Page 5 of Three to Fall

Torch and Ace both sniggered from their spots either side of X. If their laughter bothered him, he didn’t show it. Just prattled on a million miles an hour with his usual rambling bullshit.

Normally I had all the time in the world for it. It was how I’d gotten to know him. How I knew what made him tick.

Today, all I could think about was getting back to my place to see if Trigger was there.

He’d been the one to call the meeting of this little psychopath support group he and I had started years ago. Back before he’d betrayed me in the most heinous way possible.

Putting a noose around my wife’s neck and pulling it until she couldn’t breathe was one way to end a relationship with a bang.

My chest tightened. I remembered finding her body. The blue of her lips. The pale, waxy sheen of her skin, the usual pink in her cheeks absent. The lifeless way she’d lain on the floor, unable to be revived.

I’d spent years thinking about how I’d get my revenge on the man I’d once called brother. How I’d make him suffer the same way she had, cutting off his oxygen and watching him fight until he had nothing left. I just hadn’t known where he was to do it.

Now I did.

I put my foot down harder on the accelerator, knowing in my gut that he was waiting for me.

“Aw. Doc is so excited to see his brother. It’s going to be the reunion of the century!” X had no idea of what had gone down between me and Trigger. He smoothed his hands over his T-shirt and jeans. “Dammit, I look like a slob. A blood-speckled one at that. Should have worn an apron while we were torturing that guy, I guess. If I’d known Trig was back, I would have worn my prettiest dress underneath.”

Whip rolled his eyes. “Does your mouth ever stop?”

“Only when it’s on your mama’s pussy.”

Whip took out a gun so quick all I saw was a flash of black.

But X was just as psychotic. He might have had Whip’s gun pressed to his forehead, but X’s knife was barely an inch from Whip’s jugular.

Their reflexes had always impressed me. But when you had as many kills under your belt as the two of them did, I guess you got good at drawing a weapon in a timely manner.

I huffed out an impatient sigh. “Can you two murder each other some other time, please? Whip, your mother isn’t even alive. Why let him get to you like that?” I glanced at the older man, knowing I was more likely to get through to him than X, who was like a firecracker on speed at the best of times. He was way more unpredictable than Whip, who was deadly but generally not as impulsive.

Whip gave X a cold stare. “Don’t ever fucking talk about my family. Ever.”

X grinned, dropped his knife, and folded his hands behind his head, leaning back against the seat. “Fine. Want to talk about mine? I was born in Massachusetts to parents Belinda and Edward, at eleven past one in the morning. It was a Friday, dark and stormy…”

Whip turned back around and pinched the bridge of his nose, like X’s constant verbal diarrhea gave him a headache. “Drive faster, Doc. For the sake of my sanity, please fucking drive faster so I can get out of this car.”

I was already pushing the gas pedal to the limits, taking corners too fast, tires screeching while trying to maintain contact with the road. I didn’t need his encouragement. I had adrenaline flooding my system and nowhere else for it to go other than out through the vehicle.

Finally, the buildings outside changed from the shitty Saint View shacks, to nicer suburban homes, and then eventually to the mansions that were popular on the Providence side of the border. My apartment was the penthouse in an expensive building, one with private parking and security codes I did not have the patience or time for in that moment.

I jerked the car to a stop out front, one tire on the sidewalk, zero fucks given about the fine I would probably get.

I slammed the car door, practically running for the entrance to my building before Whip caught me, hauling me back with a heavy hand on my shoulder.

“Chill the fuck out. I know he’s your brother, but we have no idea what kind of state he’s in. And you’re clearly in a state yourself.”

I shrugged his grip off. “I’m fine.”

But he was right. I had all the medical training to know it. I sucked in a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself as we all piled into the elevator that was barely big enough for two people, let alone five big men.

“Okay, who touched my butt?” X asked.

I leaned across him and hit the button for the penthouse apartment and used every calming technique I’d learned in my years of med school. My fingers shook, and I pressed them into the sides of my thighs, fighting the adrenaline buildup inside me and forcing myself to think clearly.

The elevatorbingedwhen we arrived, and I paused at the door to my apartment.

It was already open.

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