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Dangerous:Made & Broken (A British Bad Boy Romance)(33)



He hadn't simply surrendered to my family, and whatever plan was about to unfold, he'd just set it in motion.

My heart thumped unevenly in my chest. What if he didn't know my family  had a good dozen or so of their men circling the perimeter? If his men  tried to storm the warehouse, they would get taken down before they  could ever get to us. And we would both be executed.

My fear must have shown on my face, because Blaine lifted his hand back up to my face and cupped my cheek.

"It'll be alright, I promise," he mumbled.

I stared into his eyes, searching for the confirmation that he knew  exactly what he was doing. I found it when his mouth hitched up in a  smirk.

Even in as fucked up a situation as this, Blaine Steel was still the self-assured man I'd met so many months ago.

"Boss, there's trouble coming. A fuck-ton of police is driving up. Do we shoot?"

The unexpected sound from my father's walkie made everyone inside the warehouse freeze mid-movement.

I stared at Blaine, mouth open. The police? The one rule everyone in the  underworld never, ever broke was to never involve the police. You did  that and your reputation was done for. For good.

There would not be a criminal in the country who didn't view him as a traitor. Him, and his entire family.

"You didn't!" my father hissed. He spun around from the briefcase to face Blaine. "You fucking snitch!"

"Yeah. I did." Blaine released his hold on me to fold both arms across  his chest as he took a step forward. "Or rather, one of my brothers did.  I believe he might have mentioned a big drug deal gone wrong and a  pregnant hostage being caught in the middle-something like that. You  know how nostalgic those coppers get as soon as you aim a gun at a  pregnant woman. So go ahead, tell your men to start shooting at the  police. I'm sure that'll end well for you."

"Boss?" The frantic-sounding man on the other end of the walkie said. "I need orders. They're almost on us."         

     



 

"For fuck's sake, stand down, you idiot!" my father hissed into the walkie before he tossed it aside. "Fuck!"

"You should never have crossed my Family," Blaine said, his tone as cold as the ice in his eyes.

My father grabbed Devlen's gun out of his hand. Wild with rage, he  pointed it right at Blaine's chest. "You should have kept your mouth  shut, boy. I will not be disrespected. You think your name protects you?  When it gets out what you've done here today, you're through. Your  entire family will be dead before summer, including her. And you won't  be there to stop it."

"You're not going to kill me," Blaine said, not so much as flinching as  he stared the barrel of the gun down. "If you shoot me now, you'll go  down for murder as well as everything else, and you don't have enough  time to make anyone take the fall for you before the police get here.  Yeah, I know how you operate, Clery. You're a coward, deep down. That's  why you need to abuse those who are too weak to defend themselves. You  don't have the fucking balls."

My heart dropped and adrenaline and fear roared through my veins when I saw the rage in my father's eyes snap.

Blaine was right-my father was a coward, who would only strike when he  was sure to win. But he had made one fatal miscalculation-because the  only thing my father truly cared about was receiving the respect he  thought belonged to him.

I knew he was going to pull the trigger before Blaine had finished his insult.

"No!" I didn't have time to think-only to react. I threw myself in front  of Blaine just as my father's finger pulled back, shoving him out of  the way.

Pain lanced through me, emphasizing the sound of the gun being fired. I  screamed and crumpled to the floor, clutching my side. It felt like my  flesh had melted into pure, liquid pain. My visioned blackened and  blurred. Then my head hit the concrete with a muffled thud.

"Mira! No!"

The last thing I heard was Blaine's roar of anguish. Then everything went dark.



 *





Chapter 24

Mira



Slow, monotonous beeping pulled me from the depths of nothingness.

Groggily, I opened my eyes. Bright, fluorescent light and the smell of  antiseptics made me grimace and shield my eyes, but when I lifted a hand  to cover my face a pang of dull pain from my side made me gasp.

"Doc says it's just a nasty flesh wound. You and the wee one will both be fine."

I slowly lowered my hand from my face to peer in the direction of the  speaker. He was sitting in a chair next to my bed, his flaming red hair  brightening up the otherwise sterile hospital room.

"Liam?"

