One More Night Read online

  I needed to call Eamon and let him know what had happened so we could plot. Plan. The call went to voicemail, and I was grateful because suddenly I was sleepy as fuck and couldn’t keep my eyes open.

  “It’s me, man,” I said in a hurry to get off the phone. “I’m in the hospital. Some guys claiming to be Milano jumped me. Said they weren’t leaving Rocket unless it was in a pine box.”

  I hit end just as the nurse came in to take my vitals.

  Chapter Three

  Ivy

  Once Shae woke up in the early morning hours, I left the hospital and headed to Ian’s apartment to get him a few personal items to keep him occupied until he was released. Dr. Mannheim said he’d be in the hospital for a few days, so I picked up his tablet, a change of clothes, toiletries and a few tech magazines I found stuffed into his mailbox. If I’d been thinking about it, I might have stopped at my own house for a shower or a change of clothes. But my mind was on Ian and making him feel better.

  What did it matter that I still wore the same dirty jeans from yesterday? I did check to see if I had any blood on my clothes from tending to Shae in the parking lot, but after a quick inspection, I deemed myself, if not squeaky clean, at least presentable.

  A quick stop by the busy diner down the street from the hospital to pick up breakfast for two delayed me about a half an hour more. So I strolled into my brother’s room just before ten.

  “Hey bro, how do you feel?” I looked up and found Ian staring at me with a big, stupid grin on his face. “What? Did I spill something?”

  Ian shook his head, lips curled into a disapproving smirk. “Here I am trapped in the hospital and you do the walk of shame into my room. I don’t know if I’m disgusted or impressed.”

  I rolled my eyes at his silliness. Ian had a way about him that I envied. He didn’t seem to let anything get him down for too long. He was bold and brave, funny and charismatic. People always wanted to be around him, which made him an anomaly at the tech company where he developed software. “Nothing shameful about it, unfortunately.”

  “Tell me about it … over breakfast?” His blue eyes cast a hopeful glance at the plastic bag in my hand. “Where’s my sandwich you were supposed to bring me last night?”

  “I got you a Big Daddy Breakfast Special with lemonade, so be happy. Pink lemonade actually. They were out of the real stuff.”

  Ian frowned just as I thought he would as he prepared for one of his favorite arguments.

  “Hey, it’s real lemonade,” he said.

  I arched a brow and shot back a familiar refrain. “Have you ever seen pink lemons?”

  “Never seen aliens before either, but I know they exist.” Confident and satisfied that he’d won the argument, again, Ian unpacked the diner bag while he grilled me. “Want to tell me why you haven’t changed clothes since yesterday?”

  I didn’t want to tell him, but it was more fantastical than anything I could have possibly made up, so I told him about finding Shae in the parking lot and sitting with him all night until I was sure he was all right.

  “By the time he woke up it was too late to get your damn meatloaf and too early to do anything else, so I went to your place and packed some things for you, and then I picked up breakfast.”

  Ian held the foam container with one hand while forking it into his mouth with the other. Enthusiastically. “He must’ve been out of this world hot if you were with him all night.”

  “He wasn’t ugly, that’s for sure. But I was worried about him. It was the perfect distraction from worrying about you.”

  I thought about Shae’s light brown hair, smooth creamy skin with just a hint of sun in it and that lazy sexy smile that he wore like an accessory. I wondered what he’d think about the strawberry blonde hair I’d inherited from my father, so dull compared to my brother’s. Before he’d snapped at me, I’d definitely been thinking about what it would be like to have a man so fucking gorgeous in my life.

  “You don’t have to worry about me, Ivy. I’m right here and I’m fine. See?” Ian rubbed his hands up and down his body, what he could reach anyway, avoiding his broken leg.

  “I see that now, but the drive over here and then the wait before they’d let me see you was excruciating. I thought I’d pass out from a panic attack I was so worried. I thought I might have lost you, too.” My voice broke and I hated it. It brought back too many memories.

  “I was in a simple car accident, girl.”

