Page 177 of Villainous Kingpin

At least I hoped to God they were. Whoever it was had the Russians running. They killed one, wounded another but the crazy woman made it all the way to her car.

That was when I saw it and I could have cried from the relief that slammed into me.

Dante and Priest were here. Thank God, they tracked the phone.

“You’ll get your last rites now, bitch,” I hissed.

CHAPTER71

Wynter

Mom kept throwing glances my way.

Ever since we arrived at the hospital, it has been a never ending parade of poking and probing. And questions. So many damn questions. My temples throbbed, the smell of smoke and blood lingered in my nose and my lungs.

But the dominating emotion was fear. For Bas.

I wouldn’t survive it.

My gaze locked on his pale face. He should have woken up by now. It has been hours since all hell broke loose. The crazy bitch, my great-grandmother, got away. Sasha, Priest, and Dante showed up in the nick of time. Killed all her men. Apparently, the woman had reinforcements coming right behind her too.

“Star, are you alright?” Mom’s voice had me turning my gaze to meet her eyes. Even with her brows drawn together and a worried expression on her face, she looked happier than I’ve ever seen her before.

Priest’s father stood a few feet away from us, giving us privacy but his eyes were on Mom the entire time. As if he worried she’d disappear. Priest stood by his father, but it was harder to read him.

He was still coming to terms about all these revelations.

“Yes. I just need Bas to be okay.” I held Mom’s gaze, wondering how she was doing. “How are you?”

Her eyes darted to her son, pain crossing her face. “I’m better than I’ve been in a long time. I just wish-” Her voice failed her and I took her hand in mine, squeezing gently. She let out a heavy sigh. “I just wish I could make him see that I meant well. Yes, I left him with his father but it was to protect him.”

“He’ll come around, Mom.” I truly believed that. It might take him time, but deep down, under his crazy last rites and unhinged look in those blue eyes that now I knew were the Brennans’ blue eyes, he was a good man. “Just give him time. It’s a lot to find out in such a short time. And we don’t know what he’s been through.”

You don’t just wake up one day and decide to read men their last rites before you kill them. At least, I hoped not. There had to be something traumatic that got him to that point.

“There hasn’t been a day that went by where I didn’t think about him,” she whispered her admission. “I never wanted to leave him, but it was the only way to keep him hidden.”

Our gazes locked, all the secrets that our families kept, dancing around this hospital hallway. They were big secrets. The kind that should have never been kept from us but I realized at this moment, I didn’t fucking care about any of them. They brought me here, to this very moment. To Bas.

The only thing I needed was for Bas to be okay.

My eyes sought out the man that I had fallen for from the moment I landed in his arms. Okay, maybe not that very moment but the second he slipped that shoe onto my foot, his eyes like black diamonds, I was lost to him. As long as he was by my side, I’d live through anything.

“You kept a lot of secrets,” I told her, keeping my gaze on my husband. “You, Uncle, and Priest’s father. Yes, it was wrong. But it brought me Bas.”

“Your distraction,” she murmured softly.

My lips curved into a smile. “Yes, my distraction. It wasn’t right to keep all that from us. To keep Priest from his mother. But help him see that despite it all, you did it for a good reason and it brought him something good. Find what that good is and don’t give up on him.”

It was the only advice I had. The best I could come up with.

“I don’t deserve you, my little star.” Her voice trembled slightly and I turned to see a lone tear rolling down her cheek.

Wrapping my arms around her, I squeezed her tightly. “Oh, Mom. You deserve it all. Now just go and get it. You were good to Jules and I. We were lucky to have you. But now, Priest needs you. Don’t worry about us. If we need you, we know how to reach you.”

Franco DiLustro strode to us and I took a step back, letting him comfort my mother.

“How about we go home?” he suggested. “You need rest.”