“And then you got greedy,” Lyric says and then pauses to correct herself. “Greedier. The two of you decided you'd hit up both Mile Wide and the Alpha Wolves?” Sully doesn't say anything in his own defense. “Somehow, Clayton Moore found out about it and had Brent killed.” Lyric stops talking and shakes her head, her short hair fluttering with the motion. “Jesus, Sully …”
“If I go to the FBI with this, we'll lose everything. Me. You. Dad.”
“Speaking of Dad,” Lyric starts as my mobile buzzes. It's a text from that prospect, Sketch, telling me that there's no sign of the gun wielding douche anywhere on the hospital premises. No surprise. I tuck my phone back in my pocket. “You said he knew about all of this. How? When?”
Sully glances away and swallows hard.
“From that night I came to talk to you about Brent,” he whispers, and his voice is so low it's practically impossible to hear. “Since Mom's birthday dinner.”
“I can't … I just … no.” Lyric puts up a hand and closes her eyes for a moment. “Sully, you're going to call Special Agent Shelley and tell her that Brent dragged you into all this with the promise of easy money.” She opens those green eyes of hers, putting an authoritative note into her voice that makes me shiver with need, hardens my cock into a painful pressure inside my jeans. Sully notices right away and he isn't happy about it. I toss him a smirk and a pair of raised brows as a challenge; he glances away. “You'll tell them that you both changed your mind and wanted out, that you were going to go to the authorities and Clayton found out about it. You'll also tell her that it was Mile Wide that did this to you.”
Sully purses his lips tight, the mottled bruises on his jaw straining against the motion.
“And how do you want me to account for the lies I've already told them?”
“You're on a lot of painkillers, and you weren't thinking clearly. Tell them Mile Wide threatened the life of your family. I don't care.” Lyric sucks in a sharp breath and levels that gaze on her brother's face. “But come sunrise, that's what you're going to do.”
Lyric pulls her gun from her purse and steps over to Sully, setting it on the edge of the bed next to him.
“If that guy comes back …” she starts, a grim half-smile working its way onto her face. “Shoot him. And then call us.” She tosses a cell down next to the gun. “Let me know how it goes.”
Without another word, Lyric turns on her heel and moves through the door, letting it slam shut behind her. I move to follow when the little douche decides to speak up suddenly.
“If you hurt my sister,” Sully starts, looking up at me with blazing eyes as I glance over my shoulder at him. The coward that practically pissed himself when I confronted him with my hammer is gone, replaced with something that's almost akin to a man with bollocks. I recall vaguely the way he tried to defend his sister that night. Guess even this spineless coward can find a few vertebrae if he feels his family's being threatened. “You'll regret it.”
I smile at him, but there's no warmth in it.
“Yeah, I imagine I will,” I say as I turn around and lean forward, putting my hand on the metal railing at the end of the bed. “But I think it'll be Lyric exacting her own revenge. Your little sister's got a bigger pair than you, mate.”
With a heavy pat on the shoulder, I leave a cringing Sully Rentz alone in his room and make my way downstairs to find Lyric. This uncertainty between us, it's killing me inside. And Dober? I feel like my new VP's about halfway ready to draft up a writ of impeachment and call a vote on my ass.
“You waiting for me?” I ask when I find Lyric standing outside the automatic doors to the hospital. She's staring off into the distance, eyes half-hooded and liquid with her swirling thoughts. “You'll need another gun,” I say when she doesn't answer my question.
“Your photo op with my father is tomorrow?”
I nod and get out a cigarette.
“Righto,” I say as I light up, watching her from the corner of my eye. This awkwardness with Lyric is making it difficult for me to focus on the important issues at hand. Mile Wide is getting desperate; they want their loose ends cleaned up. I sigh and turn my attention to the sky, to the swirls of orange and navy twisting together above the trees. “You're still up for that barbecue at Dober's this weekend, right?”
“Jesus, Royal,” Lyric snaps, running her fingers through her hair and turning to face me. “Some guy almost shot my brother in the face today. He would've raped me, too, if he had the chance. And … I just told Sully to lie to the feds for you.”