Sweet Sin, page 16
“Falcon, listen to me.”
I turn to Savannah, who has her hands on her hips like an insolent child. “What, Vannah?”
“You don’t have to do any of that.”
“Hell, yes, I do.”
“You don’t, because I’m not leaving. I’m staying here with you. In Raven’s room.”
I drop my jaw. “No you’re not. You’ve been through trauma. You need sleep.”
“You think I’d get a wink without you there? Your guy will be there soon and he’ll take care of the dogs. But that’s not even why I’m staying.”
“Why then?”
She wraps her arm around my waist. “Because this is hard for you, Falcon. You shouldn’t be alone.”
My father turns his gaze to Savannah and then to me.
Does he see what’s between us? Does he know?
Do I care?
Not even slightly.
“There’s only that uncomfortable couch,” I say. “And those ridiculous wooden chairs.”
“I’ll get a recliner sent to Raven’s room,” Dad says.
“And I’ll sleep on the uncomfortable couch, Falcon. Or the floor. I don’t care. I’m not leaving you.”
“Savannah, the nurses interrupt nearly every hour to check Raven’s vitals. You won’t get any sleep.”
“I think I’ve already said I won’t get any sleep back at your place without you there.” She lays her head on my shoulder. “I’m serious. If you’re staying, I’m staying. If you don’t want me here, you’ll have to physically remove me.”
“What if you stay at our place, tonight?” Dad asks. “Star and I gave up our nearby hotel room when Raven was released the last time, so we’re going home.”
“Great idea, Dad, and thanks.”
“Yes, that’s so generous of you,” Savannah says, “but I only… Not to put you down or anything, but I only feel safe with Falcon.”
Dad nods as we walk back toward Raven’s room. “I understand. I’ll make arrangements for a recliner. That way you’ll both have a place to sleep. But you should ask Raven. If she doesn’t want you both here, you need to abide by her wishes.”
“Of course.” I nod.
Mom and Hawk leave Raven’s room, meeting us in the hallway.
“What’s going on out here?” Mom asks.
“Nothing,” Dad says. “Falcon and Savannah are staying here with Raven tonight, if she’s okay with it, of course.”
Raven will be fine with both of us staying. She knows what Vannah and I have both been through the past couple days.
“Let’s head out, Star,” Dad says. “Hawk?”
“I’m going to get a bite and then hang with Raven a little longer.”
Dad nods, and he and Mom walk toward the elevators.
“So?” Hawk eyes Savannah. “Just what do we have here?”
30
SAVANNAH
I need to stay with Falcon. We need each other.
But even if that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t be leaving the hospital. I have an ulterior motive.
I want to look in on Mrs. Shaw. And then Giancarlo.
I can’t tell Falcon. He’ll want to go with me, and I need to talk to Giancarlo alone.
“So?” Hawk eyes me. “Just what do we have here?”
“You know the whole story, I assume,” Falcon says. “Unless Dad didn’t tell you.”
“Dad told me.”
“Good,” Falcon says, “because I just told it to a fucking detective today and I have no desire to rehash it all.”
“Everything good?” Hawk asks.
Falcon shakes his head. “How can you even ask that, with Ray back here?”
“Trying for levity,” Hawk says. “It’s my way. She’ll be all right, Fal. She has to be.”
“Damned right she has to be.”
“I’ll let the two of you talk,” I say, peeking into the room. Raven seems to be sleeping.
Falcon grabs my arm. “You stay right here.”
“You going to answer me?” Hawk raises his eyebrows.
“About what’s going on with us?” I ask.
“This is on me, Vannah,” Falcon says.
“Falcon, we have nothing to hide.” I turn to Hawk and look into his big blue eyes. They’re laced with fear and sadness for his sister. “I’m in love with your brother.”
“You are?” A voice says from behind me. “Lucky me.”
I turn.
Wow. This one’s tall too. And hot. A little thinner than the other two but no less muscular and with a boyish look that makes him more pretty than handsome.
Wow.
“Eagle,” I say.
“That’s my name.” He holds out his hand. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”
“Savannah Gallo,” I say.
“Hands off, Eagle.” From Falcon.
“Easy, bro.” Eagle smiles. “I don’t touch what’s not mine.” Then he gets serious. “How is she?”
“In good spirits, for what it’s worth,” Falcon replies. “The doc thinks she just caught a virus, but we won’t know until the blood panels come back.”
“How long will that be?” Eagle asks.
Falcon shakes his head. “How the fuck should I know?”
“Easy, easy,” Eagle says again.
Falcon is looking at his youngest brother in a strange way—as if he can’t decide whether he wants to hug him or slice him up and throw him to a den of hungry lions.
I must be seeing it wrong.
If there’s one thing Falcon is all about, it’s family.
I clear my throat. “If you’ll all excuse me, I need to…go to the bathroom.”
Falcon touches my cheek. “Don’t be long.”
“Of course not.”
I have the information for Giancarlo and Mrs. Shaw from my earlier talk with the clerk.
