“Tobias?” Ryth called and stumbled forward. “Tobias!”
I just stared at my brother on the ground, trying to figure it out. “What happened?” Fear kicked in, making me reach behind and grab the gun from the waistband of my pants before I spun, searching the empty parking lot for movement. “Was he hit?”
Nick let out a snarl and lunged, falling to his knees beside T.
“Nick!” I roared. “Was he fucking hit?”
Ryth looked up at him as she gripped Tobias’s shoulder and rolled him onto his back. I risked a glance, searching my brother’s chest for blood until Nick blocked my view. “He hasn’t been hit. He hasn’t…been hit.”
I sucked in hard breaths as his words hit home. Jesus… Still, I didn’t trust anyone, not any more. Not where my family was concerned. I aimed the muzzle towards the rig parked outside and swung to the darkened tree line that surrounded the diner.
“Tobias,” Ryth pleaded. “Can you hear me? Please, say something.”
“We need to get him to the car.” Nick glanced my way. “You need to help me.”
Tobias’s breaths were so shallow his chest barely moved. Christ, he didn’t look good. No, he didn’t look good at all. I gave a small nod, tucked the gun back into my waistband, and headed for them.
Nick was still hurt. The stab wound in his side was barely even stitched. There was no way I was letting him hurt himself more. “I’ll grab his shoulders, you take his feet.”
“Give me the keys, Nick.” Ryth pushed up from the ground and held out her hand. “I’ll open the doors.”
He searched his pockets, handing them over before she hurried away to where the car was parked alongside the diner.
“Rebel.” Nick gave a jerk of his head. “After her.”
I wanted to tell him the command was pointless. The dog was barely a pup, and even if it did under— I’d barely opened my mouth, and the damn thing limped away. I shook my head in disbelief, then strode toward my brother’s head, bent, and slid my hands under his armpits. “Ready?”
“When you are.”
My muscles seized and my back strained as I drove my boots into the ground and lifted upwards. “Christ, T,” I grunted. “You’re a heavy motherfucker—
Memories pushed in. When T and I sat in the seats outside the surgery while we waited for someone to fucking tell us if our brother had survived. T when he’d stood beside mom’s casket, and when he’d taken on two goddamn bouncers inside that club when they’d come for me.
He was always fighting.
Fighting dad.
Fighting life.
“You better stay alive, you stubborn bastard,” I muttered, staggering toward the car. “You better…stay a-fucking-live.”
Ryth waited beside the open back door with a terrified look on her face. I wanted to say something to comfort her. But any hope I had to offer was weak at best.
“I’ll climb in, just hold him, okay?” I almost dropped his shoulders as I backed into the seat and dragged him in after me.
She was gone in a heartbeat, scurrying around the rear of the car to open the other door for me to pull him all the way inside. “The light,” Nick urged. “Get the goddamn light.”
I stabbed the switch above and the interior of the car was filled with a weak glow. Still, it was enough…enough to see the shine of blood that had soaked through his black jeans.
“What the fuck happened?” I stared at Nick as he unbuttoned Tobias’s jeans and yanked them down.
“We just…” Ryth started, stopping as we glimpsed the top of the white bandage. “Had sex.” She finished, slowly shaking her head.
“Sex didn’t do this, princess.” Nick tugged my brother’s pants lower. “A bullet did.”
The lower they went, the worse the sight became, until there was barely any white left on the gauze. It was stained with blood instead.
“Jesus,” I hissed. “Why the fuck didn’t he say anything?”
Nick jerked his gaze to mine. “You’ve met our brother, right?”
That said it all. “Stubborn motherfucker,” I snarled as Nick tugged down the top of the bandage and stared at the dark, oozing wound.
“Fuck.” Nick closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, all I saw was fear.
“Oh God. Oh God…” our sister whispered. “We need to get him to a hospital.”
“No hospital,” Nick and I answered in unison.
“What do you mean, no hospital? ‘ She pushed in around me, stabbing her finger toward the wound. “Look at it, that’s bad…that’s real fucking bad.” Her voice broke, until there was nothing…
Nothing but silence.
My stomach clenched tight, driving the taste of that steak into my throat, because I was looking at it. The gauze glistened. The wound was black around the edges. It looked bad…real fucking bad.
I did this.
There was no way around it.
I caused all of this. If I hadn’t gone after Killion—if I hadn’t left them behind.
The car seemed to sway under the weight of consequence. I closed my eyes as that heaviness pressed down on my chest. We had nowhere to go now, and no one to trust. We couldn’t go to the hospital. We sure as hell couldn’t stay here.
“There’s a doctor.”
I opened my eyes.
Nick licked his lips and met my gaze. “This guy.”
I scowled. “What guy?”
My brother straightened, dug into his pocket, and pulled out some kind of business card, muttering, “A friend of a friend, apparently.”
I narrowed in on the damn thing in his hand. “A friend? What fucking friend?”
But Nick didn’t answer. He just shook his head and stared at me weirdly. I didn’t like that look at all. “What fucking friend, Nick?”
A rasp of a breath was followed by a moan. Tobias slowly opened his eyes. “What the fuck happened?”
“You collapsed.” Ryth pushed around me, climbing into the footwell, and I moved out of her way as she barked. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you’d been shot?”
