She held up her hand to him, and he shut his mouth immediately. I’d never seen it happen that quickly. “I am not here to reprimand you, Mr. Shaughnessy, I am merely offering you some help, sugar. Usually we have a hotel doctor, but he’s visitin’ his family for the holidays a little early. We do have a backup if you’d like me to call him.”
Rowen’s defenses disappeared and his shoulders loosened. “That would be bloody amazing.”
She laughed and spun on her heel. Over her shoulder, she said, “He’ll knock on your door when he arrives.”
Cillian snorted and turned me around again, but not before I could give a worried Vail my best imitation of a smile. We got to the door and Rowen slid in the key card. When the locksnicked, Rowen jerked at the handle and pushed the door open, and Cillian dragged me inside. To my surprise, he didn’t toss me on the bed like I’d expected. With the help of Aspen, they got me onto my back on the left side of the mattress and rearranged my legs so I wasn’t in an awkward position. Someone slid a pillow under my broken arm, which hurt but was nice at the same time, and with my swollen eye I couldn’t tell who’d done it.
After I’d made it out of the ring, I’d barely managed to move, but as soon as the other guys were released from wherever they’d been held, they’d helped me put on a shirt and shoes before we left. The entire ride back had been accompanied by Cillian cursing up an Irish storm, calling Uhlig names I couldn’t quite understand, but that might’ve had something to do with my head spinning.
But now we were here, back in the hotel room with a soft mattress under my back, and I felt better.
“He needs a shower,” Vail said.
I didn’t open my eye—I didn’t even know when I’d closed it—but I heard murmuring and some groans.
“You need to help me shower him,” Vail said in a more forceful tone I hadn’t expected from him.
There was some movement and someone was pulling at my good arm again. Maybe I blacked out because when I woke next my skin was clean of grime and sweat, and I was back lying on the bed in a pair of boxers under the blankets.
A man stood at my side with his brown eyes narrowed thoughtfully on me. He had dirty blond hair and nice pink lips, and while helookedfamiliar, I couldn’t quite put my finger on who he was. The blue scrubs he wore said he was a medical professional, so I assumed he was the help Madam Winters was getting. “Why didn’t you take him to a hospital?”
Behind him was a man I didn’t recognize at all, but I didn’t need to because he had a leather jacket on with a patch that told me he was a King. The first thing I noticed after the insignia was the skull tattoo on his throat—orange blazing eyes, nose, and mouth, with a swirly design around the outside. It was pretty fucking awesome. He didn’t seem happy to be here because his arms were crossed over his massive chest and his nostrils flared, but he stood close to the doctor, as though he was his bodyguard.
“We couldn’t take him to the hospital, could we?” Cillian grumped from somewhere at the end of the bed, but I didn’t look because the pain was worse now that the fight adrenaline had worn off. Every single bone in my body was on fire and my skin itched from the agony. “We make a living staying off the cops’ radar. The last thing any of us want is yer PD thinking the Killough Company are in deals with yer brother.”
The doctor sighed and glanced at me, smiling. “Hi. Glad to see you’re awake. I’m Grant and I’m going to cast your arm and check over the rest of your injuries. Is that okay?”
“Why ye asking him for?” Cillian demanded.
This Grant guy sent him a glare. “Shut up.”
The skull-necked bodyguard stepped away from Grant and in the direction of Cillian’s voice, but Grant grabbed his arm and tugged him back.
“He’s fine, Kai. Leave him.” He huffed and pointed a finger at Cillian. “I’m here to help your friend at Madam Winters’ request. So, let me do my damned job.”
A wave of pain swept through me again and I groaned. “Painkillers,” I managed to get out between chapped lips.
The bed on my left side shifted slightly, and I managed to move my head enough to see Vail settle on the mattress beside me. He smiled sadly and laid a gentle kiss on my cheek, and even though it hurt there, too, I didn’t mind his lips on my skin.
“Here,” Grant said, and when I returned my attention to him, he had pills clutched in his fingers and reached out to slip them into my mouth. Next, a glass of water was placed at my lips and I sipped carefully. “They’re Oxy, so they’ll knock you out for a while and help with the pain. You can thank the Kings for that. They sell that crap, but they gave you these for free.”
“Thank you, oh mighty King,” I muttered, then laughed to myself. I glanced at Vail again and stared up at his high cheekbones and unusual brown eyes that seemed to have random specks of green in them—or maybe I was seeing things because my brain wasn’t entirely functional right now. The light above his head made him glow and he looked like he had a halo. “Good night, my sweet angel.”
“Rowen calls me angel,” he said, lips twitching toward a smile.
“He’s right.” I fell back into darkness again, and after a few long minutes the pain didn’t matter as much. It was still there but more of a distant nuisance. This time it felt like I was in a pool, floating on my back in cool water. Everything was peaceful and quiet. It would’ve been perfect if Vail had been snuggled up next to me.
When I finally opened my eyes—well, my left eye because the right one still wouldn’t work—the room was dark. There was only one light on at the desk in a corner across the room. I blinked away sleep and forced myself to sit up with some grunts.
“What are you doing?” Vail’s frantic voice reached my ears, and his fast footsteps padded across the floor. When he got to my side, his hands hovered over my chest like he wanted to push me back down again, but he didn’t do it. His frown made me think he was scared he would hurt me. My broken arm didn’t move the way I wanted it to, and it took me a second to figure out the cast was giving me trouble. I suspected it’d been on for a few hours. I’d had similar injuries twice before and it wasn’t fun to get things done with a cast like this. Mr. Killough wouldn’t be happy with me.
“Hi.” I grinned at him and forced my back against the headboard.
He chewed worriedly on his bottom lip. “You shouldn’t be sitting up.”
My mind was still fuzzy, and the Oxy was doing its job because my pain was tolerable. My thoughts jumped all over the place, racing a hundred miles per hour. This must be how Vail felt all the time, and I didn’t like it, but at least I wasn’t in agony. “I’m fine and dandy.”
“Dandy?” Vail slapped his hand over his mouth and his shoulders moved as he laughed behind his palm.