"Louis," he corrected me, a wicked smile curving the corner of his  mouth. "Liam went home with a nurse a few hours ago, left me to the  incredibly boring job of waiting for you to wake up on my own. No  offense."

"Sure," I said, frowning with confusion. "But why? Where's Blaine?" My  heart dropped as I remembered the gunshot. Had I not managed to push him  out of the line of fire after all? Oh God, no. "Louis, where is he?"

"Calm down, he's fine. Got held up at the police station after bashing  Clery's head in. Our dad's working on getting him out. Until then, Liam  and I have been tasked with keeping you safe and sound." The redhead  stretched lazily. "So far, it's been a supremely tedious task. How long  until you think you can manage a half-arsed escape attempt?"

"What do you mean, ‘bashing Clery's head in'?" I asked, ignoring his  playful dig. Waking up after getting shot and finding out the man who  rescued you has been arrested doesn't lend itself to playful banter.  "Did he kill someone?"

"Nah, the police got there in time. Your dad's …  well, he's not fine, but  I guess he's gonna live. Sadly." Louis gave me a somewhat apologetic  look. "Sorry."

As if I cared if my monster of a father lived or not. The only reason I  felt a stab of relief was that I didn't want Blaine to get charged with  murder. I doubted even Steel connections could have gotten him out of  that one.

"So what happens now?" I looked at Blaine's brother with some  hesitation. He didn't seem upset that I'd run away and effectively  damaged the Steel's reputation, but I doubted I was in anyone's good  graces.

Louis shrugged. "Once you get discharged, you're coming home with Liam  and me until Blaine gets out. Marcus offered to look after you, but  lucky for you, Blaine refused. And after that-well, I guess it's up to  whatever you and Blaine work out. I wouldn't expect another vacation to  the Mediterranean anytime soon, though. My brother was ever so upset  after you gave him the slip, and that was before he knew about the  baby."         

     



 

I took in a deep breath and let it seep out slowly, taking some of my  leftover anxiety with it. If Blaine's brother was this relaxed about the  whole thing, then perhaps the rest of the family was too.

"And the Family? Blaine ratted my- the Clerys out to the police. I know how big of a deal that is."

Louis winced, somewhat ruining my beginning sense of calm. "You really don't need to worry about that, Mira."

"It's kind of hard not to," I said, my voice more than a little dry. "Seeing as this all happened because of me."

"Nah, sweets, it happened because of the Clerys. You didn't ask to get  kidnapped, did you?" He offered me an easy smile. "And no one gets to  hurt a Steel and walk away. Whatever it takes, we protect our own. No  matter if my idiot brother gets things ironed out with you or not,  you're a Steel now."







I was discharged the next day. Though I was still sore, I was able to move around okay, as long as I took things slow.

The twins turned out to be decent hosts. They set me up in Liam's  bedroom with fresh linen and my bottles of medicine and vitamins laid  out on the night stand. When I asked where Liam would sleep, feeling bad  about putting him out of his bedroom, I got a cheeky wink and a "Don't  you worry about that, sweetheart," as response. I figured it involved  the pretty nurse he'd picked up while hanging around my hospital room  and didn't ask any more questions.

Marcus showed up a few hours after the twins took me home. He let  himself into the flat and sat down in an armchair close by the door-and  proceeded to not speak a word to me nor the twins.

When I got up the next morning, he was still there, staring straight  ahead into the turned-off flat screen TV that decorated most of the near  wall. The twins' flat was a bachelor pad through and through.

"Just ignore him," Louis-at least, I thought it was Louis-yawned as he  came around the corner from the hallway and saw me looking at his  brother. "If he doesn't want to speak, it's best to just leave him  alone."

I frowned in confusion and followed Louis-still wasn't completely sure,  the twins were impossible to tell apart as far as I could see-to the  kitchen.

"Why is he here?"

"Dunno," he shrugged. "Possibly thinks we can't look after a pregnant  lady, or he's making sure you don't escape. Or he's just in the mood for  company. He's my brother and I'd die for him, but he's nuts as fuck. To  tell you the truth, back when he called Blaine and said you were at his  place, we were all a bit concerned he'd done something to you. Eggs?"