Lord, maybe I should go back to sleep. I can’t understand a word he’s saying.
But then someone’s holding my hand. “Trin, listen. I know you’re in there somewhere. Can you wake the fuck up and explain this to me, please? Maybe you can decode the Gabriel Chronicles, and that would be swell, because Cass and Reuben are pretty pissed off with me. I need a win.”
Mmm. Sleep. That does sound good.
“Come on, Trin.”
How can I say no?
I force my eyelids open. They’re heavy, fluttering like a downed butterfly. Too-bright light spears into my head. “Ow.” I choke out hoarsely, squeezing my eyes shut again.
“Hey! You’re back!” Another squeeze to my hand. “Fuck yeah.” Something brushes my cheek. “Okay, so let me fill you in, right? I was chasing after Gabriel, and—”
“Apollo, enough.” A shiver chases through me when I recognize that deliciously low and rumbly voice.
Reuben.
I force my eyes open to slits and move my head to try and find him.
He’s standing opposite Apollo, on the other side of my hospital bed. As I catch sight of him, he wraps his hand around mine. So warm and tight.
“Welcome back,” he says quietly. “I hope you had pleasant dreams.”
“Course she did,” another voice says, the speaker out of sight. “Because she was dreaming about us. Weren’t you, darlin’?”
I have to tip my head forward to see Cass. He’s lounging in a chair pushed to one wall, but he stands and comes closer when we lock eyes.
“What happened?”
The last thing I remember is taking Gabriel to the bell tower. How he found the photo. And then…him shoving me against the wall. I hit it hard—is that why I’m here? I shiver violently, and Apollo immediately tugs the thin hospital blanket at my feet all the way up to my chin.
“Body warmth will work better,” Cass says, giving me a lopsided grin.
“Cut it out,” Rube demands, throwing him a faint scowl. Then his eyes are back on me. “How are you feeling?”
“Heavy.”
“Anesthesia,” Apollo says. “It’ll wear off.”
Rube squeezes my hand. “They said you can come home tomorrow.”
“Home?” My mind flashes back to that tiny, cramped room at Saint Amos. To the Brotherhood’s lair where Zach shoved a knife between my legs and told me he’d fuck me with it if I showed my face again. I squeeze my eyes shut. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Not your house,” Apollo says through a chuckle, making no sense. “Our house!”
“He means our hotel room,” Rube says dryly, but looking at Apollo, not me.
“It’s where we live,” he says, shrugging. “What else am I supposed to call it?”
“It’s not home. Not even close.” Cass runs his fingers over the top of my foot. “But it’ll be a far sight better with you in it, that’s for sure.”
Anywhere’s better than that horrible school. I smile at Cass. At Rube. At Apollo. I get another peck on my cheek from Apollo, and Rube starts massaging my hand. I lift my left hand, and stare at the mass of bandages over it. When Rube catches my puzzled look, he shakes his head and gives me a faint smile. “Dislocated thumb. But it’ll heal just fine.”
When did that happen?
He ducks down, presses his lips to my forehead. Whispers, “You’ll heal just fine, Trinity.”
I let out a happy sigh, but that beautiful moment only lasts a second. I wriggle a little to sit up taller, and crane to look around the room.
Someone’s missing. Did Zach stay away on purpose? He’s made it clear he hates me, so I wouldn’t be surprised. But that hasn’t stopped him hanging around with me before. Honestly, I’d have thought he’d have enjoyed being here, especially if there was a chance to see me in pain. That’s what he gets off on, right? Pain?
But now that I’m looking, I notice an edge to the brothers. A grimness to their smiles. Shadows under their eyes. It’s not the kind of concern you get from someone who bumped their head against a wall.
What aren’t they telling me?
“Where’s Zach?”
When their eyes drop in unison, so does my stomach. Right to the fucking floor.
It makes no sense. He hates me, and I’m terrified of him. But the thought that something’s happened to him, it scares me more than that knife up my skirt ever could.
Because I know he’d hurt me…but never more than I could take.
Knowing that, I shouldn’t have run off that morning and gone to Gabriel, but I’d thought Zachary would change. I thought being with him, with all of them, would make things different. Like I was sprinkling magic pixie dust on them.
I’m worse than a hopeless romantic. I’m a fucking fool.
No one’s going to change just like that. And these men? Probably never. The damage done to them is too deep. It may have scarred over, but those scars are permanent.
Instead of trying to change them, I should accept them for who they are.
But something tells me my epiphany came too late.
“Where is he?”
“Let’s not…” Apollo trails off.
Cass steps back, waving a hand. “You know what, we can chat about that later. You need to rest.”
I turn wide eyes to Reuben, who’s looking from Apollo to Cass with a blank expression. “Reuben? Reuben!”
He looks down at me. Strokes my eyebrow with his thumb. “It’s too early to tell,” he murmurs.
“What is? What do you mean?”
“You don’t remember?” Apollo asks.
I stare at him, my voice rising to a shout. “Remember what? Tell me what’s going on!” The last I direct to Cass.
He’s watching me through his lashes. And then he blinks, like he’s snapping out of a spell. “He took two gunshots to the chest. One barely missed his heart. The other…didn’t.”
Someone shot Zachary? My body goes ice-cold. “Oh my God.”
Reuben squeezes my hand. “It’s too early to tell if he’ll pull through, Trinity, but the doctors are doing everything they—”
I pull out of his grip, grab the edge of the sheet, and do my best to get out of the hospital bed. “Is someone going to help me?” I demand through gritted teeth.
Apollo rushes around the bed, but Rube puts out a hand to stop him. I scowl up at Reuben with as much ferocity as I can muster, but before I can open my mouth to cuss him out, he bends and scoops me up off the hospital bed.
Now I’m floating through the air like an aerial dancer. Cass comes over, grabbing the IV stand and wheeling it after us as Rube heads out my hospital room behind Apollo.
I’ve never been in a hospital before, but I have a feeling I’m in one of the private wards because I was the only one inside the room and there’s tasteful artwork on the walls we pass.
We go down an elevator, and when we exit, there’s suddenly too much excitement and activity. I burrow back against Reuben, and as if they sense my sudden panic, Cass and Apollo walk in front of us like a shield.
I hear voices murmuring up ahead when we stop. And then Cass says, “Does it look like I give a fuck about visiting hours?”