He lay on his back, his hands clutching his chest. Teague lifted one, finding it soaked with red. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Aiden!”
His oldest brother was there in a flash, covering Devlin’s hands with his own and pressing down. “9-1-1, Teague, now.”
His fingers, slick with blood, slid over the screen of his phone. Teague had to take a deep breath, wipe them off, and then dial. He gave their location and information to the operator and then tossed the phone to Cillian. “Keep talking.”
Teague dragged off his shirt. “Here, use this.”
They moved Devlin’s hands and put more pressure on the wound. In the streetlights, his eyes looked strange and glassy, like he wasn’t seeing them at all. His hands fluttered against Teague’s, the little spasms ripping his heart to shreds. “Hang on, just hang the fuck on. The ambulance is coming.”
“Cillian, tell them to hurry the fuck up!” Aiden’s hands joined Teague’s. “Devlin, it will be okay. It’s got to be okay.”
The fear and dread in his brother’s voice hit Teague almost as hard as the blood now trickling from the corner of Devlin’s mouth. He took one last wet gasping breath, and then lay still. “No. No, no, no, no, no.” He stopped clutching the now-soaked shirt and lifted his youngest brother’s head. “Stay with us. Goddamn it, Devlin. No!”
This couldn’t be happening.
It had to be a nightmare. In a second he’d wake up, shudder at his overactive imagination, and reassure himself that reality would never be so cruel.
Except he didn’t wake up.
Red and white lights flashed over Devlin’s still face, and then Teague was pulled away by men in white uniforms. He struggled, fighting off their hands. “Not me, not me. Help Devlin.”
A third man looked up from where he knelt, his fingers against Devlin’s neck. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do.”
Teague’s legs went out from under him, and he slumped to the ground. “Where were you? Why didn’t you get here quicker?”
One of the paramedics shook his head. “We got here in record time—” His partner stopped him with a hand on his arm.
Aiden dropped next to Teague. “I…”
“I know.” He couldn’t stop looking at Devlin, half expecting him to sit up. The sound of throwing up finally made him tear his gaze away, only to find Cillian puking in the street. That got him moving—anything to hold off reality for a little while longer. He knelt next to Cillian and put his hand on his back. “It’s okay.”
But it wasn’t. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it’d never be okay again.
Tears streamed down Cillian’s face. “He’s gone. Goddamn it, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not Devlin.”
Not Devlin. The only one of them who might have actually succeeded in getting free. Not Devlin, the kindest, smartest man he knew. No, not even a man. He was barely twenty. He couldn’t even legally drink yet. His life had been laid out before him, there for the taking.
Now he was gone forever, snuffed out in a war that wasn’t his.
Cillian’s head hung between his shoulders, hiding his expression. “It was the Hallorans.”
“Not now.” He couldn’t deal with talk of the future, not when their entire present was being systematically ripped to shreds. Something occurred to him. “Someone has to call our parents.”
And tell them Devlin was dead.
Chapter Sixteen
It went off without a hitch.”
Callie sat next to Papa while John gave his report. There had been significant damage done to the Hallorans’ property, no casualties, and they slipped away into the night before the Hallorans showed up to investigate. She leaned forward in her chair. “The night guards?”
“We incapacitated them like you ordered.”
Her breath left her in a nearly inaudible sigh. Thank God. The attack had been a necessary evil, but getting a low-level guard killed for no reason would have weighed heavy on her conscience. They had parents, possibly even children. They didn’t deserve to be dragged into this. In an ideal world, no one would die before they got this conflict resolved.
But this wasn’t an ideal world.
She cleared her throat. “Well done.”
“Get some rest.” Papa waited for the man to leave the office before he turned to her. “You were right.”
Pleasure at his approval threatened to go to her head. He’d never withheld it from her growing up, but it had always been something she strived for. She didn’t let it guide every choice she made these days, but the need to make him happy was always there in the back of her mind. “There are more ways to hurt someone than taking their life.”