Sweet Sin, page 17
“I just mean—”
“You’re up to something. Something that involves Scarlett Ramsey, but it has to wait, Eagle. Raven’s more important.”
And so is Savannah, but I doubt Eagle has a clue what she and I have been through during the last few days. He doesn’t check in the way Hawk does.
You’d think he’d learn after all the shit that went down all that time ago.
A doctor—Raven’s doctor—walks swiftly down the hallway and into Raven’s room, bypassing us.
“Let’s go,” I say, walking into the room. “He might have the results.”
“Raven,” the doctor says. “Are your parents here? I have some answers about the blood work.”
Raven yawns. “They left for the evening. But my brothers are here.” She gestures to us. “What is it, Doctor?”
“Your red count and hemoglobin look great, but…your white blood cell count is slightly elevated.”
“God.” I rub my forehead.
“Easy, Fal,” Hawk says. “Let’s see what Dr. Hayes has to say.”
“Now, it could be nothing,” Dr. Hayes says. “You could still have a virus. As you probably know, when you contract an infection, your immune system responds by making more white blood cells.”
“So you don’t know anything yet, then?” I ask.
Dr. Hayes turns to me. “Your sister has gained weight well, and her hair is coming in. From all standpoints, she looks healthy. She’s responded well to the bone marrow transplant. But she’s still recovering, and viruses will attack when a person is down. It’s likely that’s all it is, but with her history, we can’t be sure without more tests.”
“What more tests do we need?” Raven asks.
“The pathologist needs to look more closely at your white blood cells. If they’re normal, we can be assured this is just a viral infection. If they’re abnormal…”
He doesn’t finish. Why should he? We all know what he means.
Raven doesn’t smile.
Seeing her smile, seeing her feel good was such a wonder once she came home.
“How do you feel, Ray?” I ask.
“Same,” she says. “Sick, but not sick. I don’t expect any of you to understand.”
“I understand,” Dr. Hayes says, “and that’s a good sign. Once you’ve had cancer of any kind, you realize that run of the mill viruses aren’t that bad.”
“Have you had cancer, Doc?” Eagle asks.
I roll my eyes. “Christ, Eagle.”
“I haven’t, and I count myself lucky,” he says. “But as an oncologist, I’ve known more cancer patients than most. I’ve studied the disease relentlessly. I know what patients say.”
“How long until you get the other results?” I ask.
He looks at his watch. “Could be later tonight. Could be early tomorrow. I’ve asked them to rush it.”
“What do we do until then?”
“I’d like for Raven to stay here for the night, no matter what, so we can keep an eye on her.”
“I’ll be staying with her,” I say.
“Falcon…”
I grab her hand and give it a squeeze. “Stop it, sis. I’m staying.”
She nods. “Okay. I’d like that. I feel safer with you here.”
Safer.
I protected Eagle all those years ago.
I protected Savannah when those derelicts came onto my property.
I gave Raven my bone marrow, but I can’t protect her. I can give her my whole body, but I have no say in how it turns out.
I’ve never felt so useless.
But I’ll stay. Especially since Raven wants me to.
Savannah and I are both staying because she won’t leave me—
Fuck! Savannah.
She should have come back from the bathroom by now.
32
SAVANNAH
My voice finally returns when we exit the stairwell and head to the hospital entrance.
Finally, I find my voice, and my body unfreezes. “Why, Miles? Why are you doing this?”
“Because you were promised to me, Savannah.”
“Why do you want a wife who hates you?”
“Did I say it was what I wanted?” He shakes his head. “You really don’t have a clue how all of this works, do you?”
He’s not wrong.
I’ve tried to distance myself from what my family does.
I hate the whole idea of it.
It took both of my brothers, and I was determined that it wouldn’t take me.
But I’m not strong like Vinny is. Like Michael was.
They were strong…and it took them anyway.
I try to wrestle out of his grip. “Explain it to me, then. How does this work? Why do you need me?”
He doesn’t reply.
Falcon…
Falcon has no idea where I am, and he has no way of finding me.
He’s got other things on his mind. His sister, first and foremost, and then of course the detectives who are hounding him about Abel’s death.
Abel’s death…
They’re going to try to send him back to prison. I know the system. I’ve worked in the system. I know how they look at ex-cons.
No.
I won’t let it happen.
Not to Falcon.
Not to the man I love.
He would do anything to protect me.
And damn it…I’m going to do the same for him.
“Miles,” I say.
“What?”
“If I go with you—if I do whatever it is that you need me to do without arguing—could you do something for me?”
He stops and meets my gaze. “I’m not in the habit of making deals.”
I scoff. “You’re kidding, right? You made a deal for me back in the day, remember? I recall being locked in a conference room while your father and mine and a couple attorneys decided our lives.”
“You’re correct.” He shrugs. “I should rephrase that. I’m not in the habit of making deals with you, Savannah.”
“You mean with a lowly woman?” Women are regarded as chattel in these organizations. It didn’t take long to figure that out.
