Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Luke’s voice deepens. “Seriously, Aiden. Leo’s been shot.”
“Then make a video call and show me.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?”
He sounds stressed. If this is a prank, it’s a terrible and convincing one.
Luke video-calls me, and turns the phone to a hospital bed where Leo is lying with a tube in his mouth and a dozen wires all connected in arcane medical ways.
“I’m coming,” I say.
It takes twelve hours to reach home. Not even the fastest private charters can make the journey shorter than that. Luke has made the hospital details available to me, and I charter a helicopter from the airport in order to reach it as quickly as possible.
I walk into the room and find Leo there in the hospital bed. There is something furry by his side, something that starts snarling at me as I enter.
They’ve snuck the dog in.
Of course they have. Why would any of us follow rules, or protocol, or stay relatively un-shot for more than ten minutes. Perhaps it is the effect of seeing Ella and having her walk away, or maybe it is simply the stress of having another brother seriously injured, but my mood is very dark.
He doesn’t have a tube down his throat anymore. He looks a lot brighter. That is good, I tell myself. Actually, given that it is Leo, he looks like an orderly businessman in bed.
“Who did this?”
“Technically, me.”
Luke answers. He was sitting in an armchair conveniently located away from the door. He stands up as I enter, looking far too pleased with himself for someone who has severely injured his brother.
“You did this?”
“Yes,” Luke says. “But to be fair, I did tell you. Leo got shot. That was the relevant information.”
“I did get shot,” Leo agrees. I can’t be angry at him, because he’s probably on an absolute cocktail of painkillers.
“It’s just I shot him,” Luke says, grinning like the idiot he must surely be.
I’m sure there’s more to this story. I am equally sure I don’t want to hear it. For them to make me think we might lose Leo after what happened to Teddy is unforgivable. For Luke to shoot him is unforgivable.
I struggle to keep my temper.
Luke
Aiden looks annoyed. I didn’t expect him to be in a good mood, but I didn’t think he was going to be this irritable. Wherever he was, it must have really pissed him off.
“I’ve made a decision,” he says. “Neither one of you are responsible enough for marriage. I’m marrying Ella. The two of you can go to whichever circle of hell you find the most comfortable.”
Aiden spins on his heel and stalks out of the room. I half expect to hear the chopper being recalled, but I suppose those come and go all the time given this is a hospital. He’s not going to leave the both of us and go find Ella again, is he?
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself.
I feel like I’m ten years old again, and Aiden, the only authority in the family, is mad at me.
“Did you hear that?” I turn to Leo, who is unconcerned. He doesn’t care if Aiden is mad. He’s closer to him in age, and I think that helps. Also, he’s a psychopath, and that will help too.
“He’s upset,” Leo says. “He doesn’t know how to tell me he’s glad I’m alive, so he tells us both to go to hell. Classic psychology.”
“I knew he’d be pissed. I didn’t think he’d be hurt. Aiden doesn’t have feelings, does he?”
Leo shrugs and takes another bite of hospital Jell-O. “He will listen when he calms down.”
Ethel snorts and sneezes on him, which is her way of saying she also wants some. He picks up a little plastic spoon from the side table and gives her a bit. It’s probably not good for her, but he’s enjoying having earned the favor of the little psycho.
Aiden
I go for a walk around the hospital grounds to calm down. I may have overreacted, or if not overreacted, at least not reacted in the right way. I know Luke wouldn’t hurt Leo for no reason. I also know that we are continuing to be weak because we keep exposing ourselves to the evils of the world every time we do anything even slightly amusing. A global woman hunt should have been something we could enjoy as a family without this happening.
“It’s not as bad as it seems,” Luke says, catching up with me in a rose garden. He looks guilty and stressed.
“Please tell me why you shot him.”
“I had to shoot him. He was being held hostage by a few stragglers of BP’s gang,” Luke says. “And like I was taught, you have to shoot the hostage.”
“So you shot him in the stomach?”
“Well, I, uh. My aim was slightly… well, in the moment, I thought it would be for the best. Lots of arteries other places. I figured he didn’t need his guts as much because there’s so much of them. Like a football field’s worth or something? Just made sure to miss the spine?”