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“No one could have known what he had planned. We can only work with what we know and go from there.”
“Ainsley is dead set on finding our father. I—” I stop because I can’t give up the truth yet.
When the ambulance pulls up in front of the emergency room, we are directed to a waiting area, and I sit there. Everything I’ve done wrong from the moment I found Jimmy comes back tenfold. I should have never searched for him. I should have never let him become a part of our lives. It’s been toxic and unhealthy since then. The doors open and I expect Lennon’s husband, Dmitri, to walk through them, but instead it’s Mac Bronwyn, Leni’s father. I lean back and try to shrink in my chair, but Sparrow jumps up and races to his side. She’s angry with him, but I can’t make out what they are arguing about. The nurses direct him back, and I sit there.
I’m not going to take off. I’m not going to run, I keep repeating to myself. I’ll face the consequences of my actions.
Moments later, the doors open again, and in walks Dmitri with Andrei and Mikhail. A bunch of their soldiers follow behind them. Dmitri is in shorts and a tank top. Remnants of tape are wrapped around his hands. He was at a fight. I’d heard there was a big underground fight going on tonight.
He points at me and looks back at the men with him.
“Don’t let her leave,” he orders, and walks to the counter.
I sit there knowing my fate isn’t going to be good. I’ll be traded to one of the families to keep peace. I will never see Aleksei again, and I might be killed for my actions. But I’ll take it if it keeps my sisters safe.
I tune back in when the admissions representative tells Dmitri he’s not Lennon’s emergency contact. I stand up and watch as all the men around me prepare to jump on me to keep me from running. I step toward Dmitri.
“It’s Bronwyn,” I share, and then I give him the truth. “I’m not leaving. I need to talk to you, but you need to take care of my sister first and protect her.”
I need him to know the reason I went to that party tonight. It wasn’t to attack her. It wasn’t to confront her. It was to let her know the Triad general who purchased her from Sparrow’s stepbrother is in town. But Dmitri doesn’t give me time to tell him. He starts yelling, his anger and guards descend on us.
Everyone tries to get Bronwyn to answer their calls so that Lennon knows that Dmitri is waiting to go back. But he only answers for Sparrow and then lies to her. We wait and wait some more. The older woman from earlier shows up, and I learn she is Andrei’s grandmother. I’m able to understand what they say when they are speaking in Russian, but I don’t let on that I understand them.
When Bronwyn finally steps out, he and Dmitri argue for a bit until a nurse comes out. I lean forward so I can hear what they are saying.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen, but she just checked herself out AMA. She’s left,” the nurse informs them.
I can hack the records and find out what’s going on, but I need to figure out how best to protect her because Lennon is in a lot of danger right now. I jump up and move toward the nurse.
“She went AMA? She’s not here?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Dmitri and Bronwyn argue with the nurse about getting her medical diagnosis. Dmitri turns toward Mikhail, who I know is pretty good at computers, but I’m better. He orders him to look for her, and I slip out my laptop and begin looking too. I start with her medical record. Maybe it will give me some insight into why she ran. I scan the pages and discover what Ainsley suspected is true. When I hear Dmitri talking about leaving, I decide now is the time to tell him about the Triad. I also whisper Lennon’s diagnosis to him.
Andrei starts issuing orders of where people need to go. He still hasn’t told his men to take me into custody, so I follow along as everyone moves out of the hospital to the cars. If I don’t go with them, I’ll go on my own. Bronwyn follows along like he’s going to go too. Andrei and he get into a confrontation about how Bronwyn didn’t even tell Lennon that Dmitri was in the lobby. Anger flows through my body. I know Lennon wouldn’t have run from Dmitri if she knew he was here. Bronwyn did what he normally does.
Hurt her.
I can’t stop myself. I advance on him and punch him as hard as I can. His nose explodes in a spray of blood. I look at my knuckles and find they are instantly swelling. Shit, I broke my knuckles.
“Damn it, now we have to take you to a doctor.” Andrei points to my hand.
The fuck is he talking about. This isn’t the first time I’ve broken my knuckles.
“No. My sister is more important.” I swing back to Bronwyn. “All she ever did was want to please you. If she’s hurt, I’ll bury you. I can do it too. You hurt her every chance you could,” I yell at him.
I’m directed to get into the car with the men, and we head to their office, where I know they each have a condo. I overheard that Dmitri was supposed to participate in the fights tonight. I don’t understand why, but that could have been one of the things that set off my sister. She wouldn’t want him to be in a fight because he could really get hurt.
“I only wanted to tell Lennon that the general was here. I didn’t want to hurt her. I swear. I don’t want any of my sisters or Sparrow hurt.” I defend my actions for showing up tonight. “I hacked Lennon’s schedule and saw the thing at the restaurant. I didn’t know she was sick or having issues. I wouldn’t have taken Ainsley if I’d known. Ains is hell-bent on finding Jimmy.” Everyone in the car goes silent. The tension in the air ramps up, and their bodies tighten. I know what set them off, but they are unaware that I know the truth. Ainsley still doesn’t know. “Ainsley was yelling at Lennon. I tried to stop her, but it was too late. Lennon fainted. I’ll face whatever punishment I have to.”
As I talk to them, I continue to search for Lennon on my laptop. I hack into various camera feeds around the hospital, trying to pinpoint her route. The men fall into a discussion, and I ignore them. I don’t want to hear what they have planned for me.
We pull up to the back of the Russian Cardroom and make our way up to Dmitri’s condo on the third floor. I’m seated at the table, working on triangulating Lennon’s position as he goes to his room to dress.
“I have her,” I tell him. “She’s at Clare’s House.” I explain that she wasn’t running from him, but more than likely from Bronwyn, who was probably being as much of an asshole as he is.
I take the offered ice pack from Mikhail as the men prepare to leave. I expect this is where they are going to leave me, and I’ll be sent to a warehouse just like Bronwyn was.
