“Killian, let them look after you, okay?” Violet says softly, tears in her eyes.
“Un-cuff me,” I growl at a guy in scrubs, a younger black guy who steps in front of Violet.
“Killian, calm down, please. It appears you were drugged. The restraints need to stay until we know all the drugs are out of your system, to protect you. And us.”
What?
“Un-fucking cuff me,” I repeat, head swimming, heart racing, and then I see Max standing behind Violet, hands on either side of her neck as he moves in, ready to choke her.
“Willie! He’s behind Violet! Stop him!”
51
Violet
They want us to go, to leave him to sleep. We’ve been here all night and I don’t want to go anywhere, but they say he’ll be asleep for at least several more hours with the medication they gave him when he started to lose it again, so finally, Will talks me into going home and trying to sleep for a bit.
As we leave the hospital, I see Jagger’s sister Jessa standing outside, smoking a cigarette. Tony stands there with her.
She marches our way.
“Jessa,” Will warns.
I brace, wondering what kind of ugliness is about to come at me.
“How is he?” she asks me, ignoring him.
“He’s sedated. Again. He woke up but he still wasn’t… wasn’t right. How is Jagger?” I ask.
She sighs and takes a shaky drag of her cigarette. “He’s okay. Sleeping.” She blows it out and backs up, wincing. “Oh, sorry.”
I shake my head with a shrug, trying to communicate not to worry about it, but I’m relieved she butts her cigarette out as I turn to Tony. “Do we know who did this?”
“We’ll find out, don’t you worry,” he says, eyes cold.
“Isn’t there surveillance?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Surveillance systems were offline since Jag was doin’ upgrades. Gotta get him to bring ‘em back up and see what we can look up. All the booze has been brought in from his office. Seven open bottles and they’re all bein’ tested.”
“We’re going to go get some sleep. We’ll be back in a few hours,” Will says, leading me toward his car.
I wave goodbye.
We’re a few paces away from the car when Will mutters, “Shit, would you look at that?” He’s looking over his shoulder.
I look over my shoulder as well and see Tony holding Jessa and kissing her.
“What’s that about?” Will asks.
I shrug, getting into the car. “Another crazy, long story that I can’t get into.”
Tony is about six feet six, built like Mr. Universe. He has dark hair and dark eyes. Jessa looks tiny in his embrace. I don’t know if she’s still playing him or not, but they look good together. And if she’s not playing him, maybe she’ll finally stop trying to make passes at my husband.
“I’m way outta the loop. Though not surprising with my brother,” Will says.
“Your brother likes to keep people on a need-to-know basis for their safety, I’m figuring out,” I say. “Don’t take it personally.”
“I never do. It’s how he’s always been,” Will says, starting up his car. “Nobody more protective than him.”
His phone rings so he reaches into his pocket and his face changes when he sees the screen. “Gotta take this, sorry, Violet.” He answers, “Dario? Hi.” He gets out of the car and walks a few feet away, then turns and has me in his sights while he talks.
I pull my phone from my bag. It’s dead. I sigh and rub my eyes.
I need to plug this in. The nurse promised to call if Killian woke up before I got back, but was pretty sure I’d be safe to leave for at least five or six hours. Will takes a few minutes with his phone call and it feels too long. I’m exhausted. I want to get home so we can hurry up and get back.
Finally, he’s back.
“Sorry. Work stuff. Got a new assignment starting as soon as things are settled. Just getting details.”
“Oh, what is it? Something interesting?”
“Hopefully something boring. Personal security for my current boss’s sister-in-law. Sounds like it’ll be a whole lot less amped than what I’ve been doin’ and that’s fine by me. Boring and uneventful sounds like a treat for a change.” He clicks his seatbelt on and reverses out of the spot.
“Things have been too eventful lately?” I ask, conversationally.
“To say the least,” he mutters. “Sorry, can’t talk about it.”
“Coulter family trait?” I ask.
He snickers. “Sometimes curiosity kills the cat. And cats should not poke around the Ferrano family. Let me just say that.”
“Yikes. And meow, don’t I know it,” I mutter, thinking back to the ominous feeling I had as I descended the stairs in Killian’s house the day I found out about Ray.
He chuckles as we pull out onto the main road.
I still have no idea if that’s completely resolved. It sounded like it was over from his last text message to me yesterday, but based on everything that’s happened in the past twelve or so hours, I honestly have no idea. And the way I’m feeling, it almost feels like hoping for things to be calm and uneventful is asking too much.