Thump!
T unleashed, driving his fist into the side of Dad’s face. One look at my brother and I knew there was no stopping him, not anymore. He was a mask of malevolence. A weapon of fists and fury. No. He was a fucking product. And what they’d created when they gave Ryth to us.
My breath stilled, a burden in my chest. Our sister…
“You will fucking tell us how to get her out of there!” he screamed. “You hear me? You WILL fucking tell us!”
My brother was a man possessed. Dad’s head snapped to the side with the blow. T struck again, his time hitting him in the mouth. The result was instant. His lip split open and blood welled down his chin.
“T,” I rasped as dad’s head lolled backwards.
“You will tell me what I want to know!” Tobias roared, wrenching our father forward. “You will fucking tell me!”
Dad’s eyes fluttered, then opened. He stared at my brother as though he was a stranger. “You…” he whispered, his eyes falling closed again. “Were never meant to fall…for her.”
T froze with the words, one hand fisted in Dad’s bloody shirt and the other cocked in the air. “What the fuck did you say?”
Silence.
“What the…fuck did you SAY?” my brother raged.
I took a step, drawn by the same savage need. “Tell us what we want to know.”
Dad’s eyes opened, and for a split second, I saw him, the man I’d loved. The man I’d fucking defended over and over and over again. But there was no more defending, not him…or us.
Thugs.
Murderers.
Brothers…
I didn’t blame T for shooting him…right now, I wanted to do the same.
“Tell us how to get her out,” I demanded.
Dad gave a small chuff, that split on his lip stretching wide. “There is no out. Doesn’t matter…she’s not worth it.”
“Worth it?” Tobias’ voice was chilling. ‘Worth it?” He drove his fist into our father’s face once more. Crunch. “WORTH IT! She is WORTH EVERYTHING!”
Dad’s head snapped backwards. But I could see the end…saw it all in the way his head snapped backwards…and the glazed film on his eyes.
Crack!
“She’s fucking WORTH IT!” Crack! T was an animal. “She’s fucking worth it!” He never stopped, never flinched, just dived into that fucking rage with bloody fists and a savage hunger for blood…
No.
Not blood.
Our sister.
Dead man…” My father’s last words were a hiss.
Still, Tobias wrenched him forward. “What fucking dead man? Dad…DAD!”
But he couldn’t answer, because he was already gone.
“T.” My voice was husky as I stared at his white knuckles smeared with blood. “T!”
My brother’s gaze was fixed on that empty stare. “Answer me. What fucking dead man?” he roared, as though he could will him back to life by his desperation alone.
Maybe T should’ve thought of that before he pulled the trigger and ended our father’s fucking life?
Christ, this was a mess.
But he couldn’t…no one could, and outside, the throb of a V8 engine drew my attention.
I pushed up from the floor and headed for the window, pushing the curtain aside as an expensive black Range Rover pulled into the driveway behind the dented Charger. “T,” I called, wary.
But the guy didn’t climb out and start firing. No, he reached across to the passenger seat instead, and dragged a big bag of some kind with him as he climbed out. The driver’s door closed with a thud as he scanned the front of the warehouse, catching the movement as I let the curtain go.
The thud of his boots resounded as I opened the front door and stepped out. He scanned me up and down. “You Nick?”
Freddy’s man…
That’s who this was.
I exhaled hard and nodded. “Yeah.”
He glanced at the open door beside me. “You gonna let me in, or do I have to patch up whoever has been shot out here?”
Shot…shot…he’s not. I swallowed hard, unable to move for a second…
And he saw. A scowl came before he softened his tone. “You want to let me in, buddy?”
I scanned the street and stepped aside. “He’s inside.”
The guy moved like a fighter, thick shoulders bunching as he hauled the bag with him and stepped inside. He didn’t even flinch at the body lying in the kitchen. I locked the front door and followed, watching him as he neared Tobias, who still had dad’s shirt clenched in his fist.
“He didn’t tell us who,” my brother said as he slowly lifted his gaze. “He didn’t tell us who.”
“You want me to have a look?”
Care. Compassion. The kind of carefulness that only came with years of practice echoed from the guy as he reached for my brother’s hands and gently pulled them away. “Let me look.”
Tobias did, watching with a shell-shocked stare as the guy did his best. He pressed two fingers to my father’s neck and waited. I could’ve told him it was useless. But what was the fucking point?
What was the point of anything?
They had our sister.
And now our brother.
“I’m sorry.” Freddy’s guy dropped his hand and shook his head. “He’s gone.”
Tobias slumped to the floor, his hands resting on the top of his drawn-up knees as he stared at me blankly. “What the fuck do we do now?”
He looked at me as though he hadn’t thought it’d come to this. What did he think was going to happen when he took aim and squeezed the trigger?
“There’s no easy answer,” Freddy’s guy answered. “What I can tell you is, he’s gone, so I guess you need to think about family.”
