Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(76)

I looked back at the ring. No one had done anything about Jester yet. He was lying there and issuing these gurgling little moans. I saw what I had done to him. He lived, but the injuries to his arms were severe. He would likely never be capable of fighting again. The thought was a relief.

The boys were looking me over. I flinched when Cord poked at my knee. I heard him turn to Chase and mutter something about the hospital.

Gabe Hernandez recovered his wits quickly. He came strolling over with a false grin a mile wide. “Knew you could get it done, Gentry.”

Declan stepped in front of him. His voice was low and deadly. “Did you now?”

Gabe blinked up at him. “Of course. This is the best partnership I could have asked for.” He withdrew a pile of cash and held it out to me. “Your cut. It’s not all there but I’ll get the rest to you next time we sit down to talk strategy.”

My cousin grabbed the cash. He counted it carefully. “Looks like there’s only about ten grand here.”

Gabe kept his smile plastered to his face. “Creedence will get the rest of it soon. I understand it’ll take him a few weeks to recover-“

“He’s done!” Cord stood. “Keep the rest of your f*cking money. He is done.”

Chase immediately stood up too.

Gabe wasn’t impressed. “Like hell he is.”

Deck chuckled low and deep. It wasn’t humor. If Gabe had an ounce of sense he would back away quickly. Deck leaned in and grabbed Gabe’s shoulder. “I know what you’ve been up to,” he said in a murderous voice. “These boys are done with you. I don’t ever want to smell your stink around another Gentry again or I’ll have to have some conversations with people who don’t like being double crossed. You get me?”

“You don’t know a f*cking thing,” Gabe growled, his smile gone, his plastic demeanor crumbling.

Deck shook his head. “Don’t f*ck with me on this, Hernandez. Your shit will be laid bare.”

That scared Gabe Hernandez enough to back off. He didn’t even glance at me before disappearing behind the suits as they settled bets and resumed their party.

Cord and Chase went to either side of me and helped me to my feet.

“Can you walk?” Deck asked.

I limped, leaning heavily on my brothers. “Barely.”

Declan slapped my back. “You’re my new hero, Creedence Gentry. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

Cord and Chase half carried me back to the parking garage. My face was bleeding like crazy and my knee throbbed a little more with every heartbeat but as we pulled out of the garage I opened the window, inhaling the smoky night air.

Declan pulled alongside the truck at the first light. “We better get out of here before Jester’s buddies come looking for payback.” He glanced behind him. “Let’s head for the freeway.”

Cord jerked his head in my direction. “We’re taking him to St. Luke’s.”

Declan revved his bike engine. “I’ll meet you there.”

Chase peered around the seat and looked at me. “Keep that towel against your face. It’ll take a mess of stitches to close that shit up. You hanging in there, Creed?”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, as I listened to Cord calling Saylor to let her know I was alive. “I’ve never felt better.”

The cloud over my head had evaporated. Impossibly, I was free.

I was free!





CHAPTER THIRTY ONE


Truly



Stephanie wasn’t a talker. I never minded droning on for a half hour or more but some people, like Steph and Creedence, didn’t have that natural tendency to unleash whatever was rolling around in their heads. After Steph had exhausted herself all evening trying to keep my mind off Creed’s fate, I let her off the hook.

“Really Steph, you can cut it out,” I said, interrupting her awkward descriptions of someplace called Coney Island. “I appreciate the effort but nothing is going to distract me from obsessing over whether my boyfriend’s going to be in a body bag by the end of the night.”

Steph checked the time on her phone. “You should know something soon, right?”

“Yes,” I grumbled miserably. “I’ll know something soon.”

“Chase wasn’t in class today. I actually looked for him although I didn’t know what the hell to say.”

“I didn’t realize you guys had formally met.”

She looked embarrassed. “Creed must have said something to him. He sat down next to me one day and started saying all this crap about how pretty I would look in a dress. Then he asked me if I had a dress. Then, before I could answer, he decided I would wear this fictional dress when he took me out to a dinner I’d never agreed to. He said he would buy me an entire basket of fried chicken.”

“What did you say?”

She grinned. “I told him to f*ck off.” Then her smile fell away. “After class this afternoon I saw him outside, just sitting on a bench, ignoring all the girls who were always buzzing around. He looked so damned miserable that I sat down next to him for a while.”

“He say anything about Creed?”

“No. We didn’t talk. After about twenty minutes he stood up and said, ‘Thanks, Stephanie.’ Then he walked away.” She sighed. “I feel for the poor bastard. Hell, I’ve got a brother.”