
“Goddamn it, Doc. I told you not to come in here alone.” Bobby steps in, and eyes me warily. He’s aware of my violent nature.
“Would you ease up?” Doc, as Bobby called her, reaches around her neck and lifts the stethoscope. She sticks the eartips in her ear and places the cold metal of the stethoscope on my chest.