He doesn’t reply.
“Why are you okay with this? Surely you’ve got someone else you love. Or you could find someone.”
He looks away. “That’s inconsequential.”
“It shouldn’t be. Love should never be inconsequential.”
“It is in my case. Just as much as it is in yours.”
The look in Miles’s eyes is… I can’t tell what it is. Is there someone for him? A woman? A man? A large animal? I can’t tell. He’s cold. Cold as ice, like the blood in my veins.
He leads me away from the entrance and down a more secluded hallway near the cafeteria, which is now closed. “No deals to be made, Savannah. You’re mine, so you’re coming with me.”
“I’m telling you I will come,” I say quietly, “without fighting you. Whatever it is you get by having me at your side, I’ll see you get it. But there is one thing you have to do for me.”
“Did I not just say I won’t make deals?” Flecks of saliva sputter from his mouth.
I gulp back my nausea. “You did. But I could run away screaming right now, and that wouldn’t bode well for you.”
“You won’t do that.”
“Won’t I?”
“You’re forgetting that I’ve known you since you were a kid, Savannah. The day you were born, you were promised to me. I was ten years old. You think I haven’t watched you over the years? You’re meek. Meek and weak.”
I gulp again, summoning my will against his harsh words. “Weak? Meek? Are serious? Did you see what I did to Giancarlo?”
“That doesn’t change who you are at your core. Quite frankly, it’s good that you choose fight over flight. But that doesn’t change who you are. Not on a day-to-day basis. Not when you’re not being threatened.”
Anger courses through me. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.” I curl my hands into fists, open my mouth—
Miles clamps his hand over my lips, muffling my scream. “So you’re not meek little Savannah,” he whispers against my ear.
His hot breath makes me want to retch.
“Fine, I will hear you out. When I remove my hand now, Savannah, you’re not going to scream again. Is that clear?”
I can’t speak with his hand over my mouth, so clearly he wants me to either nod or shake my head.
So I do neither.
“You going to answer me?”
Again I do neither.
With his other hand, he wrestles with something and —
I go cold.
There it is. The nose of a gun against my back. He couldn’t have gotten it out of his ankle holster so quickly. He had it in his waistband, underneath his jacket.
Small town hospitals. They don’t check your belongings before they let you in.
Finally I nod.
“Good girl.” He removes his hand from my mouth slowly. I gasp in a breath.
“Now, tell me what you want, Savannah.”
“Put away the gun, Miles.”
“Are you crazy? You think you can make that kind of a request? That kind of a demand?”
“What are you going to do, shoot me? If you’re going to do that, you would’ve done it by now. I don’t think you can shoot me, Miles. I think there’s an agreement with our families, and if I’m dead, that agreement all goes away.”
He says nothing.
“So why don’t you tell me what that agreement is? Why you’re still after me all these years later? When we apparently came to a deal after I finished college?”
“That deal went away when you left your parole officer position in Austin.” He nudges the gun farther into my back.
I hold back a gasp, hold back a wince.
“So that’s what you want? You want me to go back to Austin, to my position there?”
I’ll do it. I’ll do it in a minute if it will spare Falcon.
“I’m afraid that deal’s off the table, you little bitch.”
Icicles hit my neck at his words. Not that he called me a bitch. But if he doesn’t want me back in the parole office, he obviously wants me for something else. And that could be anything.
“Tell me what you want,” I say, willing my voice not to stammer.
A caustic grin splits his face. “You’re going to be my bride, Savannah Gallo.”
I shake my head, calming the tremors inside me. “You don’t love me, despite what you said five years ago in that locked room.”
“No, I don’t. In fact, I hate you.”
Without thinking, I turn around, face him, his gun now pointed at my belly.
“Then what’s this about? Why do you need me to marry you?”
He pushes the nose of the gun into me. “Why don’t you ask your daddy?”
I swallow my fear of the pistol now touching me. “Do you see him here? I’m asking you!”
“Let’s get this straight, Savannah. I agree to listen to you. You tell me what you want. If I agree, you will walk to my car quietly, at my side, and we will be husband and wife by morning.”
I gulp, forcing the nausea down my throat. My stomach is churning, acid trying to float upward, but I steel it down.
“I want you to leave Falcon Bellamy alone.”
He lets out an acidic scoff. “The guy who killed Abel? I don’t think so, Savvy.”
I take a deep breath then, let it out slowly. I used to hate when Ashley called me Savvy. Now I would gladly listen to her on repeat for the rest of my life rather than hear it once more from Miles’s lips.
I draw in one more breath, let it out again. “Those are my terms. Whatever you think you have against Falcon, make it go away. Pay off the cops if you have to.”
“The guy’s an ex-con, Savannah.”
“He’s innocent.”
He laughs sarcastically. “Right. We’re all innocent, Savvy. There’s not one among us who’s guilty.”