But the smartass just gave a weak fucking smile, saying nothing as he closed his eyes. The moment he did, that smirk turned into a wince.
“We need to call the doc,” Nick answered.
Tobias cracked open his eyes, staring at our sister. “Can’t…trust anyone.”
“Yeah, well, we’re running out of fucking options,” Nick snapped. “I sure as hell am not losing a brother and a fucking dad all on the same day.”
And a fucking dad?
I flinched. And a fucking dad? What the hell did that mean? Did Dad…did he…
Nick’s eyes widened as though he realized instantly he’d just dropped a goddamn bomb.
I swallowed, forcing myself to focus on T. “This guy is a doctor?”
Nick just gave a slow nod. A doctor and the loss of a father. Looked like my brothers had been busy.
That cold edge came back in my voice. “You sure we can trust this guy?”
“No.” Nick stared at Tobias’s shallow breaths. “But right now, we don’t have a choice.”
“Then call him,” I answered carefully. “Call him and we’ll deal with whatever comes.”
As long as T is alive.
I didn’t care what happened to me. Not one fucking bit, as long as they were safe.
My brother stepped away, leaving Ryth to reach over and brush Tobias’s cheek. “You fucking idiot.” She rested her head against his. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were hurt?’
“Do you think you could’ve stopped him?” I answered for him as Nick’s voice drifted through the open car door, sounding careful…and relieved.
“Help me,” I said to Ryth as I gripped my brother again, tugging him further in. “We need to be ready to move.”
She wrestled with his jeans, pulling them high enough so she could slide in around his legs.
The crunch of boots came closer as Nick returned. “We have an address. A cabin about an hour’s drive from here.”
I held T’s shoulders and carefully closed the door. “An hour?”
“Thirty for me. But an hour for the Doc.” Nick rounded the car and climbed in behind the wheel, reaching through the gap between the seats. “Keys, princess.”
I hurried after him, yanking open the passenger door to climb in. I called Rebel to me and held her on my lap to keep her out of the back seat. The sedan’s engine roared to life before the headlights splashed against the side of the diner.
We peeled out of the parking lot, scattering rocks in our wake. The fucking drive was agony. My focus was divided between the road and my brother. But still, my mind raced.
This guy better be fucking trustworthy.
He better keep our brother alive.
The GPS glowed in the darkness as Nick steered with his forearms and pulled up the map. “Fuck, I can hardly tell which road is which out here.”
A twitch flared in my jaw. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “Just don’t get us fucking lost.”
A quick glance between the seats to where Ryth was cradling Tobias and he turned to the road. “I won’t.”
Silence pushed in, leaving me to scan every road we passed, and all the while, that panic seethed inside me…We weren’t going to make it… We weren’t going to make it… We weren’t—
“I think this is it.”
I searched the road ahead, catching sight of a turn off, before glancing at the GPS. “You sure?”
“That’s what the map says.”
I had to trust Nick knew what he was doing as he signaled, then turned. We traveled along that road for a good twenty minutes. All I saw were trees and darkness and not another damn house in sight.
Nick was riveted to that screen, slowing the car until we were at a crawl as we passed by a faded yellow mailbox.
“That’s it,” he muttered, glancing at the screen and back up. “DeLuca.”
We turned in, taking it even slower along the rutted driveway that was designed for a four-wheel drive and not a damn sedan. The tires skidded and we slipped sideways. Still, there was no one better behind the wheel.
Nick handled the car with precision, turning into the slide, then gently correcting as we inched toward a large cabin set against the trees.
“Must be some kind of family retreat.” Nick leaned forward, scanning the grounds. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s here.”
Tobias whimpered behind us, then mumbled something I didn’t catch.
“I think he’s dreaming,” Ryth murmured.
I could only stare at my little brother, trying to figure out exactly when our world had started to fall apart.
It was him…
Dad.
He was the catalyst.
His betrayal of Mom.
And now Ryth.
The fact he was apparently now dead tore me apart. Part of me was satisfied, the other was still his damn son. I wrestled with that as Nick pulled up alongside the cabin and killed the engine.
I climbed out, leaving Ryth and Nick along with Tobias in the car. The moment I looked at those dark windows, listening to the wind howl through the trees, I felt a chill crawl along my spine.
Maybe coming here was a mistake after all? “This doesn’t feel right.” I looked around and slowly made for the cabin.
“We don’t really have a choice, do we?”
No, we didn’t.
Mounds of fallen leaves stacked against the outside of the cabin, blown in from the trees. The place even felt empty. I was starting to think we’d wasted time driving all the way out here…time we didn’t have.
I turned and opened my mouth to tell Nick we should go back, that we’d find something, a pharmacy…or a damn doctor we could abduct in an effort to save our brother’s life, when the wash of headlights cut through the trees and flowed over me.
The heavy throb of an engine followed as a dark four-wheel drive skidded and rolled down the driveway toward us.
I reached around, grabbed the gun at my back, and neared the car. The hulking vehicle came closer until, with a skid, it pulled up hard, parking beside the sedan. The headlights stayed on, blinding me as I neared.
“Nick,” I warned, lifting the gun as I stepped closer.
The thud of a car door followed….
And I didn’t know if they were friends, or foes.
