Chapter 16
Nolan
Inhaling slowly and deeply, I picked up my phone. There were flights from Boston to NYC all day long on any given day, but all of them were full. Driving would take hours, but when I tried to charter a helicopter or a private plane, I was told neither would be available until later that evening. I could already be back in NYC by then if I drove, so I ordered a rental and was already tossing my things in the trunk when my coach came out of the hotel with a few other players.
“Krenshaw, where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
I shut the trunk and opened the driver’s side door. “Family situation came up. I have to go. I’ll call you.”
“You can’t just—”
I didn’t stick around to hear him bitch another second. Slamming the door, I pulled out of the hotel parking lot even as I was fastening my seat belt. All the way down to New York, I tried to call Zariah, but I kept getting a busy signal. That didn’t make sense unless her service was being interrupted for some reason.
My heart pounded the entire drive, never easing up once. The calls wouldn’t go through, and when I stopped for gas and to text her, it didn’t deliver. I didn’t think she’d blocked me. Even after what my father had done, she hadn’t blocked me, so if she was actually pissed this time, I couldn’t imagine her blocking me over it.
Something was wrong, and it had to do with her sister.
Then I pulled up to the compound.
If I’d eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours, it would have left my stomach then and there. The gates were crushed open. I drove through, but I didn’t make it past the mansion before I saw the first of the dead bodies. My entire body began to quake as I jumped out of the rental.
“Zariah!” I bellowed her name, glancing around at all the men on the ground, bullet wounds in various parts of their bodies and rivers of blood flooding toward the drains. “Zariah, where are you?”
It never even crossed my mind why the cops weren’t there. I started to run up toward her house, but movement from one of the windows inside the mansion caught my attention. Turning, I saw Tony come out of the house, a gun in each hand.
“Krenshaw,” he barked. “She’s not here.”
“Where?” I choked, glancing around at the dead bodies again.
Tony followed my gaze. “The Irish came for her sister again. They killed everyone in the mansion who didn’t make it to the safe room in time. Zariah’s brothers were both shot. They just left by ambulance not five minutes ago. Everyone alive went with them but me. I stayed back to see if anyone else made it.” He holstered one of the guns, his head lowering in pain and defeat. “The only reason I’m even alive is because I was with Zariah up at her house. They got what they wanted—Ciana—and then left before the bastards made it to her place.”
“Zariah is okay, though?” I felt dizzy from everything the guard had just unloaded on me, but I needed to know the woman I loved was all right.
“She’s unharmed,” he confirmed. “From what I heard from Jet Hannigan, the only reason Vito and Bennie were shot was because they wouldn’t let O’Farrell have Ciana.”
“Which hospital?” I was already running back to the rental.
“I’ll drive,” Tony said, pushing me out of the way as he holstered his second gun. “You look like you’re about to pass out, and I’m more familiar with the area.”
“I don’t understand anything about what you said,” I admitted as he drove. “The name O’Farrell means nothing to me.”
“Bain O’Farrell. Head of the O’Brion crime family. Our biggest enemies. They took Ciana and…” He paused, swallowing hard. “Nova,” he choked out the other girl’s name. “They took them. Killed little Nova. But because Ciana is pregnant, they left her alive. Ciro, Cristiano, Anya, and Ryan took half our men and went hunting. Nova was Ryan’s world. He’s already a different person with her gone.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I murmured, knowing it was inadequate. Saying sorry wouldn’t bring the girl back, wouldn’t heal the pain that was in Tony’s heart.
“Be sorry for anyone who gets in Ryan’s or Anya’s way,” Tony gritted out. “They’re about to breathe their last.”
It was a quick drive to the hospital. We left the rental double-parked and ran into the emergency department. If it got towed, it got towed. All I cared about was finding Zariah. We’d barely entered the building when Tony caught sight of someone he recognized. I followed him to where a tall blond man stood over a pretty brunette woman, who was sitting, her hands trembling as she tried to hold on to a paper cup of coffee.
Her gaze lifted, and blank blue eyes landed on me. Zariah’s eyes. Whoever this woman was, she was somehow related to the Donati family, but I had no idea of Zariah’s family tree other than her siblings, her cousins Ryan and Samara, and the aunt and uncle who lived in the mansion with her growing up.
“Where are Zariah and Scarlett?” Tony asked the man.
The blond giant lifted green eyes, just as blank as the woman’s, from her to us. But as I took a moment to really look at his face, I realized it wasn’t blankness I was seeing. It was bone-crushing agony that he was trying to mask with blankness. “Bennie was rushed straight into surgery. Scarlett and Zariah are in the back with Vito. He’s going to need surgery too, but Bennie was worse. Bullet nicked the artery in his leg.” He nodded toward the woman. “We were back there with them, but Flick nearly passed out, so I brought her out for some air.”
“We’re going back to be with them, then,” Tony told him. “Which room?”
“Follow the sound of Scarlett’s sobs,” the man said with a heavy exhale. “She was calm until we got here, then the adrenaline faded, and she’s been a mess ever since.”