Micky turned slowly to glare at his brother. “You forgot the ransom note?”
“Oh my god.” Patrick groaned and buried his face in his hands. “They’re completely incompetent. How in the world did they manage to kidnap Da in the first place?”
I shook my head. Patrick was absolutely right.
“I’m sorry, Micky. I thought I did. I swear, I printed it out just like you asked me to. Wore gloves and everything to keep my scent off them.”
Micky’s eyes were burning. “You are an absolute imbecile.” He turned to River and jerked his head toward his brother. “He’s the one who did it. He kidnapped your father.”
“But you were the one who told me to!” Benji insisted.
River sighed in disappointment. “I really thought this was going to take longer. No matter. I still need your tears to heal their Da. Yeah, we know you poisoned him, too. I’m looking forward to dragging the tears out of—dammit, Benji.”
Benji started blubbering as if River had given him a command.
“I got those.” I jumped to my feet, pulling the little travel shampoo bottle we’d picked up on our way. I tilted Benji’s head to the side so all his tears would run to the corner and pressed the bottle against his skin.
River threw the whip on the table in disgust. “You two are absolutely worthless pieces of trash. We hadn’t even gotten past the threatening to the actual torture.”
“What now? You going to kill us? Because I swear, little omega, I am going to find you and destroy you as soon as I’m free.”
Patrick stood, brushing popcorn bits off of his hands on his pants. “You know, boys. It’s not wise to go on threatening the men who literally hold your life in their hands unless you actually want to die.”
“I don’t waste my time killing bozos like these.” River picked up his phone and hit a button. “I did, however, record the whole session. I’m sure Wei Chen will be absolutely delighted to hear what you think of him and his mates. Until they can come get you, Patrick and I are just going to wrap you a little tighter in this nice silver chain so you can have a bit of a rest before… well. I’m not sure what they’re going to do to you. Having spent some time working for them, I’m sure you can imagine it a lot better than I can.”
I clutched the precious, and slightly disgusting, bottle of tears to my chest. I had retrieved about a centimeter in the bottom of the bottle, and it shimmered like liquid pearl. “Mind if Misha and I split while you two wrap up? I want to get this back to Da as quickly as possible.”
“Go,” was all Patrick said.
I grabbed my mate’s hand and we shared a fierce smile of victory. We’d take this home and wake Da up. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to my new mate.
8
Misha
After all the searching and everything that had gone into finding him—not to mention what it had taken to get the dragon tears—the rest seemed anticlimactic.
Rory's brothers and cousins had all been standing around his bedside and arguing about how gross it was to pour someone's tears into their da's mouth. I finally just got Rory to hold his da's mouth open while I poured the damned tears in.
The whole time we'd given Seamus what I was preferring to think of as the antivenom, not one of the other people in the room had noticed a thing due to their boisterous arguing, which I had to admit rivaled my family’s. Rory had quietly closed his da’s mouth and then we watched to see if it would work.
When it finally did, I was pretty sure Rory missed the moment his da's eyes opened because he'd had to duck from an elbow that nearly gave him a bloody nose. There was a lot to love about a family whose arguments never ended without someone getting hurt.
Rory was just opening his mouth—no doubt to tell them to get the fuck out if they couldn't be respectful—when their father spoke. "Oy. What's with all the ruckus? Can't a body get some sleep around here without you boyos raising hell?"
There was a three-second delay as every jaw dropped, and they all turned to stare at their da in shock. Then they all cried out in unison, "Da!" Then they dropped to their knees, all crammed in against each other around the bed as they all tried to hug him at the same time.
Seamus chuckled, his voice raspy from disuse. "Who the fuck just kissed the bottom of my foot? I hope you know I felt it through the blanket, you kinky-arsed bastard."
Patrick grinned unrepentantly from the foot of the bed. "It's not kinky until I pull the blanket back and suck your toes, Da. Get it right. Oy, but it's good to see ya lookin' back at me again, Da. Don't ever fuckin’ scare us like that again."
Seamus blinked rapidly as he looked around. He didn't react when he met my eyes, but I knew damn well he'd be circling back to my presence soon enough. I could see the confusion in his eyes as he realized where he was—the sickroom connected to their private clinic. A necessity with families like ours.
He finally seemed to relax when his eyes met Rory's. Seamus fumbled for his hand, smiling when Rory met him halfway. "There's my Rory. Fill me in, lad. Start with why I'm in a hospital bed instead of my own, explain where my signet ring is and why it's not on my hand, and then maybe you can tell me why there's a Novak at my bedside."
Patrick chortled gleefully, spilling the beans in a stream of verbal diarrhea as only he could. "You got that backwards, Da. You’ll be wanting him to lead with how our families are now connected because Misha Novak is Rory's fated mate. Look at my brother's neck. It's a done deal. It’s all about the ‘O’Novak’ for our Rory now. Your ring is in the safe, and you're in this bed because a couple of fucking dragons got the jump on you out at the national park."
Rory glared at his brother. "Dammit, Patty. I knew I should've kicked the lot of you out of here while I had the chance. First, you disrespected Da's sickbed, and now you're spilling information that wasn't yours to share." His lips were pinched as he rose, gracefully going from a crouch to full height in a split second. "Da, there's a lot you need to know about the last few days. But yes, it's also important to mention that I now have a mate."
"Also important? Son, that's a fucking miracle. So few of us ever find our fated mate. The other half of our soul, if you will. You can fill me in on the rest later. I'm sure you handled things brilliantly. Since I'm alive and in my own home, I'm guessing it's quite the tale. Especially when the last thing I remember was taking a walk along the dunes."
"Let's just say that wasn't the best time for you to go out walking alone." Rory forgot about his brother, his expression softening as he smiled at his father. "Your body has been through a lot. Why don't we clear out of here and let you rest for a bit after you shift to jump start the healing? You were dragon poisoned. From what we’ve been told, it’s going to take you longer than normal to recover. I can catch you up to speed later."
Seamus chuckled, lifting a shaky hand and wagging a finger. "From the sounds of it, I've had enough downtime. I'll rest when I'm dead. I'm looking at that mark on your neck and thinking that we have a party to plan." He turned to Patrick. "Take care of the whiskey, and make sure there's plenty of vodka on hand. We're entertaining Russians tonight, boyo."