Page 126 of Wicked Devotion
I nod, stroking over her head.
No matter what I tell her, Lily continues to blame herself for Charlie’s breakdown, but given our line for work, it was only a matter of time. He wanted to prove that he is a part of our family and that he’d risk his life for us just like we would for him. The problem is that he’s shutting all of us out while he tries to deal with the consequences on his own.
I don’t know if I should be glad or concerned about the fact that Charlie’s crisis affects Lily more than Brady’s death.
She was shocked when we told her the news. For around a day. Half a day, maybe, concluding my carefully prepared speech with the words, “I should tell Dario we don’t need to go through with the annulment.”
Brady really died for her the day she went down to the cell block to talk to him.
The medical examiner ruled out any kind of foul play on the day of Brady’sactualdeath. Apparently, the cause was a simple heart failure. It could have been induced by prolonged stress, but I’m not convinced that this is even remotely close to the truth. That guy was in his early thirties, fit, had no history of drug abuse, and had no pre-existing conditions, according to Lily.
AndmaybeI did some digging on my own. My research found a quick ending when Mr. Holton’s parents insisted on cremating their son, which made another autopsy impossible.
“Cady came over while you and Logan were gone,” Lily says, picking up a piece of paper from the kitchen counter. “Told me to give this to you.”
Checked the backlog of the entry system to the cell block. It was just an error caused by a system update, sorry.
Logan comes strolling out of the bedroom, fixing his belt, and I let the piece of paper disappear beforehe sees it.
“You’re not thinking aboutitagain, are you?”
My fault for believing I could hide anything from him. I shake my head, and we say goodbye to Lily before we leave for the bar. We’re barely out of the door when Logan puts his arm around my waist, whispering in my ear.
“Need to fuck those thoughts out of your pretty head soon,” he growls, and my lips curl up into a smile. “It’s been too long, sunshine.”
My cock twitches in my pants, agreeing with Logan. In the last three weeks, we barely had time to sleep. We were either at the hospital with Ruby or busy checking out houses and once we had picked one, we had to take care of a ton of other things, like driving to Lily’s old home and collecting her things. Lily didn’t want to go inside and gave us a list of essential items instead. Upon seeing the state of her house, I was glad she didn’t go in with us.
“Do you think she’s happy with the house?” Logan asks, switching sides with me. “I mean she says she is, but–”
“She loves it, Logan,” I reassure him as I try to keep my mind off of the fact that we’re all expected back on base on Monday.
Sam kept complaining about it in our group chat for the past few days, and I understand that he doesn’t want to leave Ruby alone at home. She has been out of the hospital for around a week now, and Sam filled their house in Florida with countless armed guards and doctors.
The concussion was a bit more severe than we had thought at first, and I still thank God for Rockwell, who sped to the ER because a few more hours and the internal bleeding caused by a liver laceration would have gone unnoticed until it would have been too late to save Ruby.
Ruby joked about it the minute the sedatives wore off. Kept on telling us that we should have seen the others, like it wasn’t a big deal at all. But it’s her way of coping with things,and I prefer it over Charlie’s shutdown. Plus, I have seen the others, or what was left of them, once Sam intervened.
I still wonder what she was trying to tell us that night as we left the burning factory, but Ruby couldn’t remember most of the ordeal, and Sam made it pretty clear he didn’t want me to press the issue.
A ten-minute walk later, Logan and I arrive at the bar where we’re supposed to meet the others. It’s right in the neighborhood, just like Rockwell’s house. Logan wasn’t too pleased about this, but the house is close to base and in a gated community, which had been the main selling point in the end.
“Here,” Rockwell calls for us as we enter the cozy pub, an already half-empty glass of whiskey in his hand.
Sam sits across from him, busy with his phone, only looking up from it as we take our chairs.
“Where’s Charlie?” Logan asks before ordering two beers for us.
“Wanted to stay with Ruby,” Sam answers with a sigh as he tucks his phone away.
“How is he?” I ask, and Sam shakes his head.
“Not good. We shouldn’t have let him come with us.”
“It’s my fault,” Rockwell says, shoving his glass back and forth over the table. “I made him feel like he had to prove something. As his captain, I should have known that he wasn’t able to handle this. But enough of this now. We need to give the boy some time to breathe.”
When the waitress comes over with our beers, Rockwell orders a round of vodka for all of us.
“You’ll need it,” he says dryly, stealing himself a cigarette out of Logan’s pack. He lights it up, taking a deep drag. “Pick. Bad news, terrible news, weird news.”
