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“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, my brother meeting his maker.”
“I’m feeling loved today. First Carmen got pissy with me, and now you.”
“The way I heard it, it was the other way around, with you being a grumpy shit. She had a go at me over you.”
“You’d be grumpy too with a hole in your chest.” I pat down my side, my skin covered by an ugly blue gown, feeling nothing but a small bandage. “What the fuck? I thought I’d have been cut open from head to toe?”
“Yeah— You were hemorrhaging air, not that heavy on the bleeding. They didn’t have to expose your innards, it was enough with a chest tube apparently.” He pulls the chair to the bed and sits next to me. “What happened?”
My feelings about what happened are a jumbled mess. My body still wants Kerry like I need my next breath. At the same time I carry a dark heavy weight of rage at how she tricked me and beat the shit out of me. My nose and my lips are swollen. I don’t have to check to know I must look like shit. And she shot me. She almost killed me. I fucking like to live. I know for sure I don’t want to know what level of Hell awaits me on the other side. Not yet.
I also know I don’t want to talk about her with anyone. She’s nobody’s business but mine.
“Things went to shit.”
“No kidding,” answers my brother.
“Does Angela know?”
He waits a beat too long.
“She hasn’t visited?”
Nathan shakes his head.
Okay. I get it. Too close to our uncle.
“Get me out of here, Nate.”
He doesn’t object. We have medical staff we can call in, and I can recuperate at home. I really need to get out of here, and I really fucking need to talk to Salvatore. Kerry is mine. She’s my responsibility. She’s still on his hit list, maybe even more now than before, and I don’t want anyone else’s filthy hands on her.
Kerry Jackson is fucking mine.
“Didn’t go too well,did it?” Salvatore’s voice is filled with dark mirth, a taunt.
“I’ll make it happen,” I grit out. “I’ll end her.”
“Resourceful little lady. How did she best one of my most ruthless men?”
I sigh, yet again reliving the moments in the harbor. I know perfectly well what happened. I thought I was the one seducing her, when in fact it was her the whole time, working her innocent female charm on me.
“As soon as I’m healed up, I’ll be on it. She’s dead.”
“I know she is, nephew, I know she is. When you have set your mind on something, there’s no stopping you.” He turns to leave, but then looks back at me. “And I know you’re well and properly motivated.”
Salvatore smirks and disappears through the door.
The mess I’m in is epic. I have no idea how I’ll solve this shit.
I don’t hate Kerry.
I fucking miss her.
Twelve
Kerry
The night is silent. I sway from the lack of sleep. I can’t remember when I last ate. I’m not even sure it was today. My chest is a hole. My stomach is a hole. I haven’t showered in three days. That morning, after I got home, after I had showered, when my skin was red, hurting and raw, I put on two layers of soft pants, three layers of sweaters, thick socks, and I haven’t removed them since. I can barely even remember what has happened since.