Tobias glanced his way, frowned, and focused as though he finally realized someone else was here. He glanced at our father’s body. “Not about him. About her…our stepsister.”
“Stepsister?” The guy glanced my way, confused.
But it wasn’t just confusion, was it? He was…wary. “They have your stepsister?”
They?
Tobias stared at the guy. “What the fuck do you know?” My brother pushed upward, climbing to his feet. His eyes darkening to that terrifying glint. “Who the fuck are you, anyway?”
“DeLuca,” he answered. But it wasn’t out of fear. He was concerned, but not about us. “Who has your stepsister?”
“The Order,” I answered, earning a glare from T. One I met with my own. “Freddy sent him, right? So that means we can trust him.”
Trust him to patch a wound maybe, but trust him not to go to the cops? I stared at T. The last thing I wanted was my brother charged with patricide. My heart raced and my mouth went dry. In my head, I saw them when I raced through the trees…T with his gun in his hand and our father bleeding in his arms.
“Trust?” T glared, snapping me back out of my head. “Hasn’t the last twenty-four fucking hours told you anything, brother? We can’t fucking trust him. We can’t fucking trust anyone.” He glared at Dad. “Not even blood.”
“I’m not with The Order.” DeLuca shoved up from the floor.
“Yeah?” T was pissed now, more than he was before. “Who do you work for?”
“Sacred Heart Hospital.”
My brother grew furious, stepping closer to the guy. “I said, who the fuck do you work for?”
But the guy never backed down. Instead, he withstood my brother’s wrath, bloody knuckles and all. “I work for Sacred Heart and no one else. I’m sorry about your father and your stepsister. I have one of those of my own, so I know how it feels. You want to protect them…you’ll do anything to protect them, but you can’t. Not against men who want her.”
He wasn’t talking about Ryth here…he was talking about himself.
“Oh yeah?” Tobias was full of rage now.
“She’s in her own trouble,” DeLuca answered, and looked away. “Which is why I asked.”
Those words stopped T cold. He scowled, staring at this guy who knows a guy in the Mafia.
I took a step closer. “In trouble how?”
He looked like he was going to answer before he froze, scowled, and looked away. “Not with The Order.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to me. “Call me if you need anything. Just not the Rossis, okay? I don’t need any more problems where they’re concerned.”
“Problems?” Tobias looked like he was going to push him for answers. “What kind of—”
But then DeLuca looked at Dad. “I can take care of him, if you want…until you’re ready.”
Take care of him…
What did that mean? Hold the body for ransom while he threatened to go to the cops? Or worse. I know a guy who knows a guy, those were Freddy’s words. What guy did he know? I needed to find out. I needed…to protect my family.
“And what if we’re never ready?” My voice was detached as I stared at the guy.
The doctor met my gaze. “Then I can take care of that too.”
Who the hell was this guy? He sure as hell wasn’t just a goddamn doctor, that was for sure. He had connections, and from the way he flinched when I spoke about Ryth, they were the wrong type of connections. “Okay.” I looked at the card, Lucas DeLuca, Emergency Medicine, Sacred Heart Hospital. “You can take him.”
T stared at me as though I’d grown a second head. I knew what he was thinking, we can’t trust anyone.
But look where that had gotten us.
If we’d trusted someone when this shit was going down, then maybe we might’ve had a chance. What chance did we have now?
“Want to give me a hand getting your father into the car?” DeLuca asked Tobias.
T looked like he was about to explode. But then he nodded and without a word, went to work. Tobias grabbed dad under the arms while DeLuca grabbed his feet. They heaved him up. I stepped behind, grabbed the straps of DeLuca’s medical bag, and lifted, grunting with the weight. No wonder the guy was fit.
They struggled, shuffling more than walking as I moved ahead, scanning outside the warehouse before I motioned them forward. They had dad down the stairs and stepped sideways toward the back of the Rover. “Want to grab my keys and hit the button for the back door, Nick?” DeLuca winced.
I strode closer, shoved my hand in the pocket he aimed my way, and pressed the button, watching the doors open automatically. Both grunted as they dropped Dad onto a dark tarpaulin with a thud.
Hard breaths filled the air. DeLuca brushed his hands against his black jeans and reached for the keys. “Thanks.” He glanced at Tobias, who surprisingly didn’t look like he wanted to rip the doc’s head off anymore. The guy didn’t shy away, not from anger…or death.
I almost liked him, if I could trust him, that was. I glanced at the card in my hand.
“I’ll be waiting to hear from you,” he said, looking my way.
I gave a nod as the doctor climbed into the car and started the engine. We said nothing as he backed out of the driveway and onto the street. Red lights flared bright in the night as the Rover braked, then pulled away…leaving us to stare as it disappeared.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Tobias asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered, because we’d run out of options…and people to trust. “I just don’t know.”
