“Gio,” Avion grumbled. “We’re fine. How’s your dad?”
I looked back over my shoulder where my mom had my dad’s arm slung around her and she was dragging him out of the closet. Tamryn was otherworldly strong, and she was holding him up well enough on her own, but his eyes were also open if even weary-looking. “He’s in rough shape. We’re gonna head back to the estate too.”
“No,” Tamryn said. “A hospital.”
“Avion. I’ll see you there.”
“Yeah. Go. Bye.”
The line went dead and I turned to face my parents fully. My dad was not looking good, but he was hanging in there. “Remember them trying to get to Avion? I’ve thought about it and I don’t think a hospital is safe. We’ve got a licensed surgeon living in right now. Anything she can’t do, we can have brought in. We need to stay close and behind my wall for right now. Dad can be treated there and then you two are staying with me indefinitely.”
“Merrick and Avion under one roof?” Tamryn said. “You sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s probably a terrible one,” I said, then took in full inventory of the carnage of my parents’ home, “but somehow I think that is the least of our problems.”
“You don’t think they’re done?” Tamryn asked.
I shook my head. “No. This wasn’t them trying to get the job done, this was a warning. The Narzand brothers are only just getting started.”
43
AVION
The shifting car gear made me jump as it clicked into place. The moon was high in the sky now, shimmering through the windshield, and the sight of the city polluting the night sky so that not a star was present was actually a little calming to me. It felt like it had been months since I was in the open air of the city.
Well… ithadbeen months.
“I need you to make this quick,” Milli said. “I’d prefer for my bandage of choice to not be my hand.”
I sneered at him. “I told you that this could wait, but you insisted.”
“Something you’ll learn about me, Avion, is that I’m not a guy who doesn’t show grace for a favor. You always want someone to be willing to help you again.” He fluttered his hand towards the passenger’s car door. “Besides, there’s no guarantee we would have had the time to do this otherwise.”
“The time?” I said. “Or you don’t think Gio would have let me out to do it?”
His eyes flicked all around my face before settling calmly in mine. “He’s just doing what he thinks is best.”
That was his way of saying I was still an investment in a half-million dollar debt that Milli was certain Gio wasn’t going to risk to let me come and hug my best friend. Even if the feelings I had for Gio were something different -- and even scarier, real -- it didn’t mean that he didn’t still see me as collateral.
“Well, thank you,” I said. “I’ll be quick. I promise.”
Lorie lived in a high-rise in Manhattan that she let her parents pay for in exchange for them arming the place with high security. The daughter of a police chief in New York City was frequently the target of more than one criminal’s ire, so it was a win-win for Lorie who both got to be protected and have her $3,000-a-month apartment fully paid for.
It did, however, mean that I couldn’t just go waltzing through the front door. If anyone reviewed her security footage and saw me, she’d get in far more than just a marginal amount of trouble, so once I was outside, I sent a “Here,” text and waited. I saw the light click on in her unit, and a few minutes later she was walking off the elevator and striding through the lobby with purpose. Her blond hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was wearing a pair of her pink, silk pajamas. It looked so normal that I didn’t really realize until that moment how long it had been since my life had been normal.
For some reason, I didn’t miss it all that much.
Only after Lorie threw her arms around me and took a nice big squeeze, did she then lean away and swat me on my arm. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I know,” I said, “but… no one really knew what to expect. We just thought we were going to check on Gio’s dad.”
“What happened to Gio’s dad?” She kept looking all around like she was afraid a mobster was gonna jump right out of the bushes and snatch her.
“He was attacked… shot.”
She put her hands to her mouth. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah, and listen Lor …” Now it was me looking all around anxiously. “I think it may have been my brothers.”
