Page 4 of Wicked Empire (Knight's Ridge Empire 3)

“None of them are that fucking stupid.”

“Well, you’d like to think not, but the evidence might suggest otherwise.”

“Do we have anything on the shooter?”

“Just the bullet pulled from Toby’s chest.” I wince, guilt swamping me that he literally took that bullet for me. Selfless motherfucker. “Dad’s sending it for analysis. We’ll find this guy, Seb. We will.”

“I know. It just needs to be before it’s too late. Tonight was meant to be fucking safe.”

“Fuck, I’m glad you’re okay, man,” Theo confesses, sitting forward once more, seemingly unable to sit still for more than two minutes.

“I need to see her. I need to see with my own two eyes that—”

“I know. I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’m not fucking carrying you, though,” he states, lifting a brow at me.

“It’ll take more than a hole in the shoulder to stop me from walking,” I state stubbornly.

But I regret it the second I throw the covers back. I might be using my good arm, but fuck me does it hurt.

“Oh yeah?” Theo asks, clearly seeing the grimace on my face as I fight it.

“Fuck off. It hurts a bit, that’s all.”

“A bit,” he quips.

Gritting my teeth, I swing my legs over the side of the bed. The sight of the hospital gown someone wrestled me into not long after the ambulance dropped us into the ER makes me groan.

“Let’s go before Janice comes back to give you a bed bath.”

I grunt the second I hear the name. “Tell me she’s not on shift tonight.”

“No can do, bro. She was thrilled to see your ugly face too.”

Yeah, I bet she fucking was.

All the arguments I had with her while Stella was in the hospital come back to me.

“No wonder this hurts. I bet she fucking stitched me up without any pain relief.”

“Well, that would explain why you kept blacking out.”

“I did no— fuck off,” I bark when I catch sight of his smirk as he rounds the bed to help me.

“You sure you can do this?” he asks, holding me around the waist.

“I need to see her.”

He helps me shuffle across the room and pulls the door open.

“Jesus fucking Christ. I leave you two alone for five minutes…” Sophia says, sounding exhausted.

“I ain’t arguing with the stubborn arse,” Theo says by way of an excuse. “You know he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

Sophia looks over her shoulder in the direction she just came from.

“She’s asleep.”

“I don’t care,” I spit.