Declan

My leg was bouncing uncontrollably while I sat on the chair across from the hospital bed Scarlett was in. I'd called Adam, a doctor at St. James Memorial. He's put so many of our guys back together I lost count. He never intended to be a part of the family but after being held at gunpoint and told to put someone's guts back in, he didn't have much of a choice. It was his life or Adams'.

By the grace of whatever God there is, Adam was working a shift at one of the smaller hospitals affiliated with St. James that was between New Hope and Portland. The doses of Narcan I'd given her helped, her breathing regulated and the hallucinations had stopped but she was still out, not responding.

I ran my sweaty palms through my hair, trying to calm my heart that was pounding against my chest. I could hear my pulse in my ears. Taking a deep breath in, I held it before letting it out through parted lips. I have to get back there. I have to get ahold of the clubs CCTV recordings from tonight and get rid of the footage, anything of Scarlett, Jay and myself. I can't bring myself to leave her though, not until I know she's okay.

But I can't run the risk of them seeing the tapes from tonight. Figuring out it was me and then tracking down where we went.

I looked over at her on the bed. The side of her face was beginning to bruise and there were finger shaped bruises on her arms from him.

"Fuck." I muttered. I need to find Jay and finish what I started. He's cheated on and abused his girlfriend, he's tried to sexually assault Scarlett, he forced himself on her tonight and drugged her. He's an animal who needs to be put down. My mind went into overdrive imagining all of the ways I'm going to torture Jay for even looking at her.

"Miss me that much?" Adam laughed, coming in through the door to the room, ripping me out of my spiraling thoughts. Tommy had brought me to him two days ago after my fight with Alex. He'd pulled the knife from my leg and stitched me up and put a splint on my two fingers that had broken when he stomped on my hand. Judging by the pain when I clench my fists, I'm pretty sure I'd broken more from assaulting Jay tonight.

"Relax, D, she'll be fine. Her bloodwork's being processed now and we have her on an IV treatment. I'm more concerned about the dick bag you left bleeding out at the bar. How's your hand, by the way?" He asked sarcastically, pointing at my knuckles and damaged splint.

My head snapped up. "Shut the fuck up!" I hated how cavalier he spoke about things. He may not be the one going out and doing jobs but he's still very much affiliated and even walls have ears.

"It's a private room, no one can hear us." Adam replied. He didn't even flinch anymore when I lost my temper. He leaned against the foot of Scarletts' bed with his arms crossed over his chest watching my leg bounce as I panicked.

"Want anything for that?" He laughed. I responded with a glare. "Is the great Declan Byrne in love?"

My bouncing leg finally stopped moving. Clearing my throat, I straightened my spine. "I barely know her, I'm not in love."

"Right." Adam said, pushing off from the bed and walking over to check her vitals.

"She's the daughter of Patrick Murphy, who was recently killed. The Russians are going to be after her now." I explained, thrumming my fingers against the wood armrest.

Adam turned to look at me, his brow arched in a questioning look. "I didn't know you were witness protection now?"

"Christ," I mumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I was using her to get information. She works for Mikhail and I thought she was involved. Turns out she wasn't and now-"

"You feel bad for ruining her life?" Adam interrupted. "So now you're protecting her. Yea my guy, sounds like love."

"I swear if we didn't need you, I would kill you."

"And I'm sure Clair would hunt you down and kill you for that. Pregnancy hormones are making her crazy. I'm surprised she hasn't strangled me in my sleep yet." Adam laughed, again completely unfazed at my threat.

He jotted down the vitals on a scrap piece of paper and then came over to sit in the chair opposite me. "What does Desmond think of all this?" He asked, pointing between Scarlett and I.

I scoffed. "What do you think?"

"That good, huh?" He took his phone out of his pocket and started to tap at the screen. "They brought that guy in, the one you did a number on." He said without looking up at me.

Glancing over at Scarlett, still passed out, I felt my blood boil. My bloody and bruised hands clenched into tight fists. "Good, I can finish the job." I seethed.

"Goddamn, I hope my son doesn't have a temper like you." He said nonchalantly.

It took a moment for his words to sink in. Adam beamed, putting his hospital phone down. He was trying so hard not to smile from ear to ear but he was lousy at hiding it. "We just found out today, we're having a boy."

Before I could say that I was happy for him, an emergency alarm went off on his phone. He quickly checked it and was bounding for the door.

"Sorry, man. She's got about thirty minutes left on her IV and then she'll be fine to leave. I'll have a nurse come in right away to take out the cannula. All off record!"

Before I could thank him he was already out the door. It clicked closed behind him leaving the two of us in silence again. It took everything in me not to get up and shake down one of the staff members to find out where Jay's room is.

My phone, however, was what stopped me.

I didn't bother to read who was calling. "Byrne."

"Boyo!" Desmonds' voice answered. Fuck. "Give my condolences to the Lass."

"Wha-"

"I had Tommy ping your location. There is only one reason ya'd be up in New Hope." He answered, his tone going from jovial to serious. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"No." I said, trying to keep my voice flat.

"Good, good. Sorry I didn't give the hit to you, you understand why I would have my reservations." His tone was a mocking one.

"What hit?"

Desmond chuckled then sucked his teeth, making the squelching sound as loud as possible. "You didn't think the Russians killed Patrick, did you?"

