Chapter 27

W atching Steel collapse in front of me a second time in less than an hour has me terrified. I told him he was doing too fucking much! He needed to rest and take it easy. I also know that it's partially my fault. I'm the one who hit his wound when I was pushing him away in my anger. If I had been more careful, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Damnit! Why the fuck was I so stupid?

"I'm coming!" the man from the door shouts.

"Grace, come here," I yell, panicking thinking of how we are going to get out of this mess. It seemed like the guy at the door knows who Steel is but I don't trust it. Not after everything that has happened, and of course, I don't have the gun on me that Steel gave me. In fact, I have no weapons on me at all. My eyes search the kitchen looking for something, anything I can use as a weapon to defend us. Ah, perfect! My eyes catch the block of knives on the counter. They're close enough for me to grab one before the man gets in the door. "Stay with Steel," I tell Grace, as I dart to where the knives are. Grabbing two handles I pull them out, holding the knives in front of me as I take up a protective stance in front of Steel and Grace. I may know absolutely nothing about fighting, but there's something to be said about adrenaline. I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

"You must be Illeana," the man states as he steps into the kitchen doorway. My hand tightens around the knives as I stare him down. The man is huge. Like way bigger than Steel. He has to be at least six foot six, his black hair is on the longer side but it's pulled back out of his face. His beard is on the shorter side, a direct contrast to his hair. "You can put the knives down, little one. We won't hurt you. I'm Shadow, president of the Chaos Brotherhood. Knox called us to come get you all. I hear you had a run-in with the Silent Death Mafia. They are some ruthless fucks."

"Knox sent you?" I question wearily. After everything, I'm not quite sure that I trust him. I remember Knox telling me about the Chaos Brotherhood coming to help us, but he didn't tell me how I would know who they were. Damn, I should have thought to ask him about that.

"He did. You got a phone? Why don't you call him? I'll stay right here, I promise," he answers with a smile. The man stands in front of me completely relaxed. Almost like he is trying to show that he's not a threat but I don't trust it. "I promise, little one. No harm will come to you all. Call him."

Knowing that he's right, I take a couple of steps back toward where Steel is lying and grab his phone where he left it on the counter. Pulling up his recent calls, I hit Knox's name and wait for it to ring. It doesn't take long before he's answering the phone. "What?" Knox asks as he answers the phone.

"It's me, Illeana, uh there's some guy standing here in front of me claiming to be part of the Chaos Brotherhood." I pause waiting to see what he's going to say. My eyes don't move off the man in front of me, as I keep one knife in hand ready to defend us if I have to. The man just continues to watch me, not moving an inch.

"Is his name Shadow?" Knox asks carefully.

"Said so," I answer. Well that's a good sign he knows him, I think.

"And he told you that I sent him but you're still weary about it?" Knox questions, already knowing exactly what I was getting at. He doesn't even let me answer before chuckling. "Good. I'm glad you're being cautious and not just trusting what he says. How about we make him sweat for a moment?" Knox laughs. "Ask him his wife's name. It's Rachel."

"What's your wife's name?" I ask the man, like Knox told me to.

"My old lady is Rachel," the man, Shadow, answers with a hint of a smile. "I expected a harder question than that, come on Knox," he raises his voice enough that he will be heard through the phone.

Knox laughs at his answer. "That's him, but if he wants a harder question then ask him how he got the scar above his eye. I kicked the shit out of him when I found him hanging out around my little sister when I got back from deployment."

"How did you get the scar above your eye?" I ask next, trying not to think too much into the answer Knox gave me. It's not any of my business to ask what happened.

"Knox beat the shit out of me when he found me with his sister. Fucker still owes me a fair fight. It's hard to fight back when the fucker makes his special forces buddies hold me down while he wails on me," he laughs with his answer shaking his head. "Is that all? Do you trust that he sent me to help you?"

"You can trust him, Illeana. Tell him to start cleaning up the bodies. I'm ten minutes out." Knox hangs up before I can say anything. Pulling the phone from my ear, I stare at it for a minute, pissed he hung up on me like that.

"He said I can trust you," I answer, placing the phone back on the counter.

"Good, now I heard you yell Steel's name. Where is the fucker?" Shadow moves further into the kitchen. I don't get a chance to answer him before he rounds the corner and sees Grace kneeling beside Steel, holding a kitchen towel to his side. "Oh Fuck! Boys! Get your asses in here now!" he shouts. Seconds later four more men that look similar to him rush into the kitchen. "Angel, get your medical gear! Girls, I need you to move out of the way so we can work on him."

Going to Grace's side, I grab her arm and pull her up at the same time Shadow takes her spots and puts more pressure on his wound. "I stitched him up when he passed out the first time but then he started moving bodies, and we got into a fight and I pushed him away, accidentally hitting the wound. He said some of the stitches may have torn," I explain, wrapping my arms around my sister as I try to hold myself together while they work on him.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. It's this fuckers for overexerting himself. I'm betting he didn't like you telling him he needs to stay still, did he?" Shadow smirks looking between me and Steel.

"Nope, not one bit," I give him a small smile back. I know he's trying to help put me at ease, but until I see Steel better that won't happen. The way we just left things; him pissed at me for being the reason we were found and then accusing my best friend of belonging to the mafia. We can't carry on whatever this thing is between us when things settle and Steel recovers. We're too different and come from two different lifestyles. He will never forgive me for being the reason we were found, I know it.

