“Oh,” I reply.
He looks like he’s ready to explode, his neck muscles bulging, his hands balled into fists.
“You know, I thought you were different,” he says, glaring at me. “But you’re just the same as the rest of them.”
Jase tosses something on the bed beside me. I peer down and realize it’s my phone.
“Call me when they discharge you,” he says, without looking back.
I open my mouth to speak but he’s gone, and I’m staring at a closed door.
I lay back into the pillows, cursing myself for my stupidity. This wasn’t meant to happen. I almost died?
I think for a few minutes, my head whirling.
Maxi’s dead. Dornan’s on a rampage of some sort. Jase is pissed with me.
That leaves one person.
I scroll through the three contacts on my phone. Dornan. Jason. Tattoo Guy. Elliot answers on the third ring.
“This had better be good,” he says groggily. “If you woke my daughter up, I’ll fucking kill you.”
His daughter. Jesus. I was going to ask him to come get me, but I can’t exactly ask him to leave her in the middle of the night to come break me out of my hospital room.
“Sorry,” I say quietly. “I was just…can I come see you?”
He must detect that something’s not right in my voice, because the next time he speaks, he’s wide awake. “Sure,” he says. “Everything okay?”
I glance down at my hospital gown and the IV line in my arm. “Peachy,” I reply. “I just miss you.”
“Huh,” he says. “Of course you do.”
I say goodbye and end the call.
Ten minutes later, I’m walking down San Vicente Boulevard, wearing nothing but a hospital gown that ties at the back, and blows open when the breeze stirs, showing the world my ass cheeks. I’ve got no shoes on and nothing but my phone that I clutch in my hand. It’s three in the morning and the streets are pretty quiet, my only companions a random homeless woman pushing a trolley, and the gently rustling palm trees that line the street, towering over me.
I’m aching inside, the utter desolation of my vengeful quest almost too much to bear.
But I will bear it. Because I refuse to buckle. They will not break me.
I’m a fighter, after all. And this fight’s only just begun.
Rage and loneliness alight in my chest, I stick to the shadows, and make my way to Elliot’s apartment.
Five Miles, the third book in the Gypsy Brothers series, will be released on March 30th, 2014. To be notified as soon as it’s available, sign up here.
Five Miles
My father taught me the importance of an eye for an eye—a cardinal rule, ingrained in every club member.
A life for a life.
Seven lives in payment for an unimaginable list of sins.
People might wonder why I’m doing this. If this vengeance is borne from some noble cause. If I’m trying to prevent others from suffering at the hands of Dornan Ross and his sons.
But I’m no selfless vigilante.
I’m doing this for me. I’m doing it because I want to.
I’m doing this because I just want to be able to sleep at night without seeing their faces.
This is the fate they have earned. The penance for their crimes.
Time to send some of these brothers off with a bang.
About the author
Lili writes dark romance. Her serial novel, Seven Sons, was released in early 2014, with the following books in the series to be released in quick succession. Lili quit corporate life to focus on writing and is loving every minute of it. Her other loves in life include her gorgeous husband and beautiful daughter, good coffee, hanging at the beach and running. She loves to read almost as much as she loves to write.
Lili also writes paranormal fantasy.
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Six Brothers (Gypsy Brothers, #2) Page 9