"Your oldest brother."
"How many brothers do I have, anyway?"
"Um...five? No, there’s four, actually."
"Which is it, four or five?"
"Four," I bite the inside of my cheek. "Xander, your triplet—"
"Hold on, did you say triplet?"
Oops, I hadn’t meant to reveal that yet, but he’d have eventually learned about it, one way or the other, right? So, it’s okay for me to tell him that he has a triplet. I mean, he must have known, considering he turned up at Christian and Aurora’s wedding, right?
"Umm, yea...and then, you have two half-brothers, so including you, that makes it seven brothers again."
"Again," he scowls, "what do you mean by that?"
"Xander is…you know—"
"No, I don’t know." Sweat beads his forehead and his grasp on my arm loosens. "What happened to Xander?"
"He’s… uh… " Damn, it’s not easy to break the news to him, and especially when he’s only just woken up from a coma. Speaking of, how the hell can he be so lucid so soon? "It’s best you hear about it once you recover completely."
"Tell me…now," he begins to slur. "Tell me…" his eyelids flutter, "I…in-insist." He releases me, then slumps back against the pillows. His features go slack. I hesitate, watch as his breathing deepens. Best to call the doctor now, before he wakes up again and insists that he doesn’t want anyone to examine him.
I turn to leave, and that’s when the window of the hospital room shatters. The glass pieces scatter across the floor as a man jumps into the room.
2
Axel
A scream pierces through the blankness in my head. What the hell? Who’s that? I try to open my eyelids, but they seem to be weighed down. Darkness crowds in on my subconscious and I push it away. I crack open my eyes as she screams again. I turn my face in the direction of the scream, watch as the tiny dark-haired woman grapples with a man wearing a pair of black pants and shirt. The lower half of his face is covered with a mask. He has a gun.
He has a gun.
My pulse rate ratchets up. The beeping of the machine linked to me increases in intensity. The man raises his free hand and strikes the woman. The force of the blow carries her across the floor. She hits the wall and crumples there.
The beeping speeds up even further, until it’s one long discordant note. Anger slices through me and it’s not because I know her… Or do I? I am not sure, but it’s wrong to hit a woman… Especially that woman.My woman. Jesus, she’s not my woman. Where the hell did that thought come from?
I push up from the bed, only my arms give way and I collapse back. The man pulls out his gun, raises it in my direction. My heart slams into my ribcage. The beeping of the monitor linked to my chest increases in intensity, and I didn’t think that was possible.
Asshole points his gun at me and takes a step in my direction. My heartbeat intensifies and reverberates in my skull. Adrenaline floods my veins. I push over onto my side, roll away just as the pillow next to me explodes.
Fucking hell. Bastard’s going to kill me, and I’m lying here unprotected. Every part of my body screams in protest as I force my muscles to obey my commands. I roll over further, drop to the floor. The needle stuck into my arm is wrenched out and the tape rips out my hair on my arm. Fuck! Blood spurts from the wound, but that’s the least of my concerns. Pain squeezes up my spine. Another bullet slams into the floor next to me.
Motherfucker! He’s gonna take me out, and as if that’s not bad enough, when I am in a hospital gown. Nothing against hospital gowns; it’s just that I’d prefer to go without my ass on display to the world at large.
I glance up to find him standing over me. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I will not die. Will not. The skin around his eyes tighten and I know the asshole is laughing. Anger squeezes my chest. The blood pumps in my ears. Sweat pours down my face as I grab the edge of the bed. Every muscle in my body protests and my arms and legs tremble as I push up to my feet. Or try to, anyway. My biceps spasm and my body refuses to obey me.
I collapse back onto the floor and the impact knocks the breath out of me.F-u-c-k.Sparks flash behind my eyes. My stomach twists and bile sears my throat. Darkness flickers at the corners of my vision. I shove it aside, glance up and into the barrel of his gun. He depresses the trigger; I squeeze my eyes shut. Then, I hear the thump of the bullet as it embeds in the floor next to me.
I snap open my eyelids to find the man is no longer standing over me. Turn my head, lock my gaze with my would-be-assassin’s sightless eyes. Blood trickles out of a wound between his eyebrows.
The breath rushes out of me, the tension drains out, and my arms and legs tremble.
"Here, take my hand."
I turn my face in the direction of the voice, and this time, come face to face with features which are so damn familiar.