Page 111 of The Apprentice
Someone called out from behind us. Irish. One of ours. “We need an ambulance.”
A bullet flew past my ear.
Sloan hissed and slapped a hand to his side. “Grazed,” he muttered when he saw me looking.
I jumped to my feet and shot around, aiming for every Cartel member I could see. I didn’t care that I had no cover—they wereall going to regret what their soldier did. My left thigh burned, and I glanced down briefly to feel the wetness growing across my pants. I’d been hit. I ignored it and focused on pulling the trigger.
Our men were dragging bodies into the pub, more Company men joined us, and my brain screamedkill,kill,kill,they hurt my boy.
Finally, Sloan yanked my suit jacket, and I went back to my knees beside Fionn’s limp body. Sloan sent me a wild look. “The hospital is nearby. It will take longer for the ambulance to get through the chaos than for us to take him there.”
I nodded in agreement, panic jackhammering in my chest and crawling up my throat. Together, we slid our arms under Fionn, who whimpered, and hefted him up.
Hospital. We had to get him help.
“Move,” Sloan shouted, and we rushed out of the alley and toward the hospital as fast as we could.
22
DAIRE
The hospital was cold, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the actual temperature or if it was because of the current iciness that slid its way through my blood. Everything moved at a hundred miles per hour around me, but all I could do was focus on the door they’d wheeled Fionn through. Heart in my throat, I could still see him lying on those white sheets, pale, except for the blood that pooled on his chest. The same blood covered my palms from where I’d pressed down on Fionn’s torso.
Somewhere outside, I’d dumped the gun I had into a trash can at Sloan’s orders. We didn’t have time to find one of our men so they could dispose of it, and we certainly didn’t have time to think about anything but Fionn and the pained groans that stuttered out of him.
I stared down at my shaking hands, and my thoughts became stagnant. My boy was hurt, and I couldn’t do a damned thing for him. I hated this.Hated.
“Fuck.” The exhaled curse word from Sloan startled me into focusing on him. He sat in the waiting room chair beside me, his hand pressed against his side where he’d been grazed.
The doctors had tried to look at his injury, but he’d waved them off, demanding all eyes be on his nephew. They hadn’t been so persuaded with the injury to my thigh. They’d forced me to a bed and taken the bullet out before cleaning it up, which was the most I’d let them do.
“I’m going to kill Reyes.”
“Not if I get to him first,” I murmured, rubbing my hands together to stave off the cold. Reyes had hurt Fionn, and nothing would save him if I ever got my hands on him. Fionn was my world, and sitting here not being able to do a thing was driving me crazy.
Sloan scrubbed a palm over the back of his neck, closing his eyes. “I did this. I let my arrogance get the better of me.”
I didn’t deny it. Sloan was many things, but he wasn’t infallible. Reyes knew that, too, and he’d used it against us. Sloan was as human as the rest of us. He made mistakes. This was one of them, and now Fionn was fighting for his life.
“I called Conall and let him know.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice as emotion clogged my throat.
“He’ll live. Fionn’s strong.” Sloan sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
“You should tell him that,” I finally managed to get out, eyeing a woman in front of us as she begged the doctors to save her boyfriend. Her sobbing filled the already noisy ER and she was ragged. I might look a bit like that, too.
“He knows.”
I shot him a frown. “He doesn’t.”
“What?”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t know, Sloan. He’s not you, and he never will be, just like you aren’t your father. You send him small signals, thinking he’ll pick up on them, but he doesn’t.” I touched a hand to my chest, pain resonating from there until Ithought I was having a heart attack. But I didn’t care. I could die here and now. As long as Fionn was okay, I wouldn’t care. “He has a big heart when it comes to the people he loves, and he’s so desperate to make you proud. You’re hard on him, and I know it’s because Niall was the same with you, but Fionn doesn’t react well to it. He’ll be a good boss one day, but you have to stop being hot and cold with him. You tell him he needs to do better, but you don’t give him a chance to prove it. You’re too busy trying to protect him from the more dangerous assignments.”
I shouldn’t be saying this to him, but with Fionn shot, all bets were off.
“Either he’s all in or he’s not and you make someone else your apprentice. Before Conall came along, you’d given him important tasks, and then the rogue Italians happened. You pulled him back because you panicked. You can deny it all you want, but you did. You fucking panicked that something would happen to him.”
