Page 121 of Crave

The man, Dr. Alexi Novak, wasn’t a real doctor—not anymore. His medical licence was stripped away years before for ‘unethical procedures.’

Procedures I didn’t ask about. When I called in the middle of the night, nor did he.

Novak flicked his cigarette away. “Bring him inside.”

I barely managed to drag Kieran out of the car, his body a dead weight. Novak grabbed his other side, hauling him toward the dimly lit interior through the open door.

There was only silence from the man I’d known for the last ten years as we dragged him inside and toward a dented metal table stained with things I didn’t care to identify sitting in the middle of the room.

We laid Kieran down and the Russian set to work, tearing Kieran’s shirt open to gauge his wounds.

“He’s lost too much blood.” He snapped on latex gloves and ripped open a bag of IV fluids. “I’ll stabilize him. You, on the other hand?—”

“I’m fine,” my words slurred as the room slowly tilted.

I stumbled backwards, slamming my hand on whatever I could find to stop from falling.

Novak arched a brow as he jerked that piercing glare my way. “You faint on me and I’m putting you on the table next to him.”

That was the last thing I wanted.

One hard nod and I ground my jaw, holding onto whatever I had inside me…and it was her face I found.

Those big fucking eyes fixed on mine as she lay underneath me. The liar I called sister.

Novak worked fast, puncturing, squeezing, finally cleaning and stitching while he checked Kieran’s pulse.

Finally he murmured. “He’s here, barely, but he’s here.”

I swallowed hard, Angelica still raging inside my head…as well as the note impaled on Sloane’s body in the warehouse.

Hand her over, or you’ll all join him.

“Do you have this?” I croaked, my weak pulse growing louder.

“I got him.”

I glanced once more at the pale body on the table and turned away. I had somewhere to be…someone to protect.

That need roared inside me as I stumbled from the auto shop and headed for my car once more. They were coming for my family.

No.

They were coming for her.

Bleeding or not, there was no way in hell anyone would touch her.

Not unless it was one of us.

I climbed back behind the wheel, started the car and punched the accelerator, spinning the wheels hard and headed for home.

Chapter Thirty

ANGELICA

Sleep came for me,leaving me to drift untethered in the darkness.

But when I woke, I woke alone.