Judge (Shady Valley Henchmen 1)

Maybe they wouldn’t be pissed right away, but after I healed, I was going to hear it.

And while I was healing, poor Nyx was going to be on the receiving end of their anger.

Nyx.

“Nyx,” I said, looking over at Jass again. “I couldn’t find her.”

“She’s okay. She’s how we knew you were missing. She was looking for you when we got back to the hotel. Said you weren’t answering your phone.”

“It broke. I think. It flew out of my hand,” I added.

“I think the cops have it,” he said, nodding. “Along with your wallet and an earring.”

“I wasn’t wearing earrings,” I said before it occurred to me. Grabbing his ear. The hiss of pain. “Oh, I think I pulled it out of his ear,” I said, nodding.

“Good for you. I hope it hurt like a motherfucker.”

“I froze,” I said, shaking my head at myself, and then immediately regretting it when the whole world spun and my stomach sloshed around like I was going to be sick. “I didn’t even try to—“

“Nope,” Jass cut me off. “You’re not doing that,” he added, shaking his head at me. “Doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do. None of this is your fault.”

“But I…” I started, but then, suddenly, the door was bursting open, and there they were.

The Murphy brothers.

With similar faces with matching expressions of concern.

“Dell…” Cillian breathed out as his gaze landed on me.

He was the first to rush forward, his hand raising to try to touch my head, then thinking better of it.

“I’m okay,” I assured him, even though, no, I absolutely was not.

“The fuck is he doing here?” Conor growled, making me look over to where he was standing a foot away from Jass, glaring at him.

“Easy,” Cillian hissed, gesturing over at me.

“He found me,” I said.

“Yeah? You sure he didn’t do it to you?” Conor snapped.

“Enough,” Cillian scolded, tone cutting. “Your sister is in a fucking hospital bed. The petty shit can wait, don’t you think?”

“You know, Dell,” Rian said, moving forward, “if you wanted a couple more days off, there were easier ways going about getting them,” he teased, giving me a smile that didn’t even come close to meeting his eyes.

“What did the doctor say?” Sean asked, moving in near my feet.

“He’s not back yet,” I said. “I had to have scans done.”

“Don’t need a scan to know you got a concussion,” Conor said, looking over at me.

He wasn’t a soft kind of man, Conor. He was all hard edges and cutting anger.

But there was no denying there was concern in his eyes as he looked me over.

“Where’s Eoin?” I asked.

“Parking the car,” Cillian told me. “He’ll be right up. He didn’t want you to be sitting here alone any longer than necessary.”

“Wasn’t totally alone,” Conor said, eyeing Jass again, who made no attempt to defend himself.

“He got me help and stayed with me until I got it,” I said, shooting Conor a hard look that I knew was softened too much with all the swelling and bruises.

“Where was Nyx?” Conor shot back. “Shouldn’t she have been with you?”

“Leave Nyx alone,” I hissed.

“Leave her alone? Isn’t she the reason you’re in that hospital bed? The whole reason you’re in this fucking city at all? She—“

“I said e-fucking-nough,” Cillian growled, his tone vicious enough to make Conor stiffen. “You can’t fucking control yourself, get the fuck out of the room. Matter fact, get out of the goddamn town. I don’t need this shit from you right now. And Dell certainly doesn’t.”

“How about we take a walk?” Sean asked, nudging Conor toward the door. “It’s crowded in here. The staff is going to kick us out anyway,” he added. “I’ll check on you, okay?” he asked, giving me a smile as he pushed Conor out of the room.

“Sorry about him,” Cillian said, his hand rubbing my upper arm. “Fuck. What?” he asked when I let out a cry.

“I think she landed on her shoulder,” Jass explained. “Left shoulder. Right ribs,” he added.

“I appreciate you getting Detroit to tell us,” Cillian said, giving him a nod. “But I want some alone time with my sister.”

“Cill—“ I started to object.

“No. It’s okay. He’s right,” Jass said, taking a step forward, touching my toes over the blanket. “Stop worrying about everyone else, yeah? Now’s the time you get to be selfish. Be it.”

And with that, he was gone.

Before I even got a chance to thank him for saving me.

“Did they give you the good stuff?” Rian asked, looking at the bag hanging at my side. “Nah. Just the fluids,” he said after looking at it.

“They gave me pain medicine,” I said.

“Not enough. Your eye says you’re still hurting.”

It wasn’t funny.

Really, it wasn’t.

There was absolutely nothing funny about anything that had to do with this situation.

But something about him mentioning my eye—singular—had a strange, tight laugh escaping me.