  Was he crazy? “Our parents were in a simple car accident, too, but somehow they both died before we got there!”

  I set his duffel bag on a chair and began to unpack it with stiff, jerky motions. I would never be able to forget how I felt when the officers called about the accident. Scared. Hopeless. I was terrified.

  “You can’t keep bringing up our parents’ accident every time something scares you. It’s a terrible way to live, and it’s not what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted. Go live your life.”

  Like he had one damn clue what our parents would have wanted. He’d been a kid when they died and barely had any memories of them.

  “I am, Ian. I’m just sorry that wanting you around makes you so damn angry.”

  Two deep shuddering breaths rushed out of me but did nothing to make me feel better.

  “I’m here despite your attempts to scare me to the other side of the country. They’re gone, Ivy. Gone and they’re not coming back. Stop using them as an excuse not to live.”

  I froze, a pair of navy blue gym shorts in my hands and stared at my brother.

  “I know they’re gone, Ian! Jeez, you think I don’t know? My whole life changed when they died, I know they’re not here! God! I’m outta here. I’ll check on you later.”

  Tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t get away fast enough, leaving my breakfast behind.

  “Ivy, come back!” I heard the guilt and sorrow in Ian’s voice but that didn’t slow me down. I couldn’t let it because there was a part of me that knew Ian was right. I did need to stop worrying so much about losing him before my fears pushed him away for good.

  I guess the only good news was that I’d left my breakfast in Ian’s room.

  At this rate I’d be skinny in no time.

  Chapter Four

  Shae

  “Once you’re out of that fucking hospital, we’re going to put those motherfuckers in a pine box, Shae. That’s a promise.”

  Eamon was fired up, and it was a good feeling to know my brother always had my back. In our line of work, who we could trust could change from one second to the next. But family was a whole different story.

  “Thanks for saying that, E-money. I’m going to take my time with Frank, though. Fuck! That asshole sucker punched me and never let up.”

  The more I thought about it, the more every single fucking blow came back to me, the angrier I got. That only pissed me off more because I was trapped in the damn hospital and unable to do shit about it. Yet.

  “Rourke spotted Angelo and Gio in town, and we have guys watching them around the clock. There’s no sign of Frank, though.”

  Eamon couldn’t conceal the anger in his voice, and I didn’t blame him. This was a major fucking breach, and what was worse, one we hadn’t seen coming.

  “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, bro. Why wasn’t I paying attention? I made it too fucking easy for them.”

  “It won’t ever happen again,” he said with a certainty I didn’t feel, but I was angry enough to believe. “Look, I have to take care of a few things, so I’ll see you in an hour or so. You think you can keep yourself out of trouble until then?”

  I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn’t see me, and grinned. “I’ll see what I can do, but if those motherfuckers show up then all bets are off.”

  Eamon scoffed. “Even the Milano family isn’t that fucking stupid. Then again, they did start a game they don’t even know how to fucking play, so maybe years of stupidity has finally taken its toll.”

  I could hear Eamon’s shudder
all the way down the line. “Stay where you are, Shae.”

  “Where the fuck am I gonna go?” The nurses and doctors were still hovering around my hospital room. I had no reason to think it was because of my handsome face or the power I held that most normal people would never have the unfortunate pleasure of finding out about. They were worried about a goddamn concussion.

  And I was so fucking bored after just a few hours that I was more than a little tempted to sign myself out of the damn hospital. I probably would have if it didn’t hurt so much whenever I moved. Sitting up in bed without help hurt like a motherfucker and coughing hurt as well. I didn’t even want to get started on the dizziness that came every time I tried to stand up. I was stuck here until the doctor gave me the all clear to leave or until my family came to spring me from this hell hole.

  With nothing but time on my hands, I laid back and thought about Ivy and her sexy ass curves. I’d been with some pretty amazing women in my life, but Ivy kept creeping into my head. I also thought about Frank and how it would feel to bash his face in before I put a bullet in his brain. Both thoughts gave me comfort, but only one woke my dick up and brought a smile to my face.

