“Can’t believe he thought he couldn’t be found. Fucking Silas trying to do everything himself. I told him weeks ago if he needed me, all he had to do was ask,” Black Jack muttered.
“What’s your real name?” I asked, looking over at the man next to me.
The man didn’t even hesitate.
Smiling, he said, “Lynn.”
“You work with my father, don’t you?” I asked, not really surprised.
He nodded. “For a long, long time now.”
“Are you really a bookie?” Sebastian asked.
He shrugged. “When I need to be.”
“What are you going to do with him?” I asked, indicating to the man we’d just beaten the shit out of with our bare hands.
Black Jack, a.k.a. Lynn, just smiled. “Oh, I’m not nearly done with him yet. You see, boy, you’ve warmed him up. Given him a simple black eye compared to the beating he’s about to receive from me. He’s gone and done something real stupid, hurting the one man that has kept him safe all these years. If it wasn’t for Silas’ and that big heart of his, he’d have been dead a long time ago. I think it was all a because of a promise he made to a twelve-year-old boy that he would never hurt the man again.”
Jesus. My father and his big heart.
Fuck, but do I have some serious groveling to do.
I’d been that twelve-year-old boy.
And it’d been because Shovel had thrown me down and hurt me that he’d beaten the ever-loving shit out of him.
And when I’d caught him doing it, I’d asked him to stop and promise never hurt him again.
Ahh, the naiveté of a twelve year old’s mind.
“Well, consider that request rescinded. Do what you need to do.”
With that, Sebastian and I left the hotel room and drove back to the hospital, yet again in silence.
And we sat, along with our loved ones, and waited.
Chapter 25
I wrote a song for you. It’s called I don’t like your face. I hope you like it.
- Sawyer’s secret thoughts
Sawyer
I woke when something soft touched my face.
I blinked my eyes open and realized I’d fallen asleep in the chair again.
My neck hurt.
I stretched, pushing my arms up over my head.
They collided with something hard and I gasped, sitting up from my slumped position.
And stared right into the eyes of my brother.
The brother that wasn’t supposed to be here yet.
Johnson was a sight for sore eyes.
“Johnson,” I breathed, standing up and throwing myself into his arms.
Johnson caught me and pulled me tightly into his chest, burying his face into my neck as he hugged me hard.
“God, I’ve missed you so much!” I gasped as tears started to roll down my face. “How’d you get out so fast?”
“Family emergency. Called my CO and told him what happened; he told me to take off early,” he told me. “I needed to meet this man that everybody keeps going on and on about.”
I gasped and turned to find Silas’s beaten face staring at me with his signature smile tilting up the corner of his mouth.
“Silas,” I breathed, letting go of Johnson to rush to his side.
Silas smiled at me, then his eyes flicked up to my brother.
“Glad you made it home,” he said roughly.
His voice sounded like he’d just gargled with gravel, so I immediately reached for my glass of water and brought it to him, bending the straw to his lips.
He rolled his eyes at me, but nonetheless drank deeply until he hit the end of it.
He’d been out for nearly a day and a half thanks to all the pain meds and antibiotics rolling through his system.
No wonder he was thirsty.
“Thank you,” he said. “You okay?”
I smiled, placing my hand against his cheek.
“I’m perfectly fine, thanks to you. You, on the other hand, aren’t so good,” I told him.
He had eight broken ribs, a nearly punctured lung, and he was now spleen less.
“What’s the verdict?” He asked.
I sat down gently on the edge of the bed, aware of the way that Johnson scrutinized us, but stayed silent.
“You had some internal bleeding. They had to remove your spleen. Your lung was nearly punctured; luckily, though, it wasn’t. You’ve got eight broken ribs, though. Which isn’t surprising considering you were beaten black and blue. Oh, and I’m pretty sure your nose is broken.”
He grinned. “Do I still have all my teeth?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He exhaled. “Well, at least that’s somethin’.”
I nodded.
“How long have I been out?”
“Little over twenty four hours,” I answered.
He nodded.
“How’re my kids?” He asked.
I smiled down at Silas. “They’re all fine. Scared and worried about you, but fine.”
He laughed, but then just as quickly grimaced. “I know that’s a lie.”
I shook my head. “Really, they’ve been in and out of here for the last day and a half, Silas. Even Sam.”
He took a deep breath and sighed.
“All it took was me nearly dying to get them here,” he laughed humorlessly. He looked at the man at my side. “Which brother are you?”
Johnson crossed his arms and smiled his usual smile.
“The best one.”