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I give myself a moment to breathe—in and out. Tonight has been too much from the moment Sky, Kendric, and Raylan came into my room and told me they wanted me to be theirs. It’s ending on an even stranger note, and I need time to process everything.
Where does my father fit into all of this? He reached out to the FBI, Masterson said. But did he know a Black Hand operative would heed his call? Did he know that Masterson would make such a horrifying executive decision? And how involved is my father with the Black Hand? I doubt he knows the kind of monsters he’s gotten in bed with. I can’t fathom him consciously doing this. To me, his daughter. No, it doesn’t make sense. That would make him a monster, too.
“Are you all right?” John asks me.
“Yeah, sorry, a lot to think about,” I reply.
“I’ll let you rest. As I said, this stays between us,” he says. “Do you want me to send them in? They’re restless out there, worried sick about you.”
I give him a soft smile. “Yeah, let them in.”
“They care about you, Ariana,” John says, almost laughing. “Those crazy sons of bitches. The trouble they get themselves in. Don’t judge them too harshly, okay? They really do mean well.”
“I see that now.”
I’m left on my own for about a minute. Just enough time to let me spiral back into my thoughts. I’m pregnant. Obviously, the guys can’t know. Not yet, anyway. One of them is the father. My face is burning. I don’t know who the father is. Kendric. Sky. It could be either one.
We never used protection. We never even considered it or thought about it. Everything about us has been feral, deliciously feral in reckless abandonment. But now, I’m with child, and it puts my whole life onto a different set of tracks.
“How are you doing?” Sky asks as he’s first through the door.
All I can do is smile. “Much better, thank you. The doctor said I was dehydrated. I’m going to be okay.”
“Yeah, he told us,” he replies and comes closer, approaching my bedside with reasonable caution while his dark gaze scans my face. “Do you think you can walk now?”
“The IV gave me everything I needed. I’ll be fine. Let me guess, we’re not going back to the clubhouse.”
Kendric shakes his head as he and Raylan also come in. I take a moment to fully look at them, to admire their broad shoulders and protectively fierce looks. They look so hot in those tight jeans and black leather jackets, tattoos slipping in and out of their shirts. My fingertips tingle with want and need.
It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve been at ease with one another. I only wish it didn’t take an attempt on my life to bring us back together. “They’re going to raid it soon,” Kendric says. “We’ve already put the word out. The members are doing their part, getting as much as they can out of that place before the guns go in.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“For the umpteenth time, Ariana, stop apologizing,” Raylan says. “We’re responsible. And we’re going to resolve this. I promise.”
“How?” I ask.
“I have a place we can go,” Raylan replies. “It’s remote and safe. Out of sight and far enough away from the city. You’ll stay there while we start moving things around. The Black Hand is officially coming after us.”
“What does that mean?”
“It sets some things in motion,” Sky answers the question. “Things we didn’t want to happen, but we prepared for either way. A war is coming, Ariana.”
War.
Such a terrible word. Such an ugly fate for a city like Everton to sink into. It doesn’t seem fair, not after everything that its people have gone through—and I’m not talking about the upper middle class I was raised in. I’m talking about the many others I was never truly aware of. The Paulies and the Spikes, the Shilohs and the Mannys, the faces that the media rarely talks about while painting the prettiest picture of my father.
A war is coming, and I am in the middle of it.
17
Kendric
We got lucky.
Stupid lucky, I might add. Had Sky not heard the subtle commotion outside, had he not thought to look out the window just in time to see Ariana climbing down that ivy lattice, we wouldn’t have known she was gone until morning, and then it would’ve been too late. She’d already be dead.
I’m furious with her, and so are Raylan and Sky. But we also understand why she did it. We cannot fault her for it, and we cannot punish her.
