He frowned. “That’s not funny. If anything happened to you, Sloan would follow.” He pursed his lips. “And I like having youbothin my life.”
“Aww. You love me.” I laid a hand on my chest, ignoring how fast my heart was under my palm, and it wasn’t because of Fionn’s words. My heart had been racing like this for short periods over the last couple of days for no reason. I suspected what had started out as stress was snowballing into full-blown anxiety. “You love your papa. I’m so happy. You’re my favorite son.”
Fionn rolled his eyes and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “that’s because I’m your only son,” shocking another laugh from me. Daire glanced at us from Fionn’s other side, amusement glittering in his eyes.
The lights around the arena dimmed until it was pitch black, and I focused on the cage. Mishura and the Polish man walked into the middle of the ring, where a referee stood. While the referee was there to interfere if it went too far, there were basically no limits. I’d seen men die in that cage—bloodied and broken and dragged out of the ring as a corpse.
“Gentlemen, you know the rules.” The referee grinned meanly. “There are no rules. The match will go until one person is unconscious or concedes. Understood?”
The two fighters nodded and tapped their wrapped hands to each other’s.
“Good luck.”
I took a deep, shuddery breath as a whistle blew, and focused all my attention on the fight.
I closed my eyes, the sounds of the match narrowing as a high-pitched ringing echoed in my ears. My vision swam, an array of blurriness around the edges with golden dots flashing in front of me. Every one of my limbs grew heavy, and when I squeezed my fingers into a fist, nails digging into my palm, it felt like my hand belonged to someone else.
This wasn’t right.
Damn it.
Before I knew it, before I could comprehend what was happening in front of me, the fight was over—the Ukrainian won, so we went over to give our congratulations.
Getting to the car was more of a sprint than a leisurely walk, and I led the pack. Ready to get out of here and sleep off whatever was happening to me.
If I could sleep it off, I would have already.I ignored the thought.
I groaned when Ronan, Fionn, and Daire were in the car and ran my palms over my face. My head throbbed. The lights of the match had finally taken their toll, and my body ached as though I’d been the one in the ring. My neck was stiff and moving my head produced excruciating spasms that had me whimpering.
Fionn glanced at me from where he sat beside me in the back seat of the car. Daire and Ronan were in the front, with Ronan at the wheel. “I don’t think you’re as fine as you tell me you are. Conall...are you depressed?”
I didn’t have the energy to argue. Everything fucking hurt and my vision was growing blurrier. I shivered through a flash of heat. The world around me went from cold to hot and back again.
“Sure,” I replied easily. “I miss him, but so do you.”
“Sir?” Ronan peered at me through the rearview mirror. “Do you need to go to the EK?”
He was referring to the Eoin Killough Memorial Hospital, a place Sloan had built for both the legitimate and illegitimate side of our business.
“No. Take me home.” I leaned against the door and exhaled, another tremble sliding through me. “I want to go to bed.”
“Sir.” Daire turned in his seat, focused on me. “It’s best if we have a doctor look at you.”
“For what? Being sad? I saidno,” I snapped, harsher than I’d meant to. “I’m a fucking adult. I can take care of myself.”
Daire and Fionn looked at each other, and I hated that they were talking without saying a word. Sloan and I did that, but now he was in jail. Away from me. Too fucking far.
“I talked with the boss,” Daire said, earning my attention.
I forced myself to sit up. “Why? What did he say? I haven’t heard from him in days. Is something wrong?”
“He’s fine, sir. He’s worried about you.”
I groaned and lay back against the headrest. “Well, you can tell him his pet is perfectly healthy and ready for his dick. So he needs to get out of that jail quick.”
I didn’t open my eyes to see their reaction. We were closing in on the house, and all I wanted to do was find my room and sleep. Or try. Everything had become so hard. How could my life become so entangled with Sloan that doing the basic things to survive was difficult without him? I was heartsick for him and his presence. Maybe that was what all thisillnesswas. Once he came home, everything would go back to normal.
“I just received a message that our inside man has taken care of the evidence,” Daire said. That little announcement was enough to get my attention again.
