Cold and Broken (The Titans of Founder's Ridge Book 1)

by Nichole Greene

  “You should too. You look worse than I do.” I point at the blood splatters on his shirt.

  “Fuck.” He looks down at himself. Then he strides down the hall and accosts the first person he finds. I watch as he orders them to find us some scrubs, his domineering CEO personality coming to the forefront. After he raises his voice the nurse scurries off.

  “Two minutes and I’m having her fired if she’s not back with something for both of us. Lilith does not need to walk in and see us covered in this mess.” Victor runs his hand through his hair in a familiar move. It’s the same thing I do when stress builds. Muffled footsteps come down the hall toward us and two sets of aqua scrubs are dumped in our laps.

  I go change and rinse my hands and face off as well as I can. The chemical smell of the hospital’s sanitizing soap stings my nostrils as I scrub my face. I strip down completely, unceremoniously dumping my custom tuxedo into the biohazard trash can. It’s beyond salvageable. I sit back down in the hard plastic seat as Victor stands to clean up.

  I check my phone and see a text from Griff asking where we are so I send him a pin drop of my location in the hospital. Two minutes later I hear the click of high heels and lift my head to see my best friend hand in hand with my girlfriend, my lover, my everything. Her face is completely devoid of any emotion. I stand and rip her out of his hand and into my arms as soon as she’s within reach. I don’t plan on ever letting her go now.

  Griff’s hand lands on my shoulder and squeezes. We make eye contact and he nods. I didn’t want them to tell her how bad it was. The surgeons weren’t sure they’d be able to save him. The bullet clipped his carotid artery. They weren’t optimistic that they could fix the damage.

  “Lilith.” I feel Victor place a hand on my back and she pulls back to look at him. “I am so sorry.”

  “Where is he?” Her voice comes out as a scratchy whisper.

  “Still in surgery.” He answers.

  “Where was he shot?” Her voice shakes and her body trembles in my arms.

  “The neck.” Victor answers solemnly.

  Her body goes rigid with tension and I watch as an iron curtain falls over her eyes. She takes a step away from us and looks out the small window into the black night. She doesn’t move, doesn’t even shift her weight from foot to foot for the next 57 minutes until two of the surgeons walk into the private waiting room.

  The defeated looks on their faces tell me everything I need to know. Their eyes bounce back and forth between Victor and myself before settling on Lilith.

  “Lilith Nelson?”

  She turns with a blank expression on her face. “Yes.”

  “Would you like to take a seat?” the younger surgeon asks.

  “No. How is my dad?” she replies flatly.

  “We were unable to save him,” the older surgeon answers. “I am so terribly sorry.”

  “Can I see him?” Her expression is completely blank, like there’s nothing happening behind her eyes.

  The two surgeons exchange a look. “He hasn’t been cleaned up yet.”

  “I don’t care. Covered in blood and wounds or cleaned up to look asleep it doesn’t matter. He’s dead. I just want to say goodbye.” He voice trails off. “It’s important that I see him now.”

  “It’s against protocol,” the younger one says.

  “Let her see him or I’ll have both your jobs and medical licenses before the end of the night,” Victor snarls. “You won’t be able to practice medicine in a third world brothel by the time I’m done with you.”

  I come by my viciousness naturally.

  The younger surgeon reaches out to place a hand on Lilith’s back to lead her out but jumps away when I snap. “You think Victor is scary? I’ll turn every nightmare you’ve ever had into reality if you put your hands on my girlfriend again.”

  The older surgeon motions for us to follow him. Griff and Victor hang back until Lilith turns and looks at them both. “I need you two as well.” They fall in step behind us. Griff reaching out to hold Lilith’s other hand when she reaches for him.

  We get to a set of double doors and the two surgeons stop. “He’s in there.” The older one tells her. “When you are finished saying goodbye we’ll need to find out where you want to send him.”

  Lilith nods and walks into the room, leaving the three us to watch her through the window. She walks up to the gurney and lowers the metal arms. She pulls his arm over and climbs onto the bed to lay beside him. Her body begins to quake as sobs sound audibly through the door. I reach to go in but Victor stops me.

