“I see. So you were trying to leave?” he said, reading my mind.
He stood up and crossed his arms over his chest, giving me that stern look of his again.
“Yeah. I have to.”
It was his turn to snort. “You’re not going anywhere, Callum. Get back in bed.”
I narrowed my eyes on him, a low growl building in my chest.
“Have you forgotten who’s in charge here?”
He rolled his eyes, and before I could react, the sassy bitch reached forward and poked me in the side,rightin my fucking bullet wound.
“AH! Whaddafack!” I barked, jerking away from him. His eyes sparkled with amusement, and he snatched up my ankles, spinning my legs back into bed and pulling the covers up over me while I twitched in pain.
“Lie down, you fucking drama queen.” He sighed and snatched up the tray of food, sliding it onto my lap. “Don’t move, or you’ll spill the tea.”
I glared at him, stilling beneath the tray so I wouldn’t make a mess.
“Ryan. I have to go. If Damian finds out I’m here, he’ll hurt you. He’ll hurt Iris and Theo, too.”
Ryan didn’t seem concerned at all. He fluffed my pillows behind me and pulled open the drawer at the end table, fussing around with what looked like a roll of gauze and surgical tape.
“Eat your pancakes, then we’re going to need to clean and re-dress your wounds. Do you need anything for the pain? Dr. Callahan left me some T3s that you can take if you think you need them. It’s also almost time for your antibiotic.”
“Aren’t you listening? Damian willkillyou, Ryan! He’ll kill your whole family! I can’t be the one responsible for that. I could never live with myself. I need to get out of here before he figures out where I am.”
Finally, Ryan stopped fussing and turned to face me, giving me a hard look.
“Damian already knows you’re here. Vox texted him.”
“Wh-what?” I felt the blood drain from my face.
No, no, no, no… this couldn’t be happening.
Ryan sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. He reached over and cupped my face gently, brushing his thumb over my lips.
“I want you to quit Apex,” he said, and I fucking laughed out loud.
“No onequitsApex, Ryan.”
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll be the first.”
“I can’t. Baby, he willkillyou. Do you not fucking understand what I’m saying?”
“He can try,” Ryan said with the stubborn innocence of someone who had no fucking idea how bad of a man Damian was.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Ryan.”
He shrugged. “Maybe not, but Vox seems to think it’s possible, and I’m fairly certain he knows what he’s doing when it comes to this kind of stuff.”
“He has conditional hits out on my sisters!” I protested, and Ryan nodded.
“Yeah. He had quite a few of those. Vox thinks he found most of them. He’s countered the offers. He also released a notice on one of your dark web board thingies letting the bad guys know that we’ll match and beat anything Damian promises to eliminate any future contracts he may try to slip by.”
“What!?”I exclaimed, my mouth literally falling open. If that was true, how was this fucking house not already on fire? Damian would be fuckinglivid!
Ryan smirked as if he was reading my mind. “Vox has Fairview pretty locked down. I don’t think anyone can even get up the street without him knowing about it.”
