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“He took our phones,” she mumbles. Then pulling back, she holds on until he puts her on her own two feet. “He took them from us, and then there was this big rush when we got out, and I couldn’t get it back.”
“They said there were three injured. Three, Aubs! Two of them were gunshot victims, and I didn’t know if you were one of them.”
“Not me.” She circles her brother’s torso with her arms and presses her face close. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt at all. I promise.”
“But—”
“Not a scratch. But Minka…”
Her breath heaves as the man finally looks past his sister and stops on the bed in the middle of the room. On the patient bruised from head to toe.
Then he looks to me, and the chain hung around my neck.
“Detective Malone?” His blue stare slides back up to stop on my green one. But he doesn’t release his sister. He doesn’t give her even an inch. “W-we haven’t met. But I know who you are.”
“Just like I know who you are.” I don’t stand. I don’t release Minka’s hand. But I flatten my lips and nod in greeting. “You’ve met my wife.”
“I have.” He glances down at Minka’s broken body. Tiny in the massive bed; weak, when she so rarely allows herself to be seen that way. “Your, uh…” he pokes a thumb over his shoulder. “Your brother got me into the hospital.”
“My brother?”
“Felix?” Eli shrugs, like he doesn’t really know his name, and cares even less.
But then Felix himself steps through the doorway and meets my eyes with an inferno burning in his.
Maybe I was expecting his usual smirk. HisI-give-no-fucksattitude. So when I find fire instead, a lump of emotion lodges deep in my throat until he cuts across the room and yanks me from my chair to pull me into a hug.
Minka’s hand remains in mine, so her arm extends to keep us connected. But Felix doesn’t tug me far. He wraps me in a crushing hug that makes my stomach dip, and claps my back with three loud thumps I’m not sure we’ve ever exchanged in my life.
He’s my father’s secondborn. He’s a fuckin’ pig. A product of the lifestyle our father chose. He kills. Destroys. Has no issue slitting throats or bedding someone else’s woman.
He and I are not the same.
But he squeezes me tight and allows me a moment of weakness, the way Eli does for Aubree.
“What the fuck, man?” Stepping back, he releases me, but slips between me and Minka and swaps my hand for his.
He holds her, intimate enough to make my lungs constrict, but he leans over her, solemn and serious for the first time in his life, and presses a kiss to her brow. “Why’d you have to be a hero?” he whispers to her. “Huh? There were other people there to sacrifice, Doc. You’re supposed to leave the best for last. And you…” He tilts his head to study her peaceful expression. “Are the fucking best.”
“Give her back to me.” I’m careful as I nudge him to the side. Gentle, as I bring her hand to mine and swallow it up in my palm. “Not for you to touch.”
With the ice broken and feelings expressed, Felix chuckles and adopts his usual carefree personality as he claps my shoulder one last time. Then he circles the bed, passing Aubree and Eli, to wrap Tim in a hug.
“I saw all of you motherfuckers on the news.” Stepping back, he spares a look for Eli. “Well, not you. But you,” he smiles for Aubree. “I’d recognize your face anywhere. And after that footage on the TV…” He leans around to peek at her ass. “I’d recognize you from the frontandback.”
“Felix.” Tim raises a single, threatening brow in warning. “Don’t make me remove you.”
“What?” He throws his hand up and laughs. “I hit on Doctor Delicious all the time. It’s our thing.” But then he casts a salacious grin toward Aubree. “Now I have Doctor Derrière too.”
“Dude!”
“Felix Malone.” Sighing, Aubree looks him up and down with a judgmental eye. She was afraid of this man after their last encounter. Terrified, after finding the mess he left behind: a dead woman, her throat slit, and her blood pooling on the floor. No one could ever accuse Felix of being a normal, innocent, contributing member of society. “I’m sad to see you haven’t passed away in your sleep.”
He drops his hands in his pockets and rocks on the back of his heels. “Sassy. I like it.” Then he shoots a hard look to Eli. “Is there a reason you’re holding my brother’s girl, bub?”
“Your brother’s girl?” Eli’s focus shoots across to Tim. “What?” Then he brings his fiery stare back to his sister. “Something you need to tell me?”
“No.”
