CHAPTER 20

Brock

I left the game and drove straight over to Orbit. If Miller had a game scheduled that night I had a feeling he’d be in the back supervising, unless things were going well, then he’d sneak out front to relax in his private section. The first stop I made was to the bar. After dealing with all the shit at the stadium, a shot would settle me. I ordered a patron, needing something to shock the system. I tipped back the shot and headed for the stairs. I could get a bourbon on the rocks from one of the waiters up there.

I reached the top of the stairs and found Miller sitting on the couch. I’d expected him to be holed up in the office, catching up on paperwork from the dealership.

“Come to find yourself a warm body for the night?”

“Nope, I need to talk to you. I’m surprised you’re not in the office getting work done.”

He scoffed. “If I did, I’d fuck something up. My eyes were starting to cross when I left the dealership to come here.”

“You need to hire someone to manage the dealership so you can deal with the service department only.”

“Yeah, Dad told me the same thing a few weeks ago. Now that everything is back to normal I should have a chance.”

“I bet it’ll make a huge difference.” I signaled to the waiter to get me a drink.

He didn’t need to ask. He already knew exactly what I wanted.

“God, I fucking hope so.” He took a sip of his own drink. “You said you need to talk to me about something?”

Ashton’s reaction would be mild compared to Miller’s and that worried me. As much as he hated admitting it most of the time, he was a lot like his father.

I glanced around. “But not here.”

He narrowed his eyes. He knew whatever I wanted to say had to do with business, otherwise we wouldn’t need somewhere private.

He nodded toward his office door. “My office.”

I grabbed my drink and followed him to the door. Once it was closed behind us he turned, leaning on his desk. “What happened?”

“We need to talk about Isobel Marcello.”

He dismissed the two waiters on the side and slumped down into the seat, closing his eyes. “You haven’t found her yet?”

“I have—”

Miller lurched up, sitting straight as an arrow. “Where the fuck has she been all this time?”

I ran a hand through my hand. “That question is a little harder to answer.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll get to that. Remember the first time we met?”

His brows drew together. “Yeah, you knocked out three guys that night. Two with one punch each.  But what the fuck does that have to do with Isobel Marcello?”

“You asked me that first night why I put myself in that ring?”

“You told me you were helping pay your mom’s medical expenses.”

“And?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, annoyance shining in his eyes. “You’d given up going to college because the girl worth finishing your degree for died.”

“She’s not dead.”

Like Ashton, Miller’s eyes went wide as the information sank in. His hands clenched into fists, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Are you fucking kidding me? That bitch disappeared so she could be on the arm of the biggest prick in the city?”

Even though he’d gotten the situation backward, I appreciated that he was willing to stand up for me. “Not exactly. Her father sold her to Marcello after he’d loaned money to the company to pull it out of bankruptcy. When her father refused the terms, Marcello took her brother.”

Miller was silent for some time. I had no idea what he was thinking, but so far his reaction was nothing I’d expected. Then again, I hadn’t told him where she was yet.

“So you’re telling me that the most notorious woman in the fucking city is actually your girl from high school who married Marcello to save her brother?” Miller rubbed his eyes with his forefinger and thumb.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Fucker had her father killed too.”

Miller grabbed his glass off the table, draining it in a single swallow. “If her father wasn’t already dead, I’d beat the shit out of him for getting hooked up with Marcello in the first place.”

“Fucking tell me about it. I’ve wanted to beat the shit out of something for days. The more she told me, the more pissed off I got.”

His phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket. He groaned. “I gotta take care of something at the game.”

“Let’s go.” With Miller and Ashton’s understanding, it felt as if a two ton weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Miller shook his head and I followed him toward the stairs. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find someone for you—”

Screams erupted throughout the building. Before I could move and draw my gun, a shot rang out. I ran to the rail, hoping to catch sight of the shooter and who might have been hit. People were cowering in corners and groups, but no one on the floor seemed to be hurt. Shaken up? Yes. If they weren’t shooting at someone in the crowd, who could they be after? I turned to ask Miller who was using the back room tonight, when my blood ran cold.

Miller.

He was slumped down on the floor, blood covering the shirt over his chest.

“Call a fucking ambulance,” I shouted over the rail to the guards at the bottom, then I ran over to Miller.

Laying him down flat on the floor, I ripped my jacket off and used it to stop the flow of blood. His mouth was open, sucking in gasping breaths. I kept the pressure tight. Every sound penetrated my senses, waiting to hear the sirens or racing footsteps up the stairs. There was nothing I could do if the bullet hit his lung. I could keep pressure on the wound until help arrived.

“Don’t you die, Miller.”

“Shit.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see one of the security guys standing at the top of the stairs.

