Page 50 of Spiteful Heart

I ate what I could, but I mostly played around with the food with the not-so-handy hospital spork. Sylvester had to help me sit up, of course, my body not wanting to move too much on its own. I did drink all the water, though. That shit hit the spot.

I wanted to tell Sylvester what Tony had said to me, before Harvey had arrived and shot up the place, but I figured I’d wait and tell them all. Do it all in one go instead of having the same conversation multiple times.

Sylvester had left the door ajar, and I didn’t know how much time passed before someone else walked into the room, but the moment I saw Maddox walk in, I couldn’t help but smile. The look on his sour face softened when he laid eyes on me, and he swept over to me, pushing his brother out of the way, and grabbed hold of my face. Within another second, his lips were on mine, and he kissed me with a fire that told me he was overjoyed I wasn’t dead.

“That’s enough,” Sylvester said, pulling him off me. “She’s fragile right now, Maddox.”

Maddox straightened himself out, running his tongue over his lower lip. “Potatoes?” he asked, and I pointed to the tray beside the bed, where the half-eaten, mostly-played-with food was. “Don’t mind if I do.” He went to the tray, grabbed my spork, and started to eat, sitting his ass on the corner of the bed as two other people funneled into the room.

“I’m not fragile,” I argued, too busy eyeing up Viper and Mike to really give my argument the backbone it should have. I might’ve been stabbed, but hey, I was no wilting flower. If I had to get off this hospital bed and prove it in a fight, I would. My body wouldn’t like it, but I would.

Viper pushed his way around Maddox and Sylvester, standing beside me. He took my needle-free hand in his, squeezing it, and bent to place a kiss on my cheek. “Thank God you’re okay,” he whispered to me. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you…”

“Don’t say it,” I told him. If these guys keep talking about me and what would’ve happened if I’d died, well, surely they’d do nothing but tempt fate, and I wouldn’t have that. I didn’t survive everything I’d lived through just so irony could come and get me.

Viper nodded, slow to pull away from me. I brought my eyes to Mike, who stood near the door, arms folded over his chest. His hair was in a low pony, his jaw covered in stubble. Maddox and Viper looked like they always did, but the big guy? He looked like he’d been really worried about me. How sweet.

“Isn’t the big one going to come and give me a hug, too?” I questioned, batting my eyelashes at him. I got the others to either roll their eyes or groan at how blatantly I flirted with Mike, but I didn’t care.

Mike didn’t want to come close. I could tell by his scowl. And yet, as the seconds ticked by, that scowl lessened in intensity more and more, finally culminating in a sigh. He uncrossed his arms, came over to me, and bent his ridiculously tall figure over the bed to give me a hug.

Yeah, a hug. How adorable.

I patted his arm. “There you go, big guy. Let it out.” My sarcasm must’ve offended him, because right then, he straightened himself out and frowned at me, but he didn’t say a single word. That was Mike for you.

I turned my head in Maddox’s direction. The man was still busy eating what was left of my food, as if it was the tastiest stuff he’d ever had the pleasure of shoveling into that mouth. “How’s your arm?” I asked. “Heard you got shot.” He wore a long-sleeved shirt, so I couldn’t see the bandage or the stitches or whatever.

“I’m fine,” he said, his mouth full of food. “I’m fucking peachy, now that that asshole is dead.” He might’ve spat a little bit of mashed potato in my direction, but we all ignored it.

Looking at Mike, I asked, “Would you close the door?” I waited until the door was shut before saying, “How many men did you guys take care of?”

They exchanged glances. Maddox set the spork down and counted on his hand. It was Sylvester who said, “About ten jumped us near the warehouses. There were more at the house, along with Tony.”

Holy shit. It sounded like a lot. A mini army, really. How in the hell did Tony have that many men following him? Were the criminals of this city that unhappy I’d unseated the Bloody Princess?

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sylvester said, “it was a lot of men. We’ve never seen them before, though. Not one of them. They weren’t Bianca’s men, or Carl’s. They’re… they’re nobodies.”

“Yeah, and they were shitty shots, too,” Maddox said, rolling his left shoulder, the arm I assumed was injured. “They had high-capacity guns, and they still couldn’t take us out.”

“Maybe they weren’t supposed to,” Viper said. “Maybe their goal was just to distract us.”

“They had to know we’d go after her.” Maddox had finished my food, now staring squarely at me with those pitch-black eyes.

I nodded. “Yeah, but they didn’t know the necklace I was wearing had a tracker.” At that, none of the guys seemed particularly shocked, which I took to mean Sylvester had already told them. “And they didn’t know you’d send Harvey after me.”

Viper ran a tattooed hand down his face, muttering, “I still can’t believe Tony was alive. Fucking how?”

Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? I said, “Someone had to have been watching us that night. They saw what I did to Tony’s hands. They saw us get rid of him. They helped him… but why?” No,thatwas the million-dollar question.

“Who?” Maddox asked to a silent room. “Who’d give a shit so much that they’d fish that fucker out?” Hmm. Okay, so maybe there were a few million-dollar questions here. Right when I thought everything was figured out, nothing really was.

It wasn’t like we could ask Tony, since he was dead. But hey, I wasn’t going to complain about that, since the bullet in Tony’s head was the only reason I was here now. That motherfucker had been ready to slice and dice this pretty neck of mine.

“Tony didn’t say anything else to you before he—” Sylvester stopped himself, unable to say it.

I, however, had no qualms about it: “Stabbed me? No, for a guy who was pretty chatty—like, villain monologue chatty—he left out that particular detail. I was a little tied up at the time, so I didn’t think to really pry too much.” Bad me, I know. “Or chained up, I guess? Whatever.” It was my turn to ask a question. “Nothing was found at the house?”

“Roman and Carter are combing through it,” Sylvester said. “They’ll contact me if they find anything, but if they don’t, then there’s nothing.” He sat back in his ugly floral chair, running his palms along his knees. “Maddox is right, though. The attack was barely coordinated. They weren’t good shots. Those guys were new to guns, if I had to guess, and none of them seem like the type of person who’d pull Tony out of the river and nurse him back to health.”

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