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His statement has my brows shooting up in question.
He continues, “Sergei had a watch placed on your apartment. When we went in to grab your things, they got my license plate number. They ran it through one of their contacts at the Detroit PD.”
I know what happened next. I don’t need him to go on.
“What about the Russian you took hostage? I know he was shot too—I saw him bleeding from the shoulder when you guys tied him up.”
“Our doctor is taking care of him. He’ll live, but we don’t plan on letting him go anytime soon. We’ll use him as leverage. He’s Sergei’s cousin.”
I sit in silence for a moment, processing it all.
“Serenity,” he says gently. “Why are you here?”
“W-what do you mean? I’m checking to see if you’re all right.”
“No—I mean why aren’t you at home getting ready for the funeral?”
The fog of grief and shock I’ve been living in clears with one word.
Funeral.
I gape at Patrick. “Nathan’s funeral’s today.”
Compassion hits his eyes so like Heath’s that it shoots me back to the moment Heath came into the room and told me what he was doing for my brother. It slipped my mind, I blocked it out, my brain couldn’t handle it.
Now it’s hitting me that everything I’ve been living is true. My brother did take a bullet for me. He’s being laid to rest today, not cremated as Heath originally said. Why did he change his mind?
“Go home and get ready, honey,” Patrick says. “Do you need me to get you a driver?”
“N-no.” I scrub my hands over my face to clear away more of the fog clinging to me like a disease. The fact I had no recollection of the funeral or of Heath coming to me in the past few days scares the shit out of me.
I meet Patrick’s concerned gaze. “I have one of your drivers waiting for me.”
When I start to get up from the bed, he catches me by the hand. I swing back to him.
“Serenity, what I said earlier about how my family views you… I was wrong to say those things. Heath set me straight.”
I nod. “It’s okay.” On impulse I hug him. “I’m gladyou’reokay.”
He offers me a smile when I pull back, one of those crooked ones that melt the hearts of every woman who comes in contact with a Connolly. “See ya later, kid.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “Kid? I’m pretty sure I’m older than you.”
“Yeah, yeah. But I’m an old soul. Everyone knows it.”
As I head out of the hospital and get into the car again, I should feel lighter from settling things with Patrick. But I’m far from that because of what lays ahead for me.
Just when I believed I’d lived through my darkest hours after my dad’s betrayal, my isolation…and losing Heath all those years ago… I have something to rival it.
My brother is being laid to rest today.
Heath
Aheavy silence hangs over the church. My brothers and I stand at the doors, ready to do our duty.
It’s a duty I set for us. After what Nathan did for Serenity, it’s only right to honor him. Having him cremated wasn’t enough closure for her. I hope this will be.
I was brought up Irish Catholic. My roots have shown me the benefits of a funeral ritual. Burying several friends and associates of the Connollys, I see how this experience can help Serenity break out of her shocked silence.
