Page 52 of Surrender (Angels Halo MC Next Gen)

Honestly, I’d always thought he was too scared to hear the truth. If I spoke the words aloud, he would have been angry at Mom. As much as they loved each other, I wasn’t sure even their strong relationship would have withstood his knowing the lengths Mom had gone to in order to protect me.

But there was no way anyone in our family didn’t suspect. I might have appeared normal on the outside, but they had to know I was broken.

Walking past the human shields, I slid into the back of a waiting SUV. Papa was still in the hospital because of the severity of his concussion. Keeping his mental health a secret from the rest of the family seemed like an impossibility at this point.

Considering Zia Scarlett lived in the mansion with Zio Ciro, I was surprised we’d been able to keep it from them as long as we had. But they tended to spend half their time on the private island where Ciana lived with her husband and children rather than in New York. Their other four children visited there often as well, especially Zariah and her little family.

I wasn’t a fan of the island, or of Bain. He could call himself Torin all he wanted, but fuck that noise. Most of my family had let what he’d done go without holding a grudge. I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t all that fond of Ciana either. It didn’t matter how many times she told me she’d been trying to protect my brother way back then. She could have prevented half the disaster that followed if she’d simply confided in someone what had happened when she’d first met the man who was now her husband.

But I kept that to myself. If Ryan and everyone else wanted to let that shit go, that was their business. Forgive, but don’t forget.

I could forgive, just not what happened back then.

After I watched everything play out at the time through a broken, grieving kid’s point of view, the only lesson I’d learned was that there were few consequences for people’s selfishness. Maybe I couldn’t throw stones, considering how selfish I was over Elias, but at least I’d avoided getting innocent people killed in the name of love.

Six of the men escorted me into the hospital when we arrived. A private elevator took us to an even more private ward that was just for members of my family. Not all the Vitucci fortune was soaked in blood. But laundering what was through donations like a new MRI machine or an entire research wing in a hospital, however, got it nice and clean.

Even with the private ward locked, twenty guards were still standing at the ready when the elevator doors opened. I stepped off, and the Vitucci head of security moved forward.

“Hands up,” he grumbled.

I shifted my gaze from the door behind him to his face. In my head, I’d always called him Number Two. His face was set in grave lines, with a mean scar on his right brow that my cousins Bennie and Vito once told me was from him fighting a bear. I was six at the time, and I’d believed them.

“Are you fucking with me?” I asked when he simply stood there, waiting.

Blocking me from entering.

Keeping me from Papa.

“You’ve been gone for two months,” he said with a casual shrug. “Maybe you’ve forgotten who your family is.”

He doubted me. My loyalty to my family—my papa.

After everything else that I had dealt with all day, that was the final straw. The noise in my head was suddenly louder than ever.

Lifting my hands, I allowed him to pat me down, starting with my arms. I was dressed in a lacy white cami with a pastel blue blazer over it and matching pants. With my heels on, I was almost as tall as him. While Number Two felt along my arms and waist, searching for any possible weapons, I stared straight ahead.

On either side of us, the other guards remained deceptively quiet. At the ready for any attack.

Did they also question my family loyalty?

When the head of security started to bend, his hands patting over my ass, I lifted my knee, clipping him in the chin so hard, everyone heard his teeth snap together. All the other soldiers tensed, but they didn’t move to restrain me. Maybe Number Two was the only one who thought I was a danger to his boss. Which was a good thing—for them.

Number Two was only slightly dazed from the knee blow, so I hit him with my elbow to the eye. And then again to the nose. Number Two groaned and dropped to his knees.

Spitting on him, I pushed him out of my way. “Next time you doubt me, I’ll put a bullet in your skull.”

Opening the door, I felt my rage evaporate the moment I saw Papa lying in the hospital bed. There were oxygen tubes in his nose, a bandage wrapped around his head, and restraints on his wrists, trapping him to the bed.

My heart felt like it was bleeding as I gazed at the man who was my hero. Having the country between us the past two months had made it easy to pretend I wasn’t losing him to the disease that was ravaging his mind. But the proof was right there, strapped to his arms because he was a danger to himself as well as others.

Mom and Ryan stood by the bulletproof window, their heads together as they spoke in whispers to keep from waking Papa. As I stepped into the room, their conversation abruptly halted.

Closing the door behind me, I kept my gaze on the bed but walked over to the others.

“Where’s Nova?”

“Home with the kids,” my brother answered. “Pop was too agitated with her here. Plus, this potential war has her twitchy. She wanted to be with Wren and Gabe.”

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