I suppress my shivers, gulp down nausea once again. “I believe he’s innocent. Whether you do or not is inconsequential to me. He paid his dues, did his time. You know very well that he was acting in self-defense when he pistol-whipped Abel, and I know you can make this go away. Do that, and I’ll go with you. Now.”
“You think I have that kind of power?”
“If you don’t, your father does.”
“So does your father, Savvy.”
“You know as well as I do that this has to come from your side. Abel was your man. Make it go away, and make sure Giancarlo here lives, and I’m yours.”
“And you know what that means?”
I nod my head, again suppressing the quaking that’s going inside my body.
It means I’m his commodity. Owned by him. By Miles McAllister and the McAllister family.
He will rape me, and impregnate me, force me to bear his children, and if they’re girls? They’ll be auctioned off to the highest bidder as I was.
I hope I only have boys. Boys who escape like Vinny did. Not boys who die, like Michael did.
I nod again. “You must think me naïve, but I’m not. I know exactly what being your wife will mean. My only consolation is that you won’t bruise up my face or anything else that can be seen.”
“No,” he vows. “I will not. But I resent the implication that I’ll harm you in other ways.”
I sniff back a tear. “You’re already harming me, Miles. You’re forcing me into a marriage that neither of us wants. Marriage that somehow means some kind of alliance between our two families. You’re getting way more than me. There’s something you need, otherwise you wouldn’t be pushing this, not at this late date.” I pause a moment. “So do we have a deal?”
A moment passes.
Then another.
Until—
“Deal,” he says.
That’s all he says. He doesn’t offer me any explanation as to why. He doesn’t have to. I know something else is at play here. Something far more sinister than me fudging some parole records. Far more than both of us being forced into marriage.
Something else is going on.
I’m walking into a minefield.
And I’m doing it gladly, to save Falcon Bellamy.
33
FALCON
Never have I felt more pulled into multiple directions at once than I do in this moment.
I don’t want to leave my sister, but where is Savannah? Savannah’s the woman I love, and she should’ve been back from the bathroom twenty minutes ago.
I look into Raven’s eyes.
“It’s okay,” she says. “Go.”
“Ray…”
She smiles—a weak smile that’s forced, but she does it for me. “I see it in your face, Falcon. Mom and Dad will be back. Hawk and Eagle are here. Robbie’s on her way. I’m fine. Go. Find her.”
Thank you, I mouth to my sister, and I leave her room.
The bathrooms are at the end of the hallway, near the alcove where the vending machines are. I race toward them, my feet already feeling numb.
That sixth sense I got on the inside? The one that saved my ass more than once?
It’s like a crow pecking at the back of my neck, telling me to beware.
It’s pecking hard now—so hard I absently touch the back of my neck to check for blood.
No blood of course, but I massage the muscles, try to ease the pecking.
Doesn’t work.
And then the door is in front of me. The women’s restroom.
Can’t go in there.
Everything in me tells me not to go in there, yet I have no choice.
I crack the door. “Savannah? You in there?”
No reply.
“Is anyone in there?”
Again no reply. Not that I expect there to be one. Most women, when a man yells into the women’s restroom, aren’t going to reply.
A moment later a woman exits, her face pale and her lips trembling.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you, ma’am. I’m looking for my girlfriend. She left nearly half an hour ago to go to the bathroom, and she never came back.”
She cracks the bathroom door open. “I don’t think there’s anyone else in there. You can go in and look now if you’d like.”
“Thank you.”
I walk in then. “Savannah?” I look under each stall.
No feet.
No one at the sinks.
Then I look inside each stall, just to make sure no one is sitting on the toilets, hiding.
They’re all empty.
Where is she? She wouldn’t have gone into the men’s room. Perhaps she went to a different floor, or down to the first floor to get a snack.
I walk briskly through the hallway to the other end, where the elevators are. But I don’t have the patience to stand and wait for an elevator. I open the door to the stairwell and race down six flights of stairs to the first floor.
I repeat my actions in the ladies’ bathroom by the cafeteria.
No Savannah.
Then I go to the cafeteria, rake my gaze over every corner.
No Savannah.
Until a light bulb flashes in my mind.
Giancarlo.
Perhaps she went to see how he’s doing, to make sure he’s still on the mend, so she’s not looking at a manslaughter charge like I am.
If that were the case, why wouldn’t she just tell me?
I race back up the stairs to the fourth floor where Giancarlo is, walk briskly to his room, peek inside the cracked door.
He’s still lying there. Still with an IV in his arm, still hooked up to his machines.
He’s alive.
Thank God.
But no Savannah.
He’s asleep, and the only thing left to do is go back up to Raven’s room.
Let her know that I can’t stay with her tonight.
I have to do it quickly. I could easily just call Hawk and have him relay the message, but this is my sister. My sister who may be…
No. Can’t go there. It’s a virus. Just a virus.
I take the stairs again, this time to the sixth floor and back to Raven’s room.
My mother gasps when she sees me. “Falcon, what happened?”
