J bats my hand like I’m a mosquito, but that’s about all the fight she has left because she wilts against me, settling right against the crook of my shoulder and neck like she was made to fit there.
A strange silence buzzes around me.
When I look up, Dutch jerks his head around to focus on the road while Sol brushes invisible dirt from his jacket.
Neither of them make another comment until we get to the hospital.
Chapter Eighteen
FINN
Dutch stops the car in front of the hospital. I drag my gaze between the door and J, wondering how I’ll get out while holding her.
“Do you need me to grab a wheelchair or something?” Dutch offers.
At that moment, J stirs awake. She notices that she’s still cuddling me, and her body reacts on impact. I feel every inch of her lock up in disgust before she slams her hand on my chest and uses my abs to propel herself upward.
I grunt.
The minx directly slapped my bruised ribs.
She did that on purpose.
“Finally, we’re here,” she mumbles, as if the entire drive in my arms had been pure hell.
I decide not to hold it against her. She no longer looks like a cadaver come to life and her eyes are brighter. The danger’s passed, but she still seems weak.
J pops the door open. “Dutch, Sol, it was great meeting you. Finn…” She flips me the bird, but she still hasn’t recovered, so itdoesn’t end well for her. Putting a hand to her chest, she glances up weakly through her fringe of blonde hair and rasps, “Let’s never see each other again, ‘kay?”
I allow her to stumble inside the hospital building on her own. A nurse meets her as soon as she walks past the desk. Immediately, someone brings a wheelchair for her.
“You’re just going to let her walk away?” Sol wonders.
“For now.”
“And later?”
I turn to my best friend with a blank expression.
Sol shudders. “That’s frightening.” He pats Dutch on the shoulder. “With that face, doesn’t he already look like the head of the yakuza?”
“That’s not funny,” Dutch mumbles.
“You realize that’s what he is,” Sol responds dryly.
Dutch’s nostrils flare. “We should head back to the house and figure out a plan. Now that we have J working with us, I want her to have everything she needs to make contact with Cadence.”
I’m not surprised Dutch is dancing around the subject of my eventual takeover of the yakuza. My brothers are more uncomfortable with me joining the organization than either of them will admit.
It’s not something we’ve talked at length about. I doubt it will ever be discussed. When it comes to this side of my life, they’ve accepted that some things are inevitable and it’s better if they don’t know the details.
A phone icon appears on the car’s dashboard. Sol taps the interface, and Zane’s voice blares through the speakers.
“You guys still at the hospital?”
“We’re just leaving,” Dutch says. “What did they find at the scene?”
Sol scratches the scars on his wrist that never healed properly. “Did one of the south side gangs get loose in the suburbs?”
