Sleeping with the Beast

I smiled a little and stepped toward him. I wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t know how, and frankly I felt too afraid to do much more than linger there and stare at him while my mind worked in furious, worthless circles.

My phone broke the silence. It rang with a shrill scream and I jerked it out of my back pocket, heart racing all over, sweat under my arms. I glared at the screen, then frowned slightly and answered.

“Mona?”

“Hey, Amber,” she said, sounding stressed and on the verge of tears. “Are you at the mansion right now?”

I glanced at Ren. He looked at me through narrowed eyes.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Where are you?”

“Mercy General Hospital,” she said. “Vincent’s been hurt.”

I sucked in a breath. “Hurt? How bad?”

“He’s alive. I don’t think it’s too bad, but they hurt him, Amber.” She sounded like she was about to explode, and I wondered why she was calling me—then realized there likely weren’t all that many women in the mafia she could turn to.

“What can I do?”

“I don’t know. I’m freaking out. I don’t know if anywhere is safe anymore.”

“Stay there. We’ll come see you.”

“No, it’s not necessary.”

“Mona, it’s fine. Stay right there. We’ll be there soon.”

She sucked in a breath and I could tell she was fighting tears. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Amber.”

I hung up and shoved my phone into my pocket then stared at Ren. “They attacked Vincent.”

He let out a shocked laugh. “Are you serious?”

“Mona says he’s okay, but—”

“Those motherfuckers.” He stalked away. “He’s coming at them from all angles. Taking any opportunity he can to fuck with Vincent. They’re going to win this war, Amber.”

“We have to go see Mona and make sure she’s okay.”

“We could skip town.”

“Ren, no, not right now. Mona needs me first.”

He stared at me. “What do you care about her?”

That got me. All my anger spilled out suddenly in a white-hot flare. “She was the first person to be fucking nice to me in this stupid piece-of-shit town. She was nice to me without needing anything, unlike you, so I’m going to the hospital to help my friend. You can sit here and be pissed off and get drunk if you want.”

He blinked at me and tilted his head. Neither of us spoke for a long moment before he grunted and put his glass down.

“Which hospital?” he asked.

“Mercy.”

“All right.” He pushed off the counter. “Come on. I’ll grab a cab.”

I hesitated then followed him outside.

15

Ren

This wasn’t how shit was supposed to go down.

First, the Dusters managed to get the drop on me. I didn’t know how, but they did it. And then they made some absurd offer that we all knew was utter bullshit, as if that piece of garbage Felix had any say over whether or not I left the city.

Then Vincent got his ass shot.

I stretched my legs out in the Mercy waiting room. The place looked like it was covered in a fine film of grit. The seats were rubber with foam padding and it smelled like sanitizer and lotion. The walls were all a comforting beige color, and the little accent details were a faded teal.

I wanted to get the hell out of there. I hated hospitals.

But Amber paced around in front of me, waiting for Mona to come out of Vincent’s room. We weren’t allowed back there, since we weren’t family and he wasn’t taking visitors, which was a relief. The last thing I wanted was to see Vincent Leone in a goddamn hospital bed.

“What’s taking so long?” Amber asked.

“Come sit down. You can’t do anything about it right now.”

“I have too much nervous energy to stop.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m on edge.”

“Vincent’s going to be fine. He’s got every doctor in the whole city looking after him right now.”

“That’s not always a good thing. And anyway, I thought you mob guys all had private docs making house calls?”

I hesitated and shrugged, keeping a smile on my face. “Probably a precaution.”

“Probably.” She looked over toward the door, her expression going distant again.

Truth was, Vincent coming to the hospital was a bad sign. The Leone family really did have their own private doctor on the payroll, a well-regarded guy named Chen that treated more or less any underworld rat that could pay. If Chen wasn’t up to the task of treating Vincent, that meant whatever happened to him was pretty serious.

I wasn’t going to tell her that, though. Clearly Amber had a lot on her mind at the moment, and I wasn’t exactly Vincent’s biggest fan. I was sure that if I opened my stupid mouth, I was going to make things worse.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long. Mona swept into the room looking haggard and upset, her hair askew, her eyes puffy and red, but she managed to smile and give Amber a hug.