“Good,” Damien murmurs.
“You can lean him back,” Demitri says, and as I carefully position Cillian’s head against the seat, I glance down at the gunshot wound he took to the chest. It’s swollen and red around the bullet hole, and there’s a dark bruise spreading over the side of his chest.
Demitri covers the wound with a clean dressing. “As soon as we get home, get me the antibiotics.”
“Okay,” I murmur, my eyes scanning over Cillian in disbelief.
Damien takes hold of my hand and pulls me to the restroom. Just like the time when I thought Cillian was dead, Damien washes the blood off my hands and gently dries them.
“Thank you,” I murmur, and then it sinks in, knocking the breath from my lungs. “Cillian’s alive,” I gasp as the first tear of absolute joy falls.
DAMIEN
I pull Winter into my arms and press a kiss to her hair. “I’m happy for you, Princess.”
I hold her while she struggles to regain control over her emotions, and when she finally looks up at me, I press a kiss to her lips.
“Let’s take our seats. We’ll land soon.”
Getting back to the seats, Winter checks Cillian’s seat belt before she sits down. I strap her in and then take hold of her hand, linking my fingers with hers.
Demitri puts the first aid kit away. After he washes his hands, he sits down next to Alexei and straps himself in.
Our eyes meet, and the corner of my mouth lifts as pride fills my chest.
As soon as the plane touches down, we get up, and Demitri helps me carry Cillian off the plane.
Winter runs ahead to the house, and then I hear her call out, “Dana! Dana!” The front door opens, and as Dana appears, Winter yells, “We have Cillian. He’s alive.”
Dana’s hand goes to her mouth when her eyes land on us, and then she rushes back inside the house with Winter right behind her.
When we carry Cillian inside, Dana urgently says, “His room is across from Miss Winter’s. She’s gone to unlock it.” She follows after us as we take Cillian upstairs.
Winter comes rushing out of his room, and when she sees us, she darts back inside. She pulls the bedding back before we carefully lay Cillian down.
“Dana,” Demitri calls. “Help me get the clothes off so we can check all his wounds.”
I walk to Winter and take hold of her arm. “Leave them to tend to him. I’m sure he wouldn’t want you to see him naked.”
Winter nods, and sparing Cillian a last glance, she follows me out of the room. As soon as we step into the hallway, Winter wraps her arms around my waist.
“God, Damien, he’s alive. We left him behind for them to torture.”
Holding her to me, I say, “We didn’t know. It looked like he died.”
“I should’ve checked,” she blames herself.
Placing a finger under her chin, I nudge her face up, and when our eyes lock, I say, “No, you had no choice. I pulled you away, and there was no way I was endangering your life a second longer. I’d do it again.”
Winter pulls out of my hold. “Would you have left him there if you had known he was alive?”
“Of course not,” I mutter.
“Where’s Demitri?” Alexei asks.
I gesture at the closed door. “In there with Cillian.”
Alexei turns his gaze to Winter. “Where are the antibiotics?”
“Oh, in the kitchen.” Winter rushes away to go get it.
“She did well today,” Alexei mutters.
“She did.”
“Will you let her go on runs with you?”
I stare down the hallway before bringing my gaze to Alexei’s. “Not if I can help it.”
“She’ll fight you.”
“I know,” I mutter. Winter proved herself today. She was caught off guard by Cillian being there, but still, she kept her calm and killed Antonio Blanco. Not once did she hesitate.
“Maybe if Cillian recovers, you’ll allow it,” Alexei mentions.
I narrow my gaze on him. “Why are you pushing this?”
“She’ll resent you if you try to keep her out of the business.”
I let out a breath of air. “We’ll see what happens.”
Winter comes back, carrying a first aid kit which she hands to Alexei. “Everything’s in here.”
Alexei takes it into the room, and then I say, “Let’s go gather the weapons and put them away.”
Together we leave the house and reaching the plane, the other men have already off-loaded everything. We inspect the weapons before carrying them to the barn. There’s a trap door, and opening it, we descend into the Hemsley’s armory.
We stack all the machine guns and extra handguns before I close the trap door and lock it.
Keeping our personal weapons with us, we head back to the house.
The extra men Alexei organized go to the kitchen to help themselves to food while Winter and I head up the stairs to Cillian’s room.
“Let me check,” I murmur as I push the door open. Seeing Cillian’s covered from the waist down, I pull Winter into the room.
“How’s he doing?” she asks.
“He’ll be out of it for a few days. He needs to rest and heal from the infection. That’s my biggest worry,” Demitri says. “Dana will be able to care for him.”
My eyes lock with my brother’s. “You’re leaving?”
He nods. “The job’s done here. We need to get back to LA.”
“When are you heading back?” I ask.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you for all the help,” Winter murmurs as she walks to Cillian’s side. She takes the cloth from Demitri’s hand. “I’ll continue to wash him.”
Demitri and I step out into the hallway while the women clean Cillian.
“You’ll be okay?” Demitri asks.
“I will,” I assure him. Seeing the concern in his eyes, I say, “I have to do this. The sooner, the better.”
“Alexei expects his fifty percent paid on time. Don’t mess it up.”
“I won’t.”
Demitri gives my shoulder a squeeze before he leaves. I lean my shoulder against the doorjamb and watch as Winter carefully washes Cillian’s neck.
My gaze locks on Cillian. I have no idea how he’ll react when he finds out I took Winter as my wife and Alexei took half the business.
He’ll probably lose his shit.
Chapter 24
WINTER
Once Cillian’s clean, the bruises are prominent, and it tells a stark tale of how much he must’ve suffered.
I sit down on a chair while Dana sits down on the side of the bed. She brushes her fingers through Cillian’s hair, tears silently spiraling over her cheeks.
“My love,” she whispers. “I should’ve known they wouldn’t be able to kill you.” Leaning over him, she presses a soft kiss to his lips. “Thank you for coming back to us.”
It’s the first time I see Dana interact in such a loving way toward Cillian.
“Why did you hide your relationship?”
Dana swallows hard then gives me a trembling smile. “Your father would’ve worried. Cillian’s attention needed to be focused on you.”