It made sense why the doctor was scared.Iwas scared of Aidan, and I knew he liked me.
The man made the term ‘loose cannon’ seem like a friendly warning. I was half certain Aidan was a lunatic so it was no wonder the doctor was pissing herself.
“That’s a worst-case scenario, sir,” the doctor informed him, sympathy coating her words. “We have plenty to be grateful for.” She swallowed. Audibly. “I was her surgeon and I saw the bullet’s trajectory. If there was ever a good way of coming out of a gunshot wound to the abdomen, your wife found it. Clean entry and exit. No fractures to the ribs, just slight fissures on the lower ribcage. No nicks to any organs—just the spleen. God was certainly on her side.”
“He works for the righteous,” came Aidan’s voice, and I opened my eyes at that.
Of all the things anyone could say, that was the most stupid of them all.
“It was good luck, Aidan,” I rasped. Or, at least, I tried to—because no one in this room was righteous, certainly not Aidan O'Donnelly! My tongue was thick though, and the words didn’t seem to form normally.
“Aoife!” Finn cried and my blurry eyes managed to focus as I looked at him and saw he had, of all things, a beard.
A beard?
Jesus.
How long had I been out?
He ran to my side and grabbed my hand. Pressing it to his lips, he whispered, “Baby, what do you need?”
“Water,” I half-whimpered, wishing it hadn’t hurt so much for him to bestow that kiss to my knuckles.
The doctor bustled to my side and she pressed an ice chip to my mouth. “You’re fine, Aoife,” she said soothingly—but her eyes were cold. I remembered what somebody had said the last time I’d been awake and wondered if it had been her.
They didn’t like me because my husband was a Five Points man.
Well, tough shit.
The older woman, somewhere in her fifties, studied me then Finn as he squeezed my fingers again. Though a frown flickered over her brow, I saw that her eyes weren’t cold, actually. Just scared.
I couldn’t blame her.
Not when Aidan O'Donnelly was in the room, and with a rep as large and notorious as the state itself.
Hell, maybe they were scared of him in other parts of the States too, but never having left New York, I wouldn’t know. Considering I’d seen the man in action, I wouldn’t put it past him.
When the ice had melted and my tongue felt less like a swollen hamster lolling around in my mouth, I whispered, “Stop scaring the doctors, Aidan.”
A snort brayed from behind the doctor and Aidan strolled up, looking a lot smarter than Finn. He peered at me. “Scaring people is what I do best, Aoife. Figured you’d know that, being a Hell’s Kitchen girl.”
The other woman whimpered, and I shot her a look. “His bark’s worse than his bite,” I tried to offer, but it wasn’t working. Her skin was whiter than mine—which was saying something. I made milk look colorful.
“We’ll be in shortly to run some tests,” she mumbled, dipping her chin before scurrying out of the room.
I got the feeling that in normal situations, my husband and his adoptive father would be the ones ushered out, while a team came to tend to me. Of course, things never worked any normal kind of way with the Five Points in attendance. Certainly not when those men were the head and one of his right hand men.
My gaze returned to Finn’s haggard face, and I saw his eyes were wet as he stared down at me. He’d bowed down slightly so my triceps could rest on the sheets, but he could support my forearm and use the position to press my hand to his stubbly cheek.
That he was being so affectionate in front of Aidan surprised me. PDAs weren’t exactly good for the reputation of a man in Finn’s position—it spoke of how scared he’d been for me.
By the sounds of it, I’d come off lucky. Well, as lucky as a bride can be when she gets shot on the church steps just moments after signing the wedding certificate, that is.
My lips curved at that, because yeah, I remembered what happened now. At my rueful smile, Finn gaped at me.What?Did he expect me to sob? Maybe I should have. Maybe I should have broken down and screamed at him, demanded he leave the room, leave me alone, but God, I really didn’t want to, and I figured the chick who’d just been shot could get her own way for a while.
“Was anyone else hurt?”
Finn’s features turned stoic. “Aidan, Lena, and I were the only ones who weren’t shot. All the brothers got hit.”