"We'll get him all patched up, don't you worry, Ma'am," another male answers as he drops down beside Shadow. I watch as the two of them work together to stop the bleeding once again and begin stitching him up. He doesn't remove all my stitches, but he does add a couple more around them before replacing the ones that ripped out. "This your handy work?" he asks, looking up at me when he finishes. "The stitches, I mean," he clarifies when my eyes widen in shock.

"Oh, yeah, Knox walked me through doing them. I have no idea what I was doing but I was trying my best," I answer with a shrug.

"For never doing something like that before you did good," the man smiles, before turning back to his medical bag and pulling out what looks like a bag of fluids. "I'm going to get an IV started for him and get fluids in him. He's probably going to need a blood transfusion when we get him to the hospital," the man explains while he continues to work.

"Sounds good, do what you can, Angel," Shadow instructs, moving to his feet. "Get him as stable as possible so we can move him immediately. Girls, go get whatever you want to take with you. I'll call Knox and let him know what's going on."

Tugging Grace along with me, I goback to the office where we left our bags in the safe room. The door is still wide open, so I grab Grace's and hand it to her while grabbing mine. "You ready to get out of here?" I ask her. What I really want to ask is, how she is doing but I can see it on her face. My sister is absolutely terrified but she's doing her best to keep pushing forward the same way I am. When this is all said and done, both of us are going to need to be in therapy.

"Are we going home? Dad is going to be pissed if we come home covered in blood," she gives me a small smile.

"Pissed would be an understatement. Pretty sure he would have all of our heads on a spike. I doubt Knox is going to take us back looking like this. When he gets here, I'll ask him where we are going to be taken. I don't think this is over just yet." I wish that was a lie but it isn't. Something about all of this just isn't sitting right with me. I doubt this is the end of the fight. The mafia didn't get their hands on us and we still don't know why they even want us or want me. No, this was just the beginning I think.

Guiding her out of the office, we head back to the kitchen. Only Shadow and Angel remain, the latter still kneeling beside Steel keeping an eye on him. "How is he?" I ask, moving beside Steel and dropping to my knees. I may have decided earlier that I don't think he is going to forgive me but that doesn't mean I don't care. No, if anything I care too much, too soon.

"He's stable. Steel is strong and will pull through. You don't need to worry about him. Did he get a chance to look you over for any injuries?" Angel asks, as he watches me from the other side of Steel's body. His eyes check me over as I look up at him.

"No, he didn't. I don't think I really need to be checked over," I shrug, grabbing Steel's hand to hold in mine. I hold on tight wanting to remember this. His skin is slightly cold to the touch and he still feels clammy.

"I can see the bruise forming on your face from where you were hit. Please let me check you. Steel will never forgive me if I don't," Angel answers, rising to his feet and coming to kneel beside me. "Okay," I sigh, knowing that it's easier to just give in.

"Do you need to be looked over as well?" Angel looks over to where Grace is standing at Steel's feet.

"Nope, unlike my sister, I know how to follow orders," she smirks before her smile drops off her face and she looks between me and Steel.

"That's right," I smile at her. "You know how to listen a lot better than I do." I don't want her to feel bad for following the rules.

"At least someone does," a familiar voice states, as he walks into the room. I try to turn my head to see who it is but Angel grasps my face and stops me while he lightly touches around the bruise on my cheek. "I'm Knox, and you must be Grace."

That's why the voice was familiar. I should have known but everyone sounds just a little bit different on the phone from in person. Knowing that he's here now, I let my body begin to relax, my shoulders slouching and I stop fighting Angel's hold on me. Knox will keep us all safe and be able to start giving us answers to everything we need and then some.

"She good?" he asks Angel as he squats down in the spot Angel had been beside Steel before coming to look at me.

"Just a bruise. She's going to be hurting for a while but she's fine. Steel is stable. Has a nasty knife wound and is going to need a blood transfusion and maybe some surgery to repair his side but he'll live. We need to move him though, before an infection sets in," Angel explains, rising to his feet and then holding out a hand to me to help me up.

Ignoring it, I keep looking down at Steel and refuse to let go of his hand. I can't let him go, not yet. "Illeana, you need to let him go so we can get him to the hospital. I'll stay with him the whole time and keep you posted. Trever and Valentina are going to take you and Grace back to Rockport."

"Do you...," I pause fighting back tears. I'm tired of being strong and holding myself together. "Do you know what happened and why I'm being targeted?"

"I have an idea. Once I know for sure, I'll let you know." Knox stands and moves to my side, wrapping his arms under my arms to pull me to my feet. I move as if on auto-pilot while he guides me to the front door. I can feel my sister following behind us. "Take them to the car and back to Rockport. I'm getting Steel to the hospital."

Knox hands me off to Valentina, who wraps an arm around my shoulders and guides me out the door helping me down the stairs. Trevor and Grace follow behind us. "You girls get the back seat. Try to take a nap. It's going to be a long drive," Trevor instructs when we reach the car.

Doing as he says, I slide into the back seat, moving all the way over so Grace can get in beside me. I keep my eyes open long enough to make sure my sister is buckled in and then I let sleep claim me. It beats being awake and panicked about Steel.