I want to see Mrs. Shaw, make sure she’s okay. But how can she be okay? She’s a widow…and it’s all my fault. I’m probably the last person she wants to see.
I head to her room anyway, summoning all my courage. Her door is open, and I peek inside. She appears to be sleeping, and I don’t want to disturb her. A nurse walks by me to enter the room.
“Are you a friend?” she asks.
“Yes. Is she doing okay?”
“She’s doing just fine, but that’s all I can say unless you’re family. Would you like me to wake her?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m glad to know she’s doing well. I’ll come back another time to visit.”
I leave, relief sweeping through me. Relieved that Mrs. Shaw is fine, but also because I got a temporary reprieve from talking to her.
As much as the guilt is consuming me, though, I’d gladly have Mrs. Shaw yell at me into next week to avoid seeing Giancarlo.
But I must.
I find his room, and his door is closed. I knock.
“Yeah?”
Is it his voice? It’s crackly and raspy, and I don’t know him well enough to recognize his voice anyway.
I open the door, and he’s lying in bed. Oddly, there’s no bandage on his neck, but he looks pale.
“For fuck’s sake,” he says when he sees me.
I try to calm my rapid heartbeat. “Hello, Giancarlo.”
“Hello, bitch.”
I breathe in. One, two, three… “The other night at the restaurant, you thought you knew me. Thought we had met.”
“I knew who you were.”
“I get that now.”
“Get the hell out of here. It’s thanks to you I’m in this hellhole.”
“What did you expect?” I keep my voice steady. “You trespassed, held Falcon at gunpoint, and you were going to kidnap me.”
He says nothing.
Of course not. I know the drill. You say nothing that could be used against you.
That’s been drilled into my head since I could understand the words.
“What do you want?” he demands.
“I’m just checking on you.”
His lips move as if he’s trying to smile but can’t quite get there. “To make sure you’re not a murderer?”
I steel myself, will myself to stay calm. “I wouldn’t be a murderer anyway. You and I both know that.”
He doesn’t reply.
Yup. He can’t.
He lifts his arm an inch, displaying his IV. “As you can see, I’m going to live. I got four units of blood, and I’m still weak.”
“You’re living because of Falcon, and you know it. Or didn’t they tell you how he saved your stupid life?”
Nothing, of course.
“I hope you’re planning to let Jordan go. I can’t have her involved with the likes of you.”
“Who she sees is her business.”
“And mine. She’s one of my best friends, and I sure as hell don’t want her involved in what you do for a living.”
No reply.
“Fine. We’ll leave it at that. You’re alive thanks to Falcon Bellamy. You owe him your life. Don’t forget that.”
“Oh, he won’t.”
I jerk at the voice.
The voice that turns my insides into quivering snakes. The voice that once said “I love you.”
I turn.
Miles McAllister stands in the doorway to Giancarlo’s room.
“Hello, Savannah.”
I clear my throat, willing my heart to stop beating like a hummingbird’s.
I should have seen this coming, but I didn’t.
I told Falcon I was going to the bathroom. How long have I been gone? I’m not even sure how much time has passed. No more than ten minutes at the most. I think.
Falcon wouldn’t think anything of a woman spending ten minutes in the bathroom. Would he? He spent the last eight years of his life behind bars without any contact with women using the facilities. I have no idea what he would think. If he’s even thinking about me at all. He’s focused on his sister, who he loves and is frightened for.
“I was just leaving.” I brush past Miles and—
“Not so fast.” He grabs my arm.
I yank it away—or attempt to. Miles is stronger than I am, and I haven’t been eating well since…
Well, since all of this went down.
Realizing Falcon was my parolee.
Ashley’s accident.
Ashley’s death.
Giancarlo and Abel.
My attack on Giancarlo.
Abel’s death.
And now this…
“You’re not going anywhere,” Miles says.
“Think again,” I say.
He digs his nails into my flesh. “Do you think your big burly cowboy is coming to your rescue? He doesn’t know where you are. He thinks you went to the bathroom.”
“How do you know that? Who do you have watching me?” I demand.
“Sweet Savannah.” Miles chuckles. “I’ve been watching you since you turned eighteen. You don’t make a move without my knowing.”
My jaw drops as the blood in my veins turns to ice.
My skin prickles, and not in a good way. If I fell down, I’m sure my limbs would break off like icicles.
“You’re coming with me,” Miles says.
I open my mouth to speak, but no words emerge. My vocal cords are frozen, like the rest of me.
Miles lifts the fabric of his slacks to reveal an ankle holster. “You and I are going to walk out of this room slowly, normally, as if we’re visiting a friend. You understand me?”
I shake my head.
Except I don’t.
I’m frozen. Can’t move. My body isn’t working.
“Good,” Miles says. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
No, no, no!
But the words don’t come.
My body doesn’t obey my brain.
Miles still holds my arm, and I walk with him, my legs obeying him and not me.
Falcon! Daddy!
Anyone!
Where’s the bodyguard my father hired? At Falcon’s house? Why not here? Why isn’t anyone watching me here?
