Page 92 of Serpentine

His eyes widen in fear as he sees something I don’t.

But in a flash, I feel it.

A blade sinks through my stomach, pain rippling through me like a severe storm. When the Jackal piece of shit pulls his knife back, making for the door, I crumple to the ground.

“Brax!” Miles shouts, trying to get to me through the crowd.

The last thing I hear is Miles shout for someone to call an ambulance as I hear three shots ring out. The Jackal who delivered his message had done his job, and Vito didn’t expect him to come home in one piece.

He won’t.

TWENTY-EIGHT

MILES

The beeping of machines keeps me company as I watch the rise and fall of Braxton’s chest. He just got wheeled back from recovery after his surgery to close the wound caused by the Jackal’s knife. He’s breathing independently, and the doctors tell me that’s good.

Aella bursts into the room, a frantic look on her face. I told her not to come, to stay at work to keep up the ruse. But tension leaves me in a rush when I rise and pull her into me.

“What happened?” She sniffles as she pulls back, looking up at me with her bloodshot blue eyes full of heartbreak. I hadn’t thought of how tired she was. I called her as I rode in the ambulance with Braxton, holding his hand the entire way. As if that would keep him here.

“A Jackal came to deliver a message to Zeke’s while we were all there drinking.”

She points to Brax, turning and looking him over. “And this is their message?”

I sigh. “They want us to steer clear of them because they’ve got something illegal going on, and Braxton thinks he uncovered some of it. So, yes, this is their message.”

Guilt waves in my stomach. I should’ve been out there with him. I’d have made him sit back down.

I shake my head at myself inwardly because, no, I wouldn’t have. I can’t make Braxton do anything he doesn’t want to.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” she says, turning and kissing me quickly before returning to Brax. Dropping her bag to the ground, she sits on the bedside opposite where I have a chair.

I replace my ass down into it, holding his other hand.

“I’d rather it be me than him,” I mutter.

She scoffs. “He wouldn’t rather it be you. Don’t say that.”

“I told you to go to work,” I tell her, and her brows knit together.

“No one tells me what to do. I called in through the proper channels and told them I had a family emergency,” she counters, and the way my chest surges at the fact she’d referred to us as a family is surreal.

I clear my throat to speak, but Brax opens his eyes and groans. Just like the enormous brute he is, he tries to sit up, grasping at tubes and monitors as he does so, grumbling about things touching him.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I tell him, pressing him back firmly. “You need all those tubes to stay alive, big fella.”

He coughs and then winces in pain. “I’m like two inches taller than you, Miles.”

I smile, but as soon as my hand moves, so does he. He tries his damnedest to sit up against my and Aella’s protests.

She hasn’t said a word but has her hands on him, trying to lay him back down. I don’t think he even registered that she’s here yet. His eyes have remained on me the entire time.

“Miles,” he says, and my stomach tightens.

I try to flick my eyes to Aella to tell him she’s here. I need to get him to stop looking at me and shift his attention because I can’t do this with him. Not when everything is so raw. Not when I’m not in control of everything inside my chest. My heart.

“Brax, listen…”