  “Give her a minute, son.” He squeezes my neck where it meets my shoulder. “She needs this moment with him.” Then he steps away to speak with some hospital personel. I hear him giving them details on where to send the body and who to send the bill to.

  When I can’t stand it anymore I push through the door and walk to her side. Angry, hot tears sluice through the make up she’s wearing leaving black tracks down her cheeks. I swipe my thumbs over them, trying in vain to erase her pain.

  “Did the police catch whoever did this?” Her whisper sounds deafening in the silent room.

  “No.” I run my hand over her pony tail. “Victor already has our guys looking into it. I doubt the police would be able to find anything. It was a professional hit. Had your dad not pushed me down at the moment he did I’d be dead with a bullet lodged between my eyes.”

  She doesn’t say anything else, even when Griff and Victor walk in. Each of them reaching out to lay a hand on her hip or ankle. She shifts to sit up and I reach out to steady her. She leans down and kisses his cheek before telling him she loves him.

  When she turns to me her eyes are completely devoid of any emotion. It looks like a robot has overtaken her. She looks to me expectantly for direction.

  “We’ll go back to my penthouse for the night. Is that okay?” I search her eyes for anything but she just nods her head blankly.

  I meet Griff eyes and see the concern I feel echoed back in his eyes.

  Griff and I sandwich Lilith between us on the way home. She has that scary vacant look in her eyes and numbly follows whatever direction we give her. She has smears of blood on her skin and her dress from when she crawled onto the gurney beside her father. I’m not even sure if she’s noticed that.

  We lead her into VI and up the elevator to the private residences. She follows us into my room and Griff splits off into the bathroom to grab a washcloth so we can clean her up a bit. I grab a pair of boxers and a white t-shirt for her to slip on when we get her out of her dress.

  Griff comes out of the bathroom and starts wiping her face, removing the remnants of her make up. Then he wipes the smears of blood on her shoulders and arms. She stands still, looking off into space over my shoulder. Griff bends down and pulls off her shoes. I pull her dress over her head. After I slip my shirt over her head I reach under and unhook her bra. I help her into my boxers and then walk her over to the bed.

  She crawls into the middle of the bed and curls onto her side. I look across the bed to Griff and we have a silent conversation about whether he should stay in here with us. She’s clearly in shock. Normally I’d skin anyone, including my best friends if they got under the covers with her but I just feel like she needs us. He looks down at her and starts pulling his suit off. I walk into my closet and pull the scrubs off, sliding into a pair of boxer briefs.

  “Levi is on his way. I told him that Michael didn’t make it,” Griff says quietly meeting me by the closet door. He’s stripped down to his underwear, too.

  “He has the code to get in the penthouse so we can just get in bed with Lilith.” I run a hand through my hair. “Whatever she needs from us,” I trail off. I don’t know how to tell Griff that if my girlfriend wakes up in the night and needs us to touch her and make her forget that I’m fine. I’ll share, I’ll do whatever she needs to get through this.

  “I got you, brother.” Griff pulls me in for a hug. “She’s in shock right now so I doubt she’ll need a
nything other than having us beside her.”

  We split and get in on either side of her. She’s facing my side so I tuck her in close to me and Griff moves to her back. I feel her silent tears falling from her eyes to my shoulder. Her hand reaches for Griff’s and wraps his arm over waist.

  “Go to sleep, Lily,” I whisper against her forehead. “Griff and I have you. We’re not going anywhere.”

  I wait until I feel her body go lax against mine before I shut my eyes and let myself drift off. At some point in the night I feel a dip at the foot of the bed and see Levi laying across it. I toss an extra pillow that we’re not using at him and hear him mumble a thank you.

  * * *

  I wake up from a nightmare at dawn to see Griff wrapped protectively around Lilith and Levi’s arm resting across the length of her leg, his hand on the curve of her hip. I pull myself out from under her and climb out of bed. I tap Levi and tell him to take my spot. There’s no way I’m going back to sleep after that nightmare. I grab my phone and walk into the kitchen to start coffee.

