Page 3 of His End Game

Nodding, I don’t get the chance to answer when a nurse bustles through the door. She checks me over and I lay there, trying to put my memories of India into focus. She was in my arms. I could feel her, every inch of her soft, supple body. We were at home, and I felt at peace once again. The peace that’s now ebbing away like the tide leaving the shore.

“I’ll let the doctor know you’re back with us,” the nurse says, but I’m not listening.

As she leaves, Dad walks in and the relief washing over him hits me like a baseball bat.

“I got shot.”

I’m not sure why I blurt that out. He stops at the side of my bed and leans over and kisses my forehead.

“Yeah, you did and I’ve gotta say, you’re taking your sweet time getting back on your feet.”

I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt to, and Mom shoves him in the arm. Through his messing, I see the gut-wrenching worry buried deep in his eyes.

Maybe it’s because I came close to dying, and I’m seeing shit differently, but my dad is looking older. The lines around his eyes are deepening and the greys have come in thick around his ears.

Looking at my mom, I say, “I wanna see Rayna. Can you get her here?”

“Sure.”

With a kiss to my forehead, and a stark warning to Dad and Luca not to wear me out, she grabs her purse and leaves.

Dad pulls up a chair and Luca takes Mom’s seat. The fucker kicks his boots up on the edge of my bed and only because I don’t have the energy to shove him off, I leave it.

“So, you planning on lying on your back all day?”

I snort. “Your concern is overwhelming.”

Ignoring my brother, I look at Dad and ask, “What happened after I went down?”

“JJ and the others shot the fuck outta of the Dead Rat president. He’s no longer a problem to anyone.”

The fucker wouldn’t have had anyone to escape to after letting off the first shot. It was a suicide mission, and he would’ve known it. His club was destroyed after the Haywards blew it sky high. He was lucky to be the only survivor.

“How long have I been out?”

The Haywards’ seven-day order comes flooding back to me. Jamie Boy made himself clear he wanted her dead within the week.

“Four days.”

“That leaves us three days to take down Effie.”

Luca takes his boots off the bed and leans forward, his arms resting on his thighs.

“With you taking your time getting your shit together, three days won’t be enough,” my brother informs me sarcastically.

“No shit.”

“Seven days was never going to be enough time,” Dad says, adding, “I’ll let Jamie Boy know we’ll do it, but it’ll be in our own time.”

Focusing on Effie’s death will help me on the road to recovery. Shit, the thought of her taking her last breath is already making me feel better.

Dad says something to Luca about sending a couple of brothers to Dog City to see if they can gain more information, but my eyelids grow too heavy, and I close them… just for a minute.

Only when I open them, the sun is setting, and Dad and Luca are nowhere in sight. The door opens and my little girl bounces into the room, followed by Mom and Holly.

“Daddy!”

“Hey, sweetheart,” I croak out as she tries to climb up the side of the bed.

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