Page 6 of Wild Heart
“I can handle things.”
“Ivan.” Elijah gestured at the tube draped across my face. “You’re still on oxygen and you have a hole in your fucking abdomen. Boss said you’re out for at least ten days after you’re discharged. I can handle shit until then.”
Elijah hadn’t been with us for long, just a couple of years. He was more of a lone wolf than he was a leader, but the guy had a smart mind and a quick shot. His favorite place to hit a man was right between the eyes, and he never missed.
“Boss has already given out assignments. I’m just here to report any fuck-ups.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do for ten days?”
“Heal?” His lips twitched in amusement. “Clean up crew took care of the scene, and as far as the public knows, it was just an isolated incident.”
“And Marcos?”
He looked so fucking small, balled up in that chair, a blanket clutched tight to his chest. Soft curls swept his face every time he breathed, and though I didn’t fucking love that he was still covered in blood, I liked that my handprint was glued to his skin.
From the corners of his eyes, Elijah glanced at him, and I felt my molars grind together.
“Stop looking at him.”
Elijah stiffened and rotated his head until his eyes touched mine. Confusion filled them, but he didn’t dare argue.
Not with me.
“What sort of explanation was given to Marcos?”
His lithe body moved beneath his blanket as if he’d heard his name on my lips. The skin around his mouth tightened when he yawned, and I saw his eyelids twitch just before they peeled open.
Our gazes caught, and he sucked in a sharp breath just as Elijah said, “The truth.”
ChapterThree
Marcos
My head hurt, and not just from lack of sleep or the awkward way I’d folded my limbs into this chair but from all the secrets it now held.
My best friend was dating a mob boss.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Rumors… that’s all they were supposed to be. Urban legends about the elusive billionaire hidden in the highest tower of Seattle.
Rumors, my ass.
Benjamin Thomas was just as ruthless as the public believed him to be, and he had an entire team of savages behind him, protected by shadows and well-kept secrets.
I didn’t know what made me special—if it had to do with what I witnessed or if it was simply because I was Toby’s best friend. Either way, I was firmly positioned in the inner circle, and I thought the only reason I wanted to be there was because that’s wherehewas.
My eyes crashed into him the moment they opened. Lungs seizing, the breath I’d been holding for three days seemed to leave me all at once.
He was awake… andalive.
His eyes swept over me in cool waves, and I couldn’t seem to stop staring at them. They looked just like they did when he was lying on that floor, and for the first time since that moment, it wasn’t the fear I remembered but the quiet.
I watched the way his cracked lips moved, parting just a little. They curved at the corners just before he said, “Solnyshko.”