  I pull up a text chain that Victor added me to last night. He’s been in constant contact with his fixer, Sergei, trying to figure out who did this. I have a pretty solid idea and it all leads back to our feud with the Owens. They must be desperate if they are resorting to hits on my family. Between their rig exploding at the beginning of September and their unsuccessful attempt to buy our land on the oil fields of western Siberia I know their business is walking the line of profitability. Still, a hit is so extreme. Another text pings from Victor so I decide since he’s awake I’ll go upstairs and talk in person.

  I walk down the hall to my third bedroom. I pull the false wall over in the walk in closet open and jog up the stairs to Victor’s penthouse. We had this hidden staircase put in for security purposes and I’ve never been more thankful for it than I am right now. It leads to Victor’s home gym. I cut through and find him sitting at his island with a tumbler of vodka.

  He changed into silk pajama pants but, like me, is shirtless. I catch our reflections in the mirror hanging on the wall and fuck if I’m not a carbon copy of him. He grabs a glass off the tray and pours it half full of vodka before sliding it in front of me. We both slam the vodka back and set our glasses down in sync.

  “How’s Lilith?” he asks without looking over at me.

  “I think she’s in shock. She has barely said two words. Just cries these awful silent tears. I left her cuddled between Lev and Griff. I couldn’t,” I clear my throat, “I couldn’t sleep without some fucked up dreams.”

  He reaches over and grabs me by the back of my neck, forcing me to look at him. “It’s okay to not be okay. I know you want to be strong for her and we all need to be, but you experienced trauma.” His green eyes are bloodshot.

  All I can do is nod and lock my emotions down tight. “What do I need to tell Lilith when she gets up?”

  “Edward is setting her up with a room in the family wing. We’ll take care of her as though she was ours.”

  “She is. She’s mine.”

  “I know.” He bobs his head. “We need to figure out what Michael’s wishes were regarding a funeral and burial. Do you think you can ask her or do you want to me to do it?”

  “I’ll do it.” I twirl my empty glass around. “It was the Owens, wasn’t it?”

  “Most likely. I have Sergei on it. We’ll have to go down to the station tomorrow to give our formal statements.”

  “Like the cops will figure anything out. Owens has half of every law enforcement agency on their payroll.”

  “Yeah, but we have the Russian and Irish mafias on ours.” He pours another shot in each of our glasses. “I like our odds better. To Michael.” He holds his glass up and I tap mine to it before tossing back the next shot with him.

  “She’s all alone now.” I say glumly. “I wonder if she’ll want to move back to Chicago with Zion.”

  “She isn’t going anywhere. Michael would want her to stay with us and finish school at Founders Prep,” Victor says with paternal protectiveness.

  “You’re more protective of her than you are of your own kids.” I can’t help the bitterness that leaks into that observation.

  He sighs. “I’m not. There’s something I need to tell you about your mom, the real reason she’s in Ireland and took off with your sister.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “I’m aware you thought I had an affair with that young maid.”

  “Yeah.” I’m not really in the mood to listen to this but my ass stays planted anyway.

  “It was your mother, she and the maid had the affair. I walked into our room and found her,”

  “Alright.” I hold up a hand to interrupt. I really don’t need that sentence finished. “Mom and the maid? The girl maid who was only a year older than me?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s fucked up.” I meet his eyes. “Why did you let me be such an asshole to you?”

  “Your mother didn’t want me to tell you.”

  “If she didn’t want me to know maybe she should have kept it in her pants,” I snarl. “Does Claire know?”

  “No. We weren’t going to tell either of you for now. I was hoping it was some weird midlife crisis for your mom. She’d never been with a woman before so I didn’t think too much of it. Then I walked in and she had all her shit packed.” He shakes his head. “Anyway. Don’t tell Claire.”

  “Michael being killed kind of puts everything in perspective, huh?” I muse.

  “It does. Connor,” he looks at me again, “you need to stop calling me Victor now that you know. It fucking pisses me off.”