"You ordered the hit on him? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Well boyo, I'm not really sure where your loyalties lie as of late. All this sneaking off to be with this lass of yours, you having a go at Rory the other night at the meeting-"

"If I recall, you beat the shit out of him for touching your waitress after you let him molest her just to prove a point to me in front of the whole family." I snarled, cutting him off. "And what, may I ask, was the fucking point of that, Desmond?"

I could hear his fist slamming against something hard on the other end. His voice boomed, "Don't you get an attitude with me, Deco! Her family is the reason why the Russians are able to do their business here. She's part of the reason why they are taking over our streets, our businesses!"

"Desmond, I'm telling you, she has nothing to do with this. She had no idea. I've looked into everything pertaining to her and her father. They arranged the marriage, they forced him into doing business with them by threatening her life. Mikhail had her working for him so he could keep her under his thumb so Patrick wouldn't go to the feds." I spoke rapid-fire, trying to get as much out as possible before he interrupted me. I knew from years of working for Desmond that when he was in this mood you only had a few good seconds where he would listen to you and after that it didn't matter what you had to say and now my time was up.

"So you t'ink she's got not'ing to do wit this?" His Belfast accent was thicker than usual. He was drunk.

"I know she doesn't."

Desmonds' cackle was so loud it had me grimacing, pulling my phone away from my ear. "Declan, what happened to you boyo? You never had a problem following orders. Is her pussy that good?"

His response had me clenching my jaw so tight I thought I was going to break my teeth. He wasn't listening to me. Everything I've worked years for was slipping through my fingers but the thing that had me seeing fucking red was how he was talking about her.

"Get this Russian sympathizing whore out of your life, boyo. You're walking on thin ice. It's almost like I can't trust you to get the job done." He warned.

"We have the Wyndham gala event this weekend." I answered through clenched teeth, still trying my damnedest to keep my tone flat, I couldn't let him know he was getting to me. "She's my ticket in." I reminded.

Desmond hummed in response. There was a long pause before I heard him blowing out air through his mouth, probably smoke from one of his cigars.

"You know what we do to traders. Remember t'at."

The call ended.

My fist tightened around my phone until I heard a crack. My eyes rolled back while I closed them, blowing out a deep breath through my nose trying to calm down. Everything I worked for, the fucking kingdom I built under me was starting to crack. Desmond didn't give second chances.

I threw my phone against the floor, the device shattering into pieces the moment it hit. Leaning forward, I put my head down in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees trying to steady my rapid breathing. What the fuck was I going to do? Dez is convinced she's involved with the enemy despite how many times I tell him otherwise and now she's in the Russian's crosshairs because of me.

My rage and adrenaline had me shaking and it was about to spill over. Fisting my hair in my hands I tugged, hoping that if I'd cause some pain it would bring me back to Earth. It didn't. It only made it worse. I needed to destroy something.

I pushed off from the seat and headed toward the door. I would finish what I started tonight. I didn't care if I was in a hospital, I'll beat the fuck out of that piece of shit until he chokes on his own teeth.

Gripping the handle of the door, I was just about to pull it down when a meek little voice stopped me.

"Declan?"

My eyes slowly shut and I let out another long breath through my nostrils. All of the blinding rage that had consumed me simmered, silencing the voices and leaving my head quiet.

I turned to face her, trying to maintain a stoic expression. I don't know how much she heard of the phone call but I'm about to play it off like it never happened and that it was all in her head.

"Finally. I was about to go for a coffee."

"What happened?" She asked, scrunching her face in pain when she went to sit up in the bed.

"What do you remember?" I countered, moving to sit at the edge of the bed putting a hand on her shin. Her eyes darted down to my hand, watching my thumb trace invisible circles on the blanket that was covering her.

"Uh," she pulled her bottom lip in-between her teeth while she thought, something that drove me wild every time she did it. "I was at that club with Loey and the guys. You were there and we... danced."

She must have remembered that song she was singing to me while she was grinding herself against me. Her cheeks were starting to turn red and I couldn't help but smirk. My mind also traveled back, thinking of the way she was looking up at me, panting while she tried to get friction, begging me to take her. She's lucky we were in a public place.

"Anything else?" I pressed, half hoping she would bring it up.

"J-Jay..." she stuttered. Her fingers started to grab the blanket, twisting it nervously. "He was there. He... he forced something in my mouth."

She choked on a sob, trying to stop herself from breaking down. I didn't even think, I moved up closer to her and pulled her into my chest while she broke down. Reliving the events of tonight in her mind. Resting my cheek on top of her head, I tangled my fingers into her long blond hair, her coconut shampoo filling my nose.

"Then he was gone," she said between sobs. "Someone suh-saved me."

Realizing who it was that saved her, she clutched onto my hoodie, pulling herself closer to me. She cried until she had no more tears left, I didn't pull her from me when she finally calmed. This was the second time he had tried to assault her, he drugged her. I wasn't going to push her away when this is what she needed.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like this. The only reason we let go of each other was because the nurse Adam had promised came in to remove her IV. The nurse said that there was no discharge paperwork and that we were free to leave once she felt up for it.

When she was ready, I handed her her clothes and drew the curtain back so she could get dressed in private. She pulled the curtain aside and came to stand next to me when she finished.

"I don't want to be alone." She mumbled, looking down at the tops of her shoes.

I tugged her into my side. "You won't be."

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