“I want fucking names!” I sneered. “Theirs, their families’. Everyone!”
“Already on it, sir.” Lex, who usually drove my grandmother, sat in the passenger seat.
Ivy turned to me, her face covered in dust and dried blood. She stared at me wide-eyed, in shock. “This was about you.”
“Us.” I snapped, reminding her once a-fucking-gain. “You asked me if I was a gangster. This is fucking why! So people won’t fucking try this shit! But apparently some people have forgotten the definition, so it’s now my job to rebrand it into their skulls!”
Yanking off my tie, I grabbed the brandy from the back, pouring it over my tie before turning to her. She watched me, confused. Gripping onto her chin gently, I turned her head so I could see her ear. Taking it, I dabbed her ear, causing her to flinch as I wiped her blood. I did my very best to bite back the rage I was feeling…for now, at least.
“Sammy Shannon and a few friends of his, they’re currently heading out of the city,” Lex replied.
Freezing, I closed my eyes, inhaling through my nose. “Who helped them?”
“Sir?”
Taking the wet tie, I threw it away. “You want me to fucking believe a few twenty-year-olds who don’t even know how to cut coke properly did this?”
Even from a few miles you could still see the damn smoke.
“They had help. Call Helen to hack every damn camera in the country if she needs to and retrace their fucking steps from last night to this bloody morning.”
“Yes—”
“SHUT UP AND CALL!”
Sitting back in my seat, I stared out the window. You’d think losing his uncle would be enough for him to stay low. I should have known the damn twat was too stupid to be scared.
He’s going to—
I glanced down at my fist, to see a small scraped hand over mine. Glancing at her, she didn’t say anything, just rested her head on the window.
“How much farther?” I asked Greyson, calmer.
“Ten minutes. Traffic, sir.”
The image of my grandmother appearing in my mind, I swallowed the lump in my throat…
God, you can’t have my grandmother too.
“Boston, sir,” Lex said, and even though I already had a feeling hearing that it had gotten to this level…it got under my skin.
He handed me the tablet, allowing me to see the private messages between Sammy and the Finnegan brothers…just after I’d spared his fucking life.
“She’s really out? She’s with the Callahans?”
“Yea, everyone’s talking about the wedding.”
“We’ll see about that—”
“It was about me,” she whispered, and I hadn’t realized she was reading over my shoulder.
Turning off the tablet, I dropped it onto the seat.
“They did this…that.” She pointed at the smoke coming from the distance. “Because of me.”
She still wasn’t getting it.
“No.” It wasn’t about her. “Not you. Us.”
IVY
“Do you feel any pressure here?” the doctor asked as she pressed her fingers on my neck. But I just watched as Ethan stood, like a statue, at the front of my bed. Only partially listening and mostly waiting to hear if his grandmother was out of surgery. We’d been here for a little over two hours already.
Apparently I’d inhaled a lot of smoke and they checked up on me, every thirty minutes, even though it was supposed to be once an hour until I was given the okay.
“Mrs. Callahan?” she called and what startled me the most was how I responded to it. “Do you feel any pressure?”
“I’m fine.”
Ethan clicked his teeth and just took a deep breath, something I was starting to realize he did whenever he wanted to snap but calmed himself.
“Okay, you are in the clear. We’ll give something for the pain—”
“No meds,” I cut in, causing Ethan to finally look me in the face.
“Give her the meds—”
“I don’t like them. I don’t trust them. I don’t want them!” I snapped at him.
“TAKE THE DAMN MEDS!”
“NO!”
We both glared at each other.
“You aren’t too badly hurt. You’re very lucky. Over the counter will be fine,” she said, quickly interjecting, but neither Ethan nor I looked away until the door opened.
“Sir?”
He rushed out, and I got up as well, leaving the private room he’d unnecessarily gotten for me and following behind until we reached a private lobby where Donatella, Helen, Nari, along with Sedric and Darcy stood looking at the doctor.
“Mr. Callahan.” The older man nodded at Ethan.
“How is she?” he asked directly.
“She’s stable.” The moment he said it, everyone else relaxed. Even Ethan looked half a decimal point better. “However, the burns on her left arm and leg are severe for a woman of her age. She’ll need a lot of rest and care, while undergoing skin grafts. You all are free to see her, but her whole body is still in pain, there is only so much morphine we can give her.”
Donatella was the first to dart toward her room, followed by Darcy.
“Sir…” The big guy, Greyson, got his attention again, and before he could finish saying anything the elevator doors slid open. The tall man with familiar light brown eyes stepped out dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. Ripping his arm from one of the guards, he walked right up in front of Ethan, and they stood eye to eye.
“Where is she?”
“And you are?” Ethan shot back.
“CUT THE BULLSHIT, ETHAN!” he hollered into Ethan’s face, but Ethan didn’t budge. “Where is Nana?”
“You said you did not want to be a part of this family, Wyatt.” Wyatt! It was their brother. His brother. Now that he’d said it, the photo of him Nari had shown me came to mind. However, both of them looked far more handsome in person… For fuck’s sake, that isn’t important, Ivy!
“Ethan.” Wyatt dropped his head. “You’re going to make me fucking beg to see my own grandmother?”
“The doctors said family only. Again—”
“Please,” he cut in and it must have taken everything in him to say it. He clenched his fist and jaw and said it again. “Please let me see her. If not for me, for her.”
“You can wait here until she asks for you,” Ethan said, turning to go in the room.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Wyatt snapped, trying to move anyway, but the guard pulled him back. Ethan, ignoring him, paused, waiting for me to follow.
“I’m not family yet either,” I reminded him. His jaw cracked in the side in annoyance. “I’ll go when she calls for me too.”
He seemed ready to bite my head off but held it back, nodding. “Fine.”
Watching him disappear into the room, I sat down on one of the couches.
“I’ll wait! So get your hands off me.” Wyatt ripped his arms away. He looked ready to fight…anyone at that point before finally sitting down in the chairs across from me, running his hands through his brown hair. It was lighter, but not by much, than Ethan’s. Glancing up at me, he frowned.
“You’re the insane woman joining this family?” he asked.