  Ivy.

  I hadn’t expected to wake up with a blue-eyed angel beside me, looking at me like I was someone worth giving a damn about. And the way she lashed out when I was a prick to her also made her memorable. I was used to women who threw tantrums when they didn’t get their way, or those who thought they could yell louder at me to win an argument. I didn’t go for that shit, and if I did, it was never for more than one night.

  I could have any woman I wanted, but I rarely kept one for more than one night because so few intrigued me. Most of them didn’t interest me enough to even bother with the morning-after awkwardness or small talk over breakfast. But right now I wanted to know more about Ivy. What was it that I saw behind those deep blue eyes? Exactly how incredible were the curves I peeped under her mom jeans? Was her hair as soft as it looked? Was she as good-hearted as she seemed?

  People rarely were as good as they appeared on the surface; they just used the candy coating to lure you in until they got what they wanted. None of that changed the fact that I wanted to see her again, almost as bad as I wanted to get my hands on Frank. But nothing topped my list of priorities at the moment more than payback. I could taste it, like a fine Irish whiskey. The payback that I would dole out to Frank. Maybe even to that little asshole, Gio, as well, just because I hadn’t seen that little fucker coming up behind me.

  I wanted them both, and I wanted to make them pay, not just for this, but also for the insult to the Connelly family. That alone deserved the beating I would hand out, but they would pay a much bigger price.

  Definitely.

  I had at least fifteen more hours until the end of my twenty-four hour concussion watch, and I was already bored out of my fucking mind. Even listening to the nurses outside my door talking about the ways their men disappointed them in bed, or how their children’s life decisions pissed them off. Not even when they started talking about nurses and doctors fucking in the hospital did I give a damn.

  Then a blur that was mostly blonde rushed by and instinctively I called out, “Ivy!” It was just a guess, not based on anything other than boredom and hope, but the footsteps stopped, and I held my breath.

  The steps came slow at first, then slower, but then she was there in the doorway. “Shae. Did you need something?”

  “Yes,” I said, trying to hitch myself up in the bed. She wasn’t all sweetness this time, and dammit if that didn’t only intrigue me more. “I need to apologize to you about earlier. My tone was too harsh when you’d only been kind. I’m sorry for being an asshole, Ivy.”

  She grinned. “I wouldn’t say ‘asshole,’ but thank you for the apology. And for the record, I didn’t look inside your pockets. Or your phone. I just wore the jacket so the officers who stopped by wouldn’t take it.”

  “Damn, now I’m really sorry. Forgive me?”

  “Of course. How are you feeling?”

  “I hurt like hell but they’re keeping me here for observation, make sure my brain is still firing on all cylinders.”

  She smiled. “Is it? Do you know what day it is?”

  I arched a brow, and she blushed. She stood right in the doorway, light surrounding her like a halo. “I mean, do you?”

  She looked down at herself and back up at me with a cute flush staining her pale cheeks. “I’ve had a long couple of days, but I think it’s Thursday or maybe Friday. Definitely one of those two.” She grinned and a little dimple popped out on top of her right cheek. It was cute, too.

  “Agreed. Definitely one of those two.”

  “Current President?”

  I grinned. “Let’s not talk about it.”

  “Year?”

  “Does it matter?”

  A smile bloomed, and I wondered if Ivy was a teacher or a nurse.

  “Brat. Are you nauseous?”

  “Are you a nurse?” I blurted out.

  “Nope. I have a younger brother, so I’ve done concussion watch about twenty times.” With her hands on her hips, she waited for me to answer her question.

  I smiled. “No nausea, just one hell of a headache.” She took another step inside that felt like a victory to me. I decided to push my luck. “Want to tell me what had you running out of here like a bat out of hell?”

  “Not really, no. You might have a concussion.”

  “I’m sure I don’t.” Laughter spilled out of me, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed with a woman. If ever. “Because you’re the concussion expert, and you don’t seem all that worried about me.”