  “Sure thing, Vic.” I give a chuckle at his dark glare. I hold my hands up, “Kidding. I’ll work on going back to dad.”

  I didn’t think coming up here I’d end up feeling so much lighter. I sure as shit did not anticipate the confession my dad laid at my feet. I stand up and dad follows suit. “I should get back downstairs in case she wakes up and needs me.”

  “Yeah. I’m glad she has you boys. She’s going to need to lean on all of you and Ivy. I’m here, too. Make sure she knows that.” He pulls me in for a tight hug. I can’t remember the last time he hugged me, maybe a couple years ago. Definitely not since I grew bigger than him. “I love you, son.”

  “I love you, too, dad.” Another thing we haven’t done in years, say I love you.

  30

  Lilith

  I wake up pressed between two hard, hot male bodies. My head is pounding and confusion swims through my mind when I open my eyes and see that I’m tucked against Griff’s chest. I look down and see Levi’s tan arm wrapped around me. Then the fog lifts and reality comes crashing into me like a category five hurricane.

  Dad is dead.

  I let my head drop back down on Griff’s chest, willing myself to disappear into the ether. I lay there, cradled by two of my closest friends and let the numbness float me away.

  “Hood rat?” Levi whispers as his hand splays across my tummy. “I’m so fucking sorry.” He rests his head on the back of my shoulder. All I can muster a squeeze of his forearm.

  Nothing feels right. The air in my lungs, the blood pumping through my body all feels like some terrible cosmic joke. I’m left here with no one now, no family. An orphan. Thrown away by my mother when I was four. Orphaned by my dad at 18.

  I flip around and sob into Levi’s arms. The bed jostles as Griff gets up. I hear him pad out into the living room and then he comes back in with Connor hot on his heels. Griff hands me a bottle of water and an ibuprofen.

  I sit up to pop the pills and chase them with a couple gulps of water. Levi holds me close one more time before passing me over to Connor. He gathers me up in his arms and presses a kiss to my lips.

  “Do you want to shower?” He asks.

  I nod and move off his lap. He pulls me up and walks me into the bathroom. I stand there like zombie while he gets the shower started. He strips me of my clothes and then himself of his. He shampoos and conditions my
hair, washes my body, washes my face. He switches us and cleans up himself. Then he grabs a couple fluffy towels to dry us. The entire time he does this I just stare off into space. I should bring myself to say something kind or appreciative but I just zone out instead.

  After I get dressed I follow Connor out into the kitchen where Levi is setting out breakfast. Victor walks in from the hallway with the guest rooms. He wraps me in a tight and comforting hug. Levi slides a bagel and egg sandwich in front of me but the thought of food makes bile raise in the back of my throat.

  “I hate to ask this right now,” Victor pauses for a second, “but I need to know what Michael’s wishes would be for his burial. Do you even know?”

  “He wanted to be cremated and sprinkled into Lake Michigan in the shadow of Soldier Field,” I answer lifelessly. “Oh God. I need to call everyone in Chicago. Z and his family. Dad had several friends from his times in the Marines. I’ll need to call them, too.”

  “What about your mother?” Victor approaches the question hesitantly. “Should we tell her?”

  “No.” I wouldn’t even know how to find her. “Even if I did know where she was I wouldn’t reach out to her.”

  “Okay,” he bobs his head once, “I’ll get everything taken care of for you. Let me know if you need anything in the interim.”

  “Thanks,” I rasp when he gives me another hug. “I’m going to go call Zion and try to get ahold of some family friends.”

  I leave the food Levi tried to give me on the counter and walk back to Connor’s bedroom. I crawl onto the bed and pull up Z’s number. I start to swipe to call him but stop. I don’t know how to break this news to him. Dad was the closest thing to a father figure Z has ever had. His own dad died of a drug overdose when he was a baby, he doesn’t have an uncle or grandfather to fulfill that role.

  I’m still staring at my phone when Connor walks in. He pauses beside the bed like he is trying to gather his thoughts.