We move toward the stairwell. Miles hates elevators. I remember that about him. I don’t know why. I don’t care why. Maybe he just knows people are less likely to see him in the stairwell. Or maybe he was stuck in an elevator as a child.
Don’t know.
Don’t care.
He opens the door to the stairwell. Which floor are we on again? Trauma. Fourth floor. Right.
Four flights of stairs until we get to the lobby.
Is Miles armed?
This is a small-town hospital. No metal detectors.
This is a place where people trust each other.
But I trust no one.
Not even my parents.
Not my brother who left the country and hasn’t been in touch with me since.
Not even Gert, my bestie. She’s close, but I’ve never completely let down my guard with her.
But Falcon.
I let it down with Falcon.
And I found a love so profound I never imagined it could exist.
Falcon, where are you?
And I still can’t stop myself from following Miles.
Something’s holding me. Some mixture of fear and loyalty and family and self.
And I’m frozen. Frozen inside.
Frozen and following a man I abhor away from the man who is my salvation.
31
FALCON
Eight years earlier…
“Come on.” I shake Eagle. “Get it together, man. What the fuck have you done?”
My brother shivers in my arms. I see him as a child, as a toddler, just learning to walk, walking to me, his oldest brother, with pride in his eyes. And I take him in my arms, hug him, and tell him how proud I am.
He would smile, lighting up his big brown eyes—the ones that are wide as saucers now.
“Come on, brother. We’re going to fix this. We’re going to fix it. I promise.”
I’ve been making promises to my littlest brother for as long as I can remember.
When he accidentally knocked over one of Mom’s favorite vases, and I took the blame for it. She still thinks I broke it after all these years.
“Come on, I promise...”
He’s still shivers. And I still don’t know what to do.
Behind me, Hawk touches my shoulder. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
My brother’s right, of course.
“Come on,” Hawk says. “The sun is setting, and if we have to work after dark, we’ll need light.”
“We don’t have any tools,’ Hawk says. “We need shovels, at least. We can’t fucking dig with our hands.”
“Right, right.”
Eagle is still staring into space.
“We’ve got to get Eagle home.”
“We can’t take him home like this,” Hawk says. “We can’t let Mom and Dad see him like this. We can’t let the girls see him like this.”
“Robin and Raven would help,” I say.
“But Falcon, we can’t bring them in on this. You and I are already accessories. Do you want that for Robbie and Ray?”
I shake my head and close my eyes.
Think!
No, I don’t want that for my sisters.
Why, why, why did Hawk and I get rid of that powder? If we’d left it, none of this would be happening.
Except Eagle might be in more trouble. When you get in with these cartels, it’s damned near impossible to get out.
We’ve got to get Eagle somewhere safe. Somewhere they won’t find him.
Where the fuck is that?
Damn.
“We’ve got no choice,” I say. “We have to leave everything as is, get Eagle home, and keep watch over him until morning. Then you and I will come back and deal with this shit.”
“No,” Hawk says. “We do it tonight.”
My brother’s right. I’m thinking of Eagle, and he’s thinking of the big picture, which is where we need to be focused.
Eagle will have to stay here where we can keep an eye on him. I nod to Hawk. “I’ll stay here with him. You go back for supplies. Try not to be seen.”
“I won’t be.” Hawks hurries away from the area.
I hold onto Eagle. “It’s going to be fine, baby brother. It’s going to be fine.”
I see different things when I look at my youngest brother.
I see the man who screwed up royally and got me put away.
But I also see the cute little toddler who followed me around, grabbing my hand and calling me Fah-fah, the little boy who I taught to ride a horse and a two-wheeler. The little boy who said I was his hero.
Then I see the shivering seventeen year old who went into shock. That young man, still a boy, really, who shivered in my arms and begged me, without words, to help him. To protect him.
And I vowed I would, just as I did when he was a little kid.
Just as I did when he was a baby and I held him for the first time when Mom was still in the hospital.
Robin and Raven treated him like he was their baby. They were little mommies to him.
But me?
I wasn’t a little father to Eagle.
I was a big brother. A hero. And in the end, a savior.
He’s up to something, but I can’t deal with that right now. I’ve got Savannah to consider, and in the next room, Raven, who may be rejecting my bone marrow.
Raven…who may be relapsing.
Raven…who may die.
“Nice of you to show up,” I finally say to him.
“I love her just as much as you do, Fal.”
I don’t doubt his words. I’ve never doubted Eagle’s words. He always means well. Since that fateful day, I know he’s stayed clean. We got him into rehab and I got updates from Hawk while I was inside.
Hawk watched him like a… Well, like a hawk.
He became his protector while I was gone.
But I’m back now.
“So what’s up with you and the woman?” Eagle asks.
“You heard her.”
Eagle grins. “She’s in love with you.”
“Apparently.”
Eagle steps toward me. “And you return her feelings?”
“I do, so back off.”
He holds up a hand. “You’ve got no worries with me. I owe you a lot.”
Fuck, he has no idea. “I don’t want to go there, Eagle. Not here, and not now.”
