Chapter Thirty
Idon’t know how long I’ve been out, but the blur of light as I come round blinds me. My hand goes up, trying to shield myself from whatever’s irritating my eyes. It gives me enough of a break to squint into the room. It’s different from where I was last time I was awake. Bigger.
“Gabby?” my voice croaks out.
There’s no response, nothing but an occasional bleep and the dull sound of a machine whirring beside me. I struggle to pull myself up, back propped on the headboard as I take stock of wherever the hell I am. It looks like a hotel room or suite, double doors at the end opening into a lounge area.
A nurse walks in, a smile on her face as she approaches.
“Good to see you awake, Mr Cane,” she says, picking up a chart from the end of the bed and coming to my side. She holds up a tube running out of my arm, flicking it and writing something down on the pad. “I think we can take this out now.”
“Where am I?” I ask, watching as she draws the needle out of my arm and takes the tube with it. “Where’s Gabby, my brother?”
“Recovery.”
That’s all I get. She just walks back out of the room again, slotting the clipboard back into place as she goes. I frown, glancing around the luxury room again, golds and creams on show, and then try to lift my legs from the bed. Pain sluices through my right side, knocking the breath out of me and sending me straight back to the headboard.
“Fuck.” That shit hurts.
Someone chuckles, clicking damn dice following the sound.
Asshole.
“Where the hell am I?” I ask, still dealing with the pain and waiting for him to come around the corner through the double doors. He does eventually, a smile plastered across his face as he looks me over. “And where’s Gabby?” He scowls at that, the smile dispersing as fast as it came.
“Not here.” He walks to the window beside me.
“Why?”
“Because I told her to go.”
“What?”
“Take a look at yourself, Nate. You know how close you were to dying?” The hell’s that got to do with anything? He rolls his dice some more, frowning. “About six seconds and fuck all luck helping you.” He turns to look at me, throwing his dice onto the bed by my hand. “You had worse odds than even they could give.”
“And that has something to do with Gabby because?” I try to move my legs again, bearing the pain this time and managing to swing them to the side so I’m looking at him. “You call her and get her here. Now.”
“No. This is all her fault. It’s done. She’s gone and you’re safe, for now.”
“I swear to god, Quinn, if you don’t call her I’ll—”
“What? You’ll what?” I lower myself to the floor, ready to find my phone and call her myself. Screw this crap. My legs buckle, my right side giving way completely under the pressure of my weight. He’s caught me and dumped me back on the bed before I can take another damn breath. “Stay there.” He picks up a glass of water and tries to hand it to me. “Drink.”
“Where the hell is she?” I snap, trying to get down again and knocking the water away. She’s been raped, and he thinks I want a drink of fucking water? He pushes his sleeves up, rolling them as he watches me and frowns. “It was all for her, Quinn. All of it. You think you can just send her away now it’s done?”
“You’re goddamn right it was,” he says quietly, pushing on my shoulder to stop me. “And you nearly died because of it.”
“And?” I push back, no strength there to force him off of me. “That’s what Cane is all about, isn’t it? Killing anything that gets in the way of our route forward?” He frowns again. “She’s my route forward, Quinn. Call her or give me my fucking phone.”
He backs off after that, me hovering on the side of this damn bed unable to move, and him scowling back at me as he crosses to a chair. He chuckles after a few minutes as if something is funny. As far as I can tell not one goddamn thing is funny.
“You should have seen yourself in there, Nate,” he says, his head tilting at me. “You made big brother proud.”
“Fuck you.”
There’s nothing to be proud of about what happened in that warehouse, certainly not me. The only thing of any relevance is that Gabby got out alive—us, too, if that has any merit. “You called Frankie and Jon’s families yet?” He scowls and looks towards the window. “Didn’t think so.”
“They’ll be compensated.”