  “I don’t want to dump my problems on you, Shae when you clearly have plenty of your own.”

  Another laugh bubbled out of me at the way she spoke her mind.

  “Well, I can’t do anything about my problems right now, but I’m stuck here, so tell me yours. You’d be doing me a favor. Really.”

  Chapter Five

  Ivy

  Yeah, I didn’t buy that for one second. Sure, Shae was nice to look at, even with the bruises. He was also charming. But I didn’t know him or the kind of man he was, so why on earth would I open up to him?

  “We don’t know each other,” he said. “What difference does it make?”

  “Are you kidding me? Spill my secrets to some random stranger?”

  “Look, Ivy. You did something nice for me, and I’d like to be, you know, friends. Plus, I like looking at you.” His intense gaze danced over my body with an appreciation I couldn’t understand since I was still wearing yesterday’s clothes. And worse, yesterday’s breath.

  But it was nice to see a gorgeous man look at me with desire.

  “You’re a pretty sight yourself, Shae, even with all the decorations you’ve got going on.”

  He laughed and the sound was deep and rich, masculine. “Thanks, Ivy. You can come closer, I won’t bite. Unless you ask me to.” Eyes sparkling with mischief and good humor, Shae winced as he tried to sit up in bed.

  “Let me help.” I could hardly concentrate standing so close to him. He stared at me like I was some kind of science project while I worked the remote for his bed, gently easing him up to a sitting position.

  “Better?” I asked, flustered for reasons I couldn’t fathom.

  “Much. Thanks. Now have a seat and talk to me.”

  It seemed like he patted the bed, but I took the chair and let out a long breath. When was the last time I’d actually let myself share the burden with someone else? It had been a while because I wasn’t a leaner. I never asked for help if I could avoid it because who knew if I’d get it? Or, if it would come with strings attached? Abandonment Issues 101 at its finest. I knew all that but knowing it hadn’t help me do a damn thing to change it.

  But why shouldn’t I tell Shae? He didn’t know me or Ian, and although he was being nice, he wouldn’t care about any of it. He riveted me with those eyes and I thought, what
the hell. I sucked in a deep breath and when I let it out, plenty of words came with it.

  “The reason I was in the parking lot when you were dumped is because my younger brother Ian was in a car accident. It has scared the hell out of me, and I think I’m still scared.”

  His eyebrows narrowed as he asked, “Why? Because something that could easily turn deadly happened to your brother?”

  I nodded, relieved he seemed to understand. “Exactly, but Ian doesn’t see it that way. Our parents died in a car accident, too, by a stupid drunk driver. Their car slammed into a tree right after he hit them. They had really bad injuries, so when we got the call that they were at the hospital, I gathered a few things I thought would make their hospital stay more comfortable. By the time Ian and I got there, they were both gone.”

  Shae tried to reach out and put his hand on top of mine. He got as far as saying, “Shit, Ivy. I’m sorry to hear that,” but the low growl of pain stopped him. He let his hand drop and just said, “So, of course your brother’s accident scared the shit out of you.”

  It touched me that he wanted to comfort me. “Yeah,” I sighed, closing my eyes for a nanosecond at the painful memory. “But it was more like paralyzed with fear. I stood beside my desk for at least ten minutes after the hospital called about Ian, just frozen with fear that I’d just lost the only person I had left.” A tear slipped out, and I quickly swiped it away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to dump all that on you, Shae.” I flashed a small, embarrassed smile. “I guess I’m hanging on to him more than I realized.”

  Shae smiled again, soft and sweet, and I wondered who would want to hurt the man.

  “Don’t apologize for how you feel Ivy, not ever. I get why you’re so afraid for him, especially where car accidents are concerned. I lost my mom to cancer when I was just a kid and it’s not something you get over.”

  Now it was my turn. I reached out and offered a hand in comfort. Shae wrapped his fingers around mine and held it tight. “You know what’s sad? I barely remember her anymore, but that hasn’t lessened the feeling of loss.”