“Are you alright?”
He nods, balling his hands into fists.
“Let's go check on Kill and get his phone. The sooner we track Heather and get her back, the better. Noah will not waste time before hurting her. The longer it takes, the worse the chances are we find her-”
I don’t question why he didn’t finish his sentence because I get it.
He shakes his head as we get into the vehicle.
“Some words are too painful to speak. Like saying them gives them more power, and instead of my worst fear, they become our reality. How could we live without her? Without Kill? Some things are too fucking devastating to risk forming into words.”
Since the moment he took our girl, I’ve been thinking the same thing.
Don’t fucking go there, Knox.
Like my brother, it feels as if putting those words out into the universe could be dangerous for us. And for her.
“Agreed. Neither of us speaks our worst fears about either of them. Can we also agree that we won’t do anything stupid?”
He glances at me before darting his angry gaze to the passenger window.
“I’m not the same man I was before. She changed me. I’ll live for her and for my brothers. My family is everything. If that’s taken from me, I’ll burn the entire world to ash on my way out. I never got revenge on the man who hurt me. I’m not a child anymore. I will fucking kill anyone who hurts my family. It’ll be a bloodbath, and I’ll enjoy every fucking minute of it.”
I nod as I pull into the hospital garage and park the SUV.
“She didn’t change you, Carter. You changed yourself. She just helped. Give yourself a little credit, brother.”
He glances at me like I’ve lost my mind but doesn’t say anything in response.
The mood is heavy as we walk into the hospital to find out if our brother is alive. We knew going into this fight that we could lose him, but now that we are here it’s even worse than I had imagined. We came from the same goddamn egg and have always had a connection most people don’t understand. When one of us is taken, it’s an unbearable pain. Like someone cut a fucking chunk from our heart. Killian and I went through this when Frank took Carter from us when we were kids, and now here I stand, at risk of losing one of my brothers again. The pain is fucking intolerable.
“I’m going to fucking gut them. Everyone of them. I cannot wait to be coated in their goddamn blood.”
The lady in the elevator with us moves to the side as far as she can get, her eyes widening as her breathing accelerates, the panic visible.
Could he have waited until we got out and this poor lady wasn’t around?
Of course not.
The doors slide open, and I glare at Carter.
“Wait.”
As I expected, the frightened woman runs out, obviously wanting to get away from my brother.
“What the hell was that about?” He asks as we approach the nurses' desk. Only Carter could make me laugh at a time like this.
“You, dick. That was about you.”
I focus on the brunette in front of me, staring at a computer screen deep in thought.
“Killian Bonetti. He was brought in by ambulance.”
She types away on her keyboard, not bothering to spare me a glance.
“Are you family?”
She adjusts her glasses, raising her gaze to mine and gasps.
