13
SAOIRSE
By the time I’m able to call Connor and tell him what’s happened, an ambulance is already taking Ana to the hospital. “We need to go,” I tell him firmly. “I’ll meet you there. You need to talk some sense into Liam, while he sees the effect this is having on Ana.”
“I take it you weren’t able to get through to them?” Connor’s voice is harsh, his words biting, but I try my best to ignore it. The wounds of the fight with Niall are still too fresh, and if I let Connor’s coldness get to me, I feel as if I might fall apart.
It feels as if everything else in my life is.
“Not yet,” I say, letting an edge creep into my tone. “But maybe this will be a wake-up call for Liam.”
Connor grunts, but finally agrees. I go straight for my car, seeing Niall on the steps out of the corner of my eye. I want to go to him, to talk to him, but I know I can’t. I don’t even know what else there is to say.
He wants more from me than I can give him, and he wants things to be different that never can be. A small part of me is angry with him because I’d let him know from the start what this was, what I could give—and he let us keep going, knowing it wasn’t enough.He can’t help it,I think numbly as I get into the car and give the driver the name of the hospital Ana is going to.He wants it too much. He has for too long.And after all, haven’t I been doing something similar with Connor? Wanting him, hoping for more, even when he’d told me clearly what he could offer?
I stare out the window as the car weaves through Boston traffic, feeling heavy and sad. I don’t know what will happen to Ana, if she’ll be okay, if the baby will be. I know Liam will blame Connor and me if they’re not, and I can’t deny there’s some merit to that. But it’s on him, too, for continuing to fight. For not just taking his wife and child and leaving.
This entire thing is a fucked-up mess.I feel tired, as if I could sleep for a month. I think I actually do close my eyes for a minute in the car because it feels as if we’re at the hospital all too quickly.
Connor is waiting outside, his face tight and cold. He’s waiting for me, and the second I step out of the car, he heads for the doors, letting me follow him as we go inside.
“Anastasia McGregor,” he tells the nurse. “We’re family. I’m her brother-in-law, and this is my wife.”
“Well, I think that’s the first time you’ve said that out loud.”
We both turn sharply to see Liam standing behind us, looking drawn and pale and tired.
“What?” Connor says, a sharp edge to his voice, and Liam sighs.
“Calling yourself her ‘brother in law.’ I think you were dead set on hoping Ana would disappear. To the point of trying to get my marriage invalidated and passing Saoirse back to me.”
My mouth tightens at that, but I say nothing. I try not to think of that, about how quick Connor was to try to find a way to escape me and matrimony and go back to London.
“Why are you here?” Liam asks, not bothering to let Connor respond. “It’s not as if you give a shit about Ana.”
Connor frowns. “I’m here to talk some sense into you.”
Liam swears under his breath. “I’ve had enough of your ‘sense,’ brother. For all I know, you nearly had me killed in that warehouse.”
“I saved your bloody life,” Connor growls. “I had you go out the window first! While the bloody ceiling was coming down around us both. If I’d wanted you dead—” He lets out a harsh breath. “You’re being a fool, brother. Looking for schemes and betrayal where there is none, and meanwhile, your wife is falling apart under the stress of all of this. You’re putting your own child at risk.”
Liam’s face pales, his cheekbones reddening as he faces his brother down; the two of them shift away from the nurse’s desk and down the hall as they continue their conversation. I keep a distance, but close enough to hear, though I know neither one of them want my input.
“I would never risk my wife or my child,” Liam hisses. “That’s a fucking despicable thing to say, Connor. As my brother—”
“As your brother, I’m trying to make you see fucking sense.”
“If you say that one more goddamn time—”
Connor laughs, the sound dark and angry. “What? You’ll punch me? Beat me up? Sic your faithless dog Niall on me, here in the hospital, while your wife lies bleeding out somewhere in these halls? Why aren’t you with her right now, if you love her so much?”
Liam glares at him. “Why was your wife moaning in a bedroom in my house with my best friend?”
Shit.I feel my stomach turn over, feeling sick at the idea that Liam might have heard us. I see Connor’s face tighten, his eyes cutting briefly towards me with a look that says I’ll answer for that later, but to my relief, he doesn’t say anything about it here. He turns back to Liam, his face a mask of hardened, stony anger.
“Saoirse is mine now,” Connor growls. “Don’t speak ill of her in my presence. We’re not here to talk aboutmywife and her errors. We’re here to talk about yours. About the fact that you risked everything, that you’regoingto lose everything for this woman, and yet you won’t back down, regardless of what it’s doing to her.” He shakes his head. “Everyone knows how fragile she is. If you really love her as much as you claim to, you’ll end this. Walk away and leave. I’ll even give you more time to get out of Boston, considering that Anastasia is in the hospital right now.”
Liam’s lips are a thin, cold line. “Iamdoing this for my family,” he says quietly. “For my wife and my child, for their future.EverythingI’ve done has been for them. Since the moment I saw Ana, all I wanted was her—to give her everything.” His jaw clenches. “Shewantsto leave, and I don’t blame her. Do you know what’s happened to her on account of our families, our organizations? All of them, the Italians, the Bratva, the Kings, all our connections and feuds and rivalries and hatreds, it started with Sofia and Ana got caught up in it. She was mutilated, raped, abducted, tortured, bought, and kept as a pet by a man I’m certain is at least half-insane. She was driven to the edge of madness, again and again, broken and a shell of herself.Iwas the only one who could bring her back, the only man who loved her just as she was, broken or whole, all the parts of her. She could have stayed shattered forever, and I would have loved her. This fucking life—” he takes a deep, sucking breath, his hands in fists at his sides as he faces his brother down. “This life nearly destroyed me, too. It took my childhood, my family—my mother, my father, and my brother—”