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Mentally throwing my hands up, I dropped onto the far side of the forward-facing bench and tucked myself into the corner, impatiently waiting for the other two to get in.
Misha didn’t seem to have the same problem deciding, since he slid in beside me with ease.
Anton closed the door and hopped back into his own seat, turning with his brows raised. “Boss?”
Misha looked at me expectantly and I spit out the address. Then we were off. Once we were on a real road instead of the alley, Misha added something in Russian. Anton nodded and the Escalade sped up.
“What sort of emergency are we rushing into?” Misha asked with a calmness that I found grating at the moment. Then again, he didn’t have any skin in the game, so why should he care?
“My brother,” I muttered, hoping the fucker didn’t die by the time I got there so I could kill him myself.
“What happened?”
“If I had to guess, drugs. My sister said she can’t wake him up. I’m sure she would have noticed if he got his ass shot, but who knows.”
Misha nodded but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he reached across the space between us and covered my hand with his. The physical warmth was a comfort against the numbness, but it was also more than that. If I could borrow just a smidge of his confidence, maybe I’d feel slightly better about walking into that house and facing whatever nightmare was inside. Knowing I’d still have a job when it was all said and done took some of the weight off of my shoulders.
A little more than thirty minutes later, we arrived, thanks to Anton breaking several traffic laws along the way. As soon as the Escalade stopped in front of my shitty childhood home, I bailed out of the SUV and bolted up the porch stairs.
Ezra was crying on the couch, hugging an old pillow. He jumped up when I came in but I rushed past him.
“Stay there!” I barked, taking the stairs two at a time.
Bri was with Axel, lying halfway in his bedroom and half in the hall. She smacked his face and shook him, sobbing and yelling his name, begging him to wake up. Wrappers and two empty bottles of Narcan lay on the floor next to her, which only made my stomach twist that much harder. He’d been dosed twice and hadn’t come out of it yet.
Axel’s head and chest were soaked, more than likely from the empty water bottle by his head. Beneath the sheen, his skin was abnormally pale but at least his lips hadn’t started turning blue.
“Go downstairs,” I snapped at Bri, pushing her toward the stairs. She sure as shit didn’t need to look at him anymore, plus there was hardly any room in the hallway. “Now!”
Dropping to my knees next to the asshole’s head, I slapped his face, hard. He rocked with the motion, not even flinching. “Axel! Can you hear me? Playtime’s over, dickhead. Wake up!”
I ground my knuckles into his sternum, rubbing up and down as hard as I could—so hard he’d have fucking bruises if he made it til sunrise.
“You’re not leaving me with all of this shit! Do you hear me? I can’t do this without you! Wake the fuck up!” I screamed, slamming my fist on his chest.
A strong hand shoved me out of the way. I teetered to the side and fell on my ass, making room for whoever it was.
Misha knelt beside me, setting a medical bag on the ground. He pulled out two syringes and bit down on the ends of the needles, uncapping them with his teeth before jamming them straight into Axel’s thigh. I didn’t have the first clue what it was, but it had to be better than the over-the-counter shit.
For each second that passed, my internal screaming got louder.
What if Axel didn’t fucking wake up? What if he did but he was brain-damaged? What if he died? Just like Levi. Another sibling in the ground. How many was that? Three? That I knew of. Levi, the fucking junkie, and two other babies Crystal couldn’t even bother naming on the death certificates. Axel would make four. Four dead kids, three living—if you could callthisliving.
“Can you hear me?” Misha asked, loud but calm. So.fucking.calm. He gave Axel another sternum rub before laying his hand on Axel’s stomach. After a moment, he tried again, running his knuckles along Axel’s ribs. “Come on! I know you’re there. Open your eyes!”
Axel sucked in a breath, but his eyes didn’t open. Still, it was fucking progress.
“Ax? Ax! Wake up!” I shook his shoulder roughly.
His eyelids opened briefly before his eyes rolled up in his head again with a low groan.
“Not good enough, asshole!” I punched him in the arm as hard as I could. Maybe if he woke up with enough bruises on him, he’d think twice about taking whatever the fuck it was that got him into this mess.
Axel’s nose wrinkled and he squeezed his eyes shut, mumbling, “Go away.”
“Go away? Go away?! You stupid motherfu—” My attempt to pounce on Axel and beat the ever-loving shit out of him was thwarted by Misha’s arms locking around my waist from behind. Furious, I swung wildly, simultaneously trying to hit Axel and claw my way out of Misha’s bear hug.
Misha stood, hauling me to my feet at the same time, and dragged me to the top of the stairs like I was a fucking doll. Since Axel officially had a pulse, nothing could stop my rage from spilling out.
