Page 83 of Mob Princess

All of them reach behind their backs for their guns. My instinct is to do the same. One of my cousins must have grabbed my gun and belt holster before the ambulance came.

“Sean?”

“Come in, Lina.”

She steps around the curtain, and Seamus follows. He has a tray that’s heaping with food. She snaps the privacy curtain closed behind him, and my cousin puts the tray in front of me.

“Thanks for bringing some for us.” Cormac reaches to grab a bite off the plates of fries.

“Touch them, and you’ll lose a finger. You can have what Sean doesn’t eat.” She says it with a grin, but we all suspect she’s serious.

Cormac smirks at me. If Lina weren’t here, he’d probably tell me she and I are sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Fecking twat. He has the humor of a twelve-year-old.

Shane snags a fry, looking completely serious as he spews his shite. “You can’t cut off my fingers. It’ll give Sean phantom pains.”

None of us can say more because a nurse comes in. I appreciate Shane distracting Lina while Finn sent off a text, and Cormac whispered to Seamus to bring him up to speed. Once the nurse is gone, we dive in and devour the food. Once the plates are practically licked clean, I use the remote to turn off the lights.

“Don’t fall over shite on your way out.”

The guys leave. I know they’ll set up shifts for two of them to guard us. If Lina weren’t here, two of them would crash in here.

“Come here, cailín. I’ve been lonely.”

“I doubt that.” She kicks off her shoes and eases onto the bed.

Once she’s positioned against me, I kiss her head and stroke her hair. “Once upon a time there was a knight with red hair. He spied a fairy princess across a deep chasm. Little did he know…”

She’s already asleep, and my eyes are barely open. I’m as comfortable as I’m going to get. My final thought before I fall asleep isn’t the beginning of a sweet dream. It’s how nightmares are made. I picture Lina bound and gagged to a chair with a needle in her arm.

I believe in premonitions. I’ve had plenty. Rarely are they wrong.

Chapter Seventeen

Lina

I dozed off fast, but I’m awake and listening to Sean’s deep breathing. It’s soothing. A nurse came in about an hour ago, and it’s what woke me. I didn’t get off the bed before he saw me. He shot me a terse smile but didn’t object. Sean didn’t wake while the guy took his vitals.

The only other sound in here is the monitor, and the volume is turned down. I didn’t know it was adjustable. I thought it came with one setting: drive you batshit loud. The steady rhythm of the lines gives me something to focus on rather than looking at the tubes and cords attached to Sean.

I’m trying to think of a historical couple or movie where a relationship started this chaotically. One moment, we meet at a funeral. I pretend to be his girlfriend to get him out of an awkward conversation. Then the next, we’re making out in a storeroom. A few weeks later, we’re meeting for lunch that turns into afternoon delight. That’s cut short when he has to run off—apparently, to fuck over my asshole brother. I go to my new home only to walk out because said brother pissed me off even before I knew Sean was on his way to meet me. Then it’s a too brief reunion, and my whatever-Sean-is-to-me gets shot and is in the hospital. It’s where I am now, sharing a bed with him because he had surgery to remove a damaged organ from a bullet my brother’s best friend—who happens to be my ex-fiancé—likely shot. Possibly at me.

What is the world coming to?

Whether Ewan ordered this or was even a minute part of it, he hasn’t called. I have my phone in my pocket, and it hasn’t vibrated since I missed Justin’s call. I had to give in and turn my phone back on since I needed to call Jesse yesterday because I needed fresh clothes. I couldn’t stay in the blood-soaked dress. He tried to bombard me with questions, but I stonewalled.

Eventually, he gave up. He was stoic when he handed me my overnight bag. But I know it freaked him out to see me the way I was. I’d scrubbed most of the blood off my hands by then. Seamus’s suit coat hid most of my dress but not all of it. I kept it pulled around me most of the time, so I didn’t have to look at it.

Jesse knows just enough about my family to know not to ask. He knows I’ll volunteer what I want him to know and nothing more. He suggested I go back to his place, and Cormac and Seamus offered to escort me. It got heated. That’s when I got so frustrated I lapsed into Franglais—French and English. That’s when all three of them had to google translate half of what I said. They learned some colorful phrases to add to their own repertoires.

I’m careful as I put my hand over Sean’s heart. How does sleeping next to him feel so natural? Especially here of all places.

“Do you need another fairytale? You’ve been up for an hour.” His hand covers mine.

“You’ve been awake?”

“No one is walking into this room without me knowing. I just didn’t want to answer any asinine questions the machines already have. I hoped you’d fall back to sleep on your own if I didn’t strike up a conversation. You’ve relaxed and tensed at least a dozen times. Tell me what’s wrong, cailín.”

“Besides all of this?” I’m not being sarcastic.

---