“Steve, go find out if they caught the guy before he got out of the building. Malcolm’s gonna wanna know who did this.”

He stood there, eyes wide and trained on Miller. “But—”

“Go now,” I yelled, hoping to snap him out of his trance. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen people shot before. Hell, it was part of working in this business, and so was keeping a clear head in situations like this. Then again, seeing your boss lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood was guaranteed to freak anyone out. The only thing keeping my head where it belonged was knowing if I lost it Miller could die right here, without ever having a chance to fight for his life.

“Ambulance is on the way.” Steve ran down the stairs out of my sight.

Seconds ticked by like minutes, minutes like hours while I waited, trying to keep one of the closest people I had to a brother alive. Footsteps thundered behind me and when I looked again, two paramedics had reached the VIP area.

“Move. We need to see what we’re dealing with.”

I stood, getting out of their way as quickly as possible, and watched as they went to work on Miller. I couldn’t stand still, keeping my eyes on them as they worked to stabilize him. My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides. I needed to call Malcolm, but I needed to get Miller on his way to the hospital first.

The paramedics had cut the shirt from Miller’s body and inserted a tube into his side. The blue tint to his lips receded, the normal pink taking its place. But the grayish pallor to his skin still left me worried. They rolled him to his side, placing him on an orange board. The IV bag was laid over his chest.

“Where are you taking him?” I asked, following them to the waiting stretcher.

“St. Mary’s.” The frown on the paramedic’s face tightened my chest.

“I’m calling his family now.” I pulled the phone from my pocket, staying with them as they rolled the stretcher out the front door and to the ambulance, when his words brought me up short.

“I’d tell them to hurry if I were you.” He helped push the stretcher into the back and climbed into the back, his partner jumping into the driver’s side.

The vehicle lurched forward and the sirens went screaming into the night. I ran to my car, phone to my ear. The engine rumbled to life just as Malcolm answered the phone.

“Brock?”

No time for hellos or pretense. “Miller’s been shot and they’re taking him to St. Mary’s.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. We’re on our way.”

“I’m right behind the ambulance. I’ll call Ashton.”

“Faith, let’s go.” Then the phone went silent. Malcolm was surely racing his wife out the door.

I pulled up Ashton’s number, trying to keep my eyes on the road at the same time. The adrenaline dump made my hands shake, which didn’t help anything. The phone rang and rang until it went to voice mail. I hung up and dialed again. A rumble under my car drew my attention and I swerved to put myself back on the road. Once again it rang until the voice mail picked up. I tried one more time. Last time. If he didn’t answer this time, I’d call from the hospital. I didn’t need to crash on the way there.

On the third ring, Ashton answered. “Done with Miller already?”

“Your brother’s been shot and he’s on his way to St. Mary’s.”

There was a loud crash on the other end of the line. “Fuck,” I heard Ashton’s voice yell from a distance. More rustling. “I’m on my way.”

I had no idea if Elena was home or not, but I had a feeling if she was working, Ashton would get Lewis to bring her to the hospital the minute the show was over. The ambulance was already in the bay of the ER when I turned into the hospital.

They unloaded Miller, and I followed behind, only to be stopped by one of the nurses on the way inside. I tried to muscle past her when I saw two security guards coming up behind her. Last thing I needed was to cause a scene in the hospital.

“You can’t go back there. Let the doctors do their jobs.”

“He’s—”

“Stop,” she commanded. “If you wanna help your . . .”

“Friend, but he’s like a brother to me.”

She patted my arm. “Good, then you can give me any information that might help the doctors.”

“Fine.”

She placed her hand on my back and led me to a small room off to the side. “First, is he allergic to anything?”

“No, not that I know of.”

“Okay. Can you tell me what happened?”

This is where I had to keep it together and only give her the information she needed. Anything extra could get us all into trouble. “I’m not sure. We were sitting in the VIP section of his club, talking about a girl I met, when I heard a loud bang. The next thing I knew Miller slumped forward in the seat.”

“All of this will help. If you’re calm enough, I’ll take you to the waiting room. I’m also going to need your help filling out some of the paperwork. Has his family been notified?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t believe this was happening. How had I missed what Delgado was obviously planning? I’d watched him for weeks. There’d been no sign of him meeting with anyone who could pull off something like this. My chest tightened. Could I have missed something in my rush to get home to Amanda every night?

“Good, his family will be able to help with that.” I followed her down the hall and to a bank of elevators. “I’ll send them up as soon as they arrive. But first we’re going to stop so you can get washed up.”

I glanced down at my hands and saw the blood still covering them. “Thank you.”

Hopefully, Malcolm wouldn’t have my ass when he got here.