Page 120 of Fracture
Zee’s eyebrows shoot up, and they look back and forth between us. “What is going on here? What the hell have you two gotten yourselves into?”
I raise my hands. “Zee, you don’t understand.”
“Damn right, I don’t.” They spring to their feet, jabbing a finger in my face. “Whatever the fuck is going on here, my best friend is lying in a hospital bed because of it right now.”
“I fucking love that woman,” I snarl in response. “I wouldn’t do anything to endanger her.”
“Then what is going on here?” They put their hands on their hips, and look back down at Dylan. “Hmm? I’m waiting.”
“We’re not going to tell you that.” Dylan’s tone is soft and measured, and he rises to his feet. He looks down at Zee with brotherly tenderness, and puts a hand on their shoulder. “We can’t involve you in this, Zee. It’s just not going to happen. I care about you too much for this to come crashing down on you, too.”
“Stella could havedied.” Zee shoves a hand against Dylan’s chest. “She could be in a fucking morgue right now.”
“I won’t let that happen.” Dylan takes Zee’s hand, the one that just pushed him, and curls both of his around them. “I need you to go home and be safe. We’ll call you if we need you. But you need to leave this to us now.”
“Dylan-”
“Zee, go home.” Dylan’s eyes are positively black as he gazes at them. “I need you to go home, and if we need you, we’ll tell you. But this is bigger than you can even guess right now, so I need you to be out of it. Please.”
Zee’s face crumples, and they wrap their arms around Dylan’s waist. “What the fuck have you done?” They murmur, dashing a hand over their eye.
“What needs to be done,” Dylan says, planting a kiss on the top of their head. “Now, go on home. I’ll call you when she wakes up.”
Dylan is the picture of calm determination, and Zee finally relents when they realize there’s no point fighting anymore. They hug us both, and hurry down the hospital corridor, arms wrapped around themselves.
“What dirt does Oswald have on Stella?” I ask quietly, and Dylan turns to fix his eyes on me.
“Not here,” he says in a low voice. “I’ll tell you later. But we need to move soon. This is only going to get worse.”
“Is that where you were?”
He nods slowly. “Partly. But I’ll tell you later.” His eyes shift over my shoulder, and his body language changes, squaring up as his jaw sets.
I glance over my shoulder to see two cops moving down the hallway, flanked by two detectives. I turn back to Dylan with a heavy sigh.
“Fucking great.”
“They’re not going to help us,” Dylan growls. “Fucking useless cops.”
“No, they won’t, but we just play along for now, OK? Fuck them. We deal with this ourselves.”
We both face the approaching cops, who eye us warily.
“Levi Fenton?” The female detective looks up at me, showing me her badge. “Detective Hawkins. We spoke to your stepsister when the threat was called into her place of work.”
I cross my arms over my chest and look her up and down. “Good for you. I see you really followed up on that.”
She raises a hand with a small sigh. “Mr Fenton, I understand that you’re upset, but-”
“Upset?” I scoff. “Upset? Upset is when someone scrapes my car and doesn’t leave a fucking note. This?” I gesture in the direction of Stella’s room. “This has me more than a littleupset.”
“We understand that,” the male cop says in a patronising tone of voice that makes me want to put his head throughthe fucking wall. “But your sister refused police protection, otherwise we could have prevented this.”
“Oh, Iknowyou’re not blaming her for what just happened,” Dylan says, moving around me smoothly to get in the male cop’s face.
“He never said that.” Detective Hawkins lifts a hand as though to ward Dylan off, never actually touching him. “Now, you both need to calm down. I know this is hard, and you’re worried. But getting mad at us won’t help Stella.”
Dylan adjusts his gaze to land on Detective Hawkins, rolling his shoulders as he tries to contain his rage. “Help Stella? Hmm? So, what have you done to help Stella? Found out who sent those bullets yet?”