“Fuck you?—”
“Stay.” His voice is wrapped in steel, enough problems on his shoulders, but she’s going to try and either walk all over him or break his trust.
And I don’t want either of those.
“Tell me something, brother,” I quip because I can’t let this go. Bay is going to be next on the list of deaths, or worse. The fact that she doesn’t want anything to do with Matteo is only going to make him want to keep her alive as torture.
Withhim.
Ozzy stands still, waiting for me to spit out what I’m curious to know and to make my damn point.
“How did she get to killing the blonde chick?”
His expressionless blues avert and stare at one of the machines behind me. “She escaped.”
I’m not trying to rub it in his face. I’m just attempting to show him how badly she’ll get what she wants if given the opportunity.
This isn’t a game, and Ozzy knows better. But he’s naive in the sense that he thinks she’ll ponder all the consequences before she does something. He’s been watching her from the sidelines, for fuck’s sake, he knows better.
“Doctor said they have to check on your wounds,” he mutters back without waiting for me to say anything more.
I scoff. “Ours can do that at home. I don’t need to be here anymore.”
“Why did you do it?”
My eyebrows pinch at him before his focus falls back to me. “Do what?”
“Step out in front of Wallace like that.”
I roll my eyes because I didn’t do itforhim. And it wasn’t like I ran out and jumped in front of him like a live human shield to catch a few for him either.
Then what would you call it?
I remember seeing Wallace bowed over a bit, then he got hit a few more times. It all happened so fast, and the next thing I knew, I was at his side, and then I wasn’t. I remember the searing hot metal ripping through my body, my men gathering me up to protect me and find cover. Wallace was lying in a pool of blood, face down. I was on the phone with Cairo… I recall Ozzy’s voice, and the edges of my vision started turning black.
“Don’t make me a hero, Oz. I’m not one.”
A few ticks of time roam by before he says, “You did it for her then.”
“I did it so it got me some cool battle wounds to brag about.” Ozzy isn’t an idiot. He’s not going to buy the crock of shit so I wave him away. “You need to get back. You don’t leave her side again. I’m for real. She has to eat, you’re with her. She has to take a piss, you’re there in the bathroom with your back to her. She needs air, you’ll be the one to crack the window and stand her in front of it. She doesn’t leave, Oz. Your eyesdon’tleave her.”
The soft ringing of a phone goes off then, and Ozzy fishes out his cell from his black jeans and tenses a little before bringing it up to his ear.
“Hello?” I stare at my cousin, and he literally gives nothing away. “With Torin.”
The phone is then held out for me to take seconds later, and I welcome the lifeline of the outside world, knowing exactly who it is.
“Brother, what the fuck is going on?” I greet, clutching the object with force.
“I dunno, dude…” Cairo lets out a heavy sigh, his exasperation filling the space between Oz and I because he’s on speakerphone. Nothing leaves my lips because Bay is never going to let this lie. She’s gonna take this hard as fuck. “Did he tell you?”
“Yeah… Is it true, though? That big motherfucker…got taken out by De Leon, of all fucking people?”
“That’s the way they’re making it sound.” I slowly shake my head because it doesn’t feel real. But I’m so used to Wallace being in my existence that I hate to say that he’s part of mine. “Oz checked, his body’s gone. Pronounced dead yesterday. Juice went to the funeral home yesterday?—”
“Where is she now?”
“Clutching a pencil like she’s about to stab me with it.” He lowers his voice. “She’s in the kitchen with the girls. Ellie is beside herself, and Mae…she’s drawing pictures.”
