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Not until the rest of our family is back with us, anyway.
The chirping answers make my knees grow weak and I nearly tumble. The whooshing of my blood flowing through my veins can be heard in my ear canal, making me grow dizzy.
“Gunner’s been shot. Country’s bike was swept out from underneath him. It hasn’t been confirmed, but we think he has a broken bone and can’t stand up on his legs without going down. We think it’s his hips. Shamus and Master took off to follow the car Luca and Mera were shoved in, but the prognosis on that isn’t a good one because they’re outnumbered.”
“No,” I whisper.
“They’re alive,Nipotina. That’s good. It means we have time to get them back,”Nonnosoothes.
His cooing does nothing to dispel my inward misery. I’m still in turmoil. If anything, it makes my imaginary diagnosis ten times worse.
“They’ll be tortured until they give in and answer their questions,” I murmur. “This is not good news,Nonno. They’ll know all the secrets of this house before the day is over.”
“If they do break, temptress, they still won’t get you. I’ll have soldiers hidden in every nook and cranny of this place. I will get them back, Shayne. I swear to you,” Julius states, stalling in his steps to wrap me in his arms. “I’ll get them back if it’s the last thing I do.”
“I know you will.” The only problem is, will it be the last thing he ever does?
Will I end up losing them all? Lose the only family I’ve ever had?
I should’ve kept my meeting with my brothers a secret and just did as they asked of me. At least that way, nobody would be crucified for me and my innate need for freedom.
Julius
Gunner endedup just having a graze that my doctor on staff easily treated by stitching it up, bandaging the wound and giving him a dose of antibiotics.
Country has a compound fracture in his femur, so he’s off the streets and is on office duty, working behind the scenes, gathering intel from our sources.
Shamus and Master followed the car that shuttled Luca and Mera away as far as they could travel until they eventually ran out of gas. They were hours away from us so it took them over an hour to push their bikes to a gas station to fill up their tanks since they were in an isolated location. At least we now have a direction to head in.
Hours and days pass by with no word from the Crumleys. There’s been no ransom call, and the longer they’re missing, the further Shayne sinks into herself. She’s hardly eating, barely sleeping, and the circles under her eyes darken by the minute. I can’t stand to see the disappointment aimed my way as each hour passes by and I don’t have any more answers to provide to her. I’ve chosen to evade her unless we brush by each other in the hallways.
It makes me feel like a coward, but the only way I can ever put a smile back on her face is to locate Mera and bring her home.
Some of the girls, Charlee, Hemmi, Star, and Dottie, have come above ground during the daytime, leaving the kids with the other women while they try to help Shayne cope.
“Pops?” Charlee calls out my name as I hang up the phone. She knocks on my office door to be polite since she knows I’m drowning, and most of the time, I’m angry—very, very angry.
So unlike myself, it’s bringing up feelings from the past, emotions from the time I lost my truest love. That’s not to say I don’t love Shayne, because I do, but it’s a diametrical love. My adoration between the two women isn’t comparable. It’s just different, but both just as strong and fulfilling.
“What is it, Charlee girl?” I ask, trying to sound more upbeat than I am so that she’s not worried about speaking with me.
“I don’t know how to broach this, Pops.” She sighs.
“Since when are you hesitant to speak your mind, little girl. Spit it out. I have a few more phone calls I need to make before I head into town to meet with some informants.”
“I need you to do something for me while you’re in town, Pops.”
When I go to ask what that is, she holds up her hand, her palm facing me to halt me from saying anything further. I bob my head down to indicate she has the floor, and I’ll hear her out while keeping my lips zipped until she’s through.
“I need you to stop by the pharmacy and pick up a pregnancy test, Pops.”
“For whom?” I suspiciously ask.
“That doesn’t matter until I can confirm my hunch,” she answers.
“The hell it doesn’t,” I growl. “Who, Charlee girl?”
“I think you may have knocked Shayne up, Pops. With a baby.”
