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He didn’t say another word and neither did I, not when we filed out of the mansion, not when we got into the bulletproof SUV Lorenzo always rode in, and not when we sped down the driveway.
Time was of the essence, but there was something niggling at me, something telling me that I wasn’t quick enough.
* * *
PEYTON
“Peyton?”
Something landed on my shoulder—the one that had crashed into the toilet—and it woke me immediately with a start, the pain so unbearable I cried out. “Ow!” I winced, trying to sit up with my eyes still closed.
Nope. That was a mistake.
“No, stay down, P.” I blinked, the voice sounding familiar, and when my vision finally cleared, the blurriness going away a little but not completely, I saw the outline of my big brother. What was he doing here?
“Ace?” I frowned, the move causing my face to throb. “What are you doing here?”
He kneeled down beside me, his hands hovering over my body, not touching, but just held above me, almost as if he was too scared to come any closer. “What happened, P?” he asked, his tone quiet and broken.
I swallowed, my hand reaching down to my stomach as the memory of the pregnancy test flashed in my mind.No.“The baby,” I gasped out, reaching for Ace. My bloody fingers staining his skin as I made contact with his arm.
“Baby?” He held my hand in his, placing it on the side of his face as he came closer. “What baby, P? Who did this to you? What happened?”
I closed my eyes, feeling the tears spring to life. I couldn’t hold them back, not anymore, because deep down…deep down…IknewTravis had accomplished his mission. If the pain in my stomach wasn’t enough to go by, then the wetness on my thighs was.
“I told you,” I started, feeling the roughness of my voice as I opened my eyes back up and stared at the shattered face of my older brother. “Travis.” His eyes swirled with questions, then answers, and finally acceptance.
And all the while, I lay there, not moving an inch, utterly wrecked at the truth I knew, the reality of what Travis had done to me. He hadn’t just hurt me this time…
“How long?” Ace growled out, letting go of my hand and moving some hair out of my face.
I sniffled, trying to move again, but it hurt too much, mentally and physically. “I…more or less from the beginning.”
Ace stared down at me, his expression turning to stone. Nowthatwas the Ace that everyone was scared of.Thatwas the Ace who would take your life in an instant and not regret it. He was the big brother I needed in that moment, not the one who had been manipulated by my husband.
“You should have come to me, P,” he growled, lifting up onto his haunches. “You should have told me.”
I nodded, because I should have. I shouldn’t have let it go as far as it did, but without all of that pain, I wouldn’t have had Kian and Reed and— “Where are the boys?” I lifted up, not caring a single bit that the entire room was spinning around me and I had to reach out to Ace to feel like I wasn’t falling. Panic rose up so much that I couldn’t quite catch my breath.
Ace frowned, trying to keep me upright, but I could see how his gaze was thrashing around my body, taking stock of me. He halted on my neck, and there was no doubt he was seeing the bruises there. “They’re at home.”
“No.” I tried to lift up, wincing and groaning in pain, but then my head went fuzzy, more fuzzy than usual. “He’s going to hurt them. He said he was going to hit me where it hurt the most.”
Ace stood suddenly, causing me to fall back to the ground. “Over my dead fuckin’ body will that motherfucker get near my nephews.” He yanked out his cell, shot off a message, a pinged reply came a second later. “Done. He’s on the blacklist.”
Holy shit. The blacklist. My heart pounded, knowing what happened to people who went onto the blacklist—onto Ace’s blacklist. Their time on this earth was numbered, but they always knew about it. It was a game of chase to Ace. He’d told me about it once, but that didn’t appeal to me, but now…now I wanted to know all of the ins and outs.
“Ace,” I slurred, my hand reaching up but missing him. “I…I don’t feel—”
“Fuck.” His arms banded around me, lifting me effortlessly within seconds. “Stay with me, P. Don’t close those eyes.”
I tried not to, I really did, but it was so hard. He cocooned me, his pine scent the last thing I remembered as everything turned black, snatching me away from the pain that was consuming me and bestowing me with complete numbness.
CHAPTER 16
RAFAEL
My knee bobbed up and down to an erratic rhythm, my entire body on edge the closer we got to our destination. I’d heard the name of the hospital when Lorenzo had told Mateo where to go, and the navigation system was keeping us informed on how long it would take until we arrived.
