I look at him wildly. My hatred boils over. He whispers, “Youcantrust me. I want you to live.”
“Why?” I sob, tears obscuring my vision. Dread is curling into my bones now. It feels like the end.
“Same reason Rian does.” He hesitates. “Those babies…they’re ours, aren’t they? They belong to one of us.” He shakes me. “Aren’t they? Talk to me!”
Tears stream into the grass. I nod. “Yeah,” I croak. “They’re someone’s.”
“Okay. Here’s the plan, Caroline. I’m keeping these guns. You’re going to open the passenger door and let Rian out. Help him, dress his wounds. I’m going to get Declan out. And then we’re going to tell Declan thetruth.You’re going to promise to begood.” He cups my cheeks in his hands, shaking my head slightly. “And to keep your mouthshut. Forever.”
“What if he doesn’t care?” I whimper, the fear too thick to even consider. But I need to know if I’ll ever see my boys again.
“He’ll care because ourathairwill care.”
“Athair?”
“Our father.”
And then a new fear snakes around my heart. Their father.
Am I going to meet the man who raised these animals?
18
DECLAN
I awakenas if born into the world. I remember nothing and feel everything. A hot, searing pain seems to rip open my chest. Above me, Caroline is unbuttoning my shirt. I swat at her hands, but I can hardly move them. It hurts to even breathe. “Let me help,” she murmurs over me. “You’re bleeding.”
I manage to look down.So I am.
Haloed in the sunlight, her blonde hair shines. Blood is spread across her nose. She looks like the angel of death, and I gasp when her fingers swipe my chest. The pain is unbearable and spreading, and my breaths feel thin.
Beyond her, Rian is sitting under a tree trunk, drinking water and looking dazed, his eyes gazing over the empty span of dirt in front of us. “I think the helicopter could land here,” he tells Kellan, who nods in response, a cell phone in his hand.
Caroline untucks my shirt, her hands so close to my dick that if I had any function left, I’d be stiff right now. She must see me twitch because a small smirk bites into her cheek. She rips thebottom of my shirt until she has a ribbon of fabric and barks at Rian, “I need your water!”
Who is she to talk to us like that?I try to sit up, but she pushes me back down, and the slight pressure of her hand knocks the wind out of me.
Rian pads over and takes a lingering chug of the water before passing it to her open palm.Why are they treating her like this? We could have been killed.I want to say it, but my mouth is dry and won’t cooperate.
Caroline pours the water onto me, and when I glance down, I see an open wound that starts on my sternum and spreads down to my ribs. She pushes part of the fabric into my cut and sticks the rest of it to my skin with water. Sweat ignites at my forehead at the sudden pain, and I start to lose the small amount of consciousness I have.
She pours water onto her hand and slips her hand behind my neck. There’s sudden relief in her touch, and I feel something resembling gratitude toward her as I crawl back toward consciousness. I’ve never cared for anyone’s wounds. I’ve never had anyone care for mine. Usually, in my line of work, a wound precedes death.
Rian takes the water bottle back and crouches down near me. The right side of his face is badly bruised, and his eye is nearly hidden in the folds of a purple welt. “Right, you’ll be okay. Here’s the deal,deartháir. She’s had all this time to call the police while we were stuck upside down and unable to move, and she didn’t. She’s taken care of me, and she’s taken care of you now too. She won’t tell anyone what she saw.”
Caroline adds, “I’ll even testify for you.”
“We’re going to get a helicopter to come get us, and she’s going to come with us while we convince our father. She’s still a prisoner until she testifies, but…she wants to live, and we’re going to let her.”
I try to sit up, and Caroline’s hand snakes under my back to help me up. I growl at Rian, “We don’t have that choice.”
“Yes, Declan, we do. And it’s our only choice.”
“And why’s that? Because she helped you out of a car wreck? Women are weak like that. They can’t face death. Don’t be pathetic.”
“Because my children belong to one of you,” Caroline says simply, her hand still on my back, keeping me steady.
The world seems to freeze. My eyes lock on hers even through the pain in my chest and side. Seeing the look on my face, she adds, “That makes me a part of your little mafia family, doesn’t it?”
