He leaves and Cole ushers me back to bed, silent and thoughtful. When I’m back sitting because there’s no way I’m lying down on this shit until I see Mia.
“When last did you sleep?” Cole mutters.
“Since he fucking woke like an agitated lion from the operation four days ago.”
Cole looks at me, worry in his eyes. Then he quickly glances at my arm in a cast.
A piercing arrow of pain shoots through my chest at everything that will never be. All the plans we made, everything we thought we were going to do, the glory, the rush, the love of the game… it’s now gone. At least for me.
“Yeah well, you need to at least get some juice going of you want to take up that asshole.”
“Hey, hey, no one is taking up anyone here!” Dad says, now pacing from one end of the private hospital room to the other, a worried look on his face.
“What’s going on?” I demand. He’s been like this for days and now I can’t stand it anymore.
He stops and looks at me, then at Liam and Cole. “Liam, stand by the door and check if there’s anyone out there.”
With a frown on his face, Liam glances at me. The bastard is still pretty livid at me for ditching him but right now, everything else is second to Mia. Only for her. I nod, then glance at Cole who mutely holds my gaze.
My fucking gut clenches and I know I have to brace myself.
“What happened now?”
Dad sighs, then runs a hand through his fucking hair so much like Aiden’s.
“Listen, I don’t want you to be angry and lose your fucking head now—”
“Too late for that now,” Liam mumbles.
“Liam, please, this is serious for all three of you.”
“Just spit it out!” I snap.
“Nathan has brought up another case on you.”
I roll my fucking eyes. I was expecting this.
“Yeah, for kidnapping Mia, isn’t that right?” I grumble, more than a little annoyed at this point. Before, I was kind of willing to see that fucking case through but now, now I won’t let anyone stand in the way of me getting to Mia. Nothing.
“It’s not just that, son. That bastard has pinned you for the murder of Sean Matthews and has involved the Matthews family in making sure that you are brought to justice.”
There’s a stillness that sweeps into the room as we all take in the news. I glance at Cole and Liam and then for some fucking unknown reason, I start laughing.
“Yeah? Well, what’s one more charge to my fucking record? The rest of the world already thinks I’m a privileged, despicable kidnapper, and sexual predator.”
“I have to admit, I hate how famous you are,” Liam says with a smirk. “That’s should be me with my picture being taken by the paparazzi. You already had enough attention on you.”
“It definitely should be you,” Cole mutters, arms folded. “You have that whole smooth sociopath face going on, good for the tabloids too. I fucking bet the courtroom would be full of horny girls who wouldn’t mind being kidnapped by you and talk your fucking ear off.”
“Right?” Liam says. “I saw that shit on TikTok. Bookworms do that, get ideas from the steamy books they read and then bam, they think kidnapping is romantic. Ripe for the picking.”
“Girls who read can do things…”
“Boys!” Dad snaps. “Why the fuck can’t you take anything seriously?”
“Aw calm down dad, what are they going to do now, both of them? Call the cops? They were there at the scene.”
Dad turns to look at me fully now and suddenly, I realize that this is something else altogether.
“No, Julian,” he mutters softly. “This won’t involve the police or judges or lawyers or any fucking legal justice system for that matter.”
Everything becomes clear now. What he wanted to say and what’s going to happen from this point on.
“Holy shit.”
“Nathan has made sure that you can’t see Mia or be alone with her,” Dad goes on. “He’s prowling around her room like the fucking evil monster he is.”
If he’s a monster, then he hasn’t seen my beast.
“She can’t be alone with her! He sold her for fuck’s sake!” Liam snaps, gripping the door.
“Yes, well, Nicky is there with her right now,” Dad says sympathetically, while looking at me. “I hear she hasn’t left her side for even a moment.”
“That’s not enough!” I seethe. “That’s not merely good enough.”
“We’re in a hospital, Julian, we—”
“There must something we can do! That man sold her! Isn’t that illegal?” Liam demands.
“Contracts between families with the promise of marriage are not exactly illegal Liam.”
“Oh, just like the fucking same one Julian signed to marry, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch her name! Is it that big bitch Roxanne or her equally messy twin, Kendra? I wasn’t fucking clear!”
For fuck’s sake, here we go again.
“Do you love her?” I snap, looking directly at him.
“What?” he reels back, stunned.
“Which one of the two broke your fucking heart?” I demand. “You obviously haven’t recovered from whatever happened to you your first day of high school your fucking freshman year!”
“You’re a tool.”
“I am fucking tool but you, little brother, you’re broken and I think I’m starting to really see it now.”
He looks bewildered but I always knew this day was coming. He and I have had this coming a fucking long time and now, it’s now come to Jesus moment.
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know a hell lot more than you think. Everyone knows the Bishops twins and their little posse rule that school—”
“After Mia,” Cole mumbles.
“Yes, but now my fucking question is, which one of them was it, hmm, Liam? Which of the two broke you years ago because you’ve been fucking pressed for days over a fucking piece of paper!”
“Okay, boys knock it off.”
“A piece of paper?” Liam seethes, breathing fast and deep. “If it’s just a fucking piece of paper, then why did you keep it from me, J? Did you even tell Mia?”
“Don’t bring her into this.”
“Well damn will you look at that? You didn’t tell her, did you? That’s a fucking surprise, let me clutch my pearls at the shock!”
“Oh, grow up and get over it! Stop being pressed and bent all out of shape because of your hate.”
“I have a fucking right to be fucking pressed!” he blows up. “It’s been a fucking lot lately! Look at you! Look at the fucking state of you!” Then he drops his voice into a deadly whisper, coming closer to me. “What about Mia, J? What about her? Where is she right now and who’s fucking fault is that?”
I want to wring his neck, but the thing is, he’s right. About everything.
“Yeah, just like I fucking thought!” he whispers. “You ditched me, went to war without me and now…”
And now fucking Shane Matthews is out there, probably feeding the flames that I’m the one who killed his brother and now, the fucking mafia will come after me.