I felt the heat crossing my jaw and it had nothing to do with embarrassment. “Mental and emotional? Do you think I’m faking this goddamn pain?”
He stood staring at me with hard, cold eyes.
“Why don’t I shoot you in the goddamn thigh and you tell me how it feels.” My hand was close to crushing the thick crystal. If I wasn’t mistaken, I’d heard a crack.
“You’re ignoring your physical therapist.”
“He’s an idiot.”
“You didn’t and refuse to listen to your surgeon.”
Huffing, I threw him a look. “A fucking moron.”
Alexander nodded several times. “No one is good enough for you. You can afford the world’s best doctors and you’ve had a couple of them, yet you can’t stand a single one of them. And don’t say it. You’re pissed that you aren’t immortal. Well, guess what. No one is. And for fuck’s sake, we’re not getting any younger. You’ve run full speed your entire life, refusing to back down or even take a vacation.”
“I take vacations!”
“When? Tell me the last time.”
I was eager and ready for an instant retort. Until I realized I couldn’t remember. Huffing instead, I looked away, cognizant that he was walking closer.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re no good to the Prince organization like this. Every single member of your family is sick to fucking death of your self-serving attitude. Even Emmeline.”
Emmeline. Our younger and only sister, the little mafia princess who floated around like a butterfly. Loving everything and everyone.
Except for me apparently.
“Have you even performed your exercises?” Now my brother was invading my privacy.
“When I have the time.”
“Montgomery. Do you have any fucking clue how lucky you are to even be alive? One centimeter difference in the bullet’s trajectory and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. On top of it, you were told that with regular exercise to strengthen your muscles, you’ll lose the cane and the limp almost completely. But instead of following through with the man’s sage medical advice, you brood. You drink. You argue with everyone.”
“What is this, some intervention?” Hearing the utter hatred in my tone truly bothered me. Our entire family had been close through thick and thin, hardships and tragedies. We butted heads often, but at the end of the day, we had each other’s backs. We’d take a damn bullet for each other.
But I was still furious he’d interrupted my evening.
“Call it what you want. You need help and?—”
“I don’t need another goddamn doctor!” My entire face hurt from my jaw clenching.
He remained his usual calm and collected self while I was going off the rails.
Again.
“It’s become painfully apparent to anyone having the misfortune of being in the same room with you, including strangers, that neither doctors nor conventional medicine of any kind will do a damn bit of good.”
In a surprise move, his voice had risen, matching mine in pitch, tone, and volume. “Then what do you suggest, brother? Holistic medicine?”
I’ll be goddamned if his eyes didn’t light up, a slow and sly grin crossing his face. “You could call it that.”
“What?” He was far too pleased with himself.
“Vermont.”
The single word was completely unexpected. “What did you say?”
“Vermont, as in Stowe, Vermont, a town in a state in the Northeast.”
