1. Ghost

I glancedat my sister Carrie and saw tears welling in her eyes as we packed up Gramp"s room. If she didn"t stop, I"d need to fetch another box of tissues. We were all dealing with the loss of our grandfather in our own way. We were all going to miss him; he raised Carrie, me, and our cousins after our parents died in an accident.

"Look what I found," Carrie exclaimed for the umpteenth time. Grandpa had saved everything we kids had ever made for him. Spartan walked in, took a seat on the bed, and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I can"t wrap my head around the fact that he"s gone," he murmured, wiping his sleeve across his face. Hell, I wouldn"t mind if he and Adeline were making out right now just to have him back with us. "We"re like orphans now."

I heard Carrie chuckle, and then I sat down and chuckled. "You should see the stuff he"s kept. Everything we ever made for him is tucked away in boxes in the closet." I said, glancing at Spartan.

This was the first time Spartan had been here since Rebel and Reaper brought Benni and her daughter Amy to stay due to a threat to their lives. While I knew they had a shared history, I didn"t pry; my own tangled history with Allison Reed left me without much room to give advice on matters of the heart.

A week had passed since our grandfather"s passing, and the weight of it hung heavy on all of us. Steel entered, searching for us. "I heard something from Jacob," he said, referring to his brother. "He says the Russian Mafia is prowling around our area, looking for someone."

"The Russian Mafia usually keeps to themselves. Who could they be after around here?" I asked.

"Marcus will be here any minute to brief us on the situation. Even though he mostly worked with the Mexican cartel, his friend passed along some intel on these guys, just in case they show up here," Spartan explained.

"How"s Marcus adjusting without all that excitement he"s used to?" I inquired.

"He"s loving it. He gets plenty of excitement with my sister Jaz and the kids. I don"t believe we have to worry about the Russian Mafia. I think that"s Marcus. Did you want to hear what he has to say?" Spartan asked.

"Yeah, I"ll be right down," I turned to my sister, Carrie, "why don"t you take a break? We"ll do more tomorrow."

"Okay, I should get home. I"ll see you tomorrow."

I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, our usual gathering spot. Marcus leaned against the counter. "Here"s what I found out: the guy they"re after is a hitman who shot one of their leaders. He"s injured, so he can"t have gotten far. Last they traced him, he was in this area," Marcus said.

"So, he"s wounded and hiding out nearby. Should we inform the people around here that an injured Russian Mafia might be in this area?" I suggested.

"Yeah, probably a good idea. Hopefully, he"s already moved on," Marcus said.

"Why do they suspect he"s around here?" I asked, turning to Marcus.

"They found his car not far from here. It ran out of gas, and they saw blood beside it," Marcus replied.

"Do you think he might be in someone"s house?" I frowned.

Just then, Viper"s phone rang. "Hey, Allison, what"s up?"

"Viper, there are armed men in the hospital, threatening to shoot people if we don"t hand over someone to them. They said they are going to start shooting people if we don"t hand someone over to them."

"I"m putting you on speaker," Viper said, then turned to us.

"I can"t talk long. I"m hiding in the nurse"s station with some patients," Allison whispered, sounding scared.

That"s all I needed to hear. I bolted out the door and into my vehicle within seconds. I was getting her out of that hospital, even if it meant facing the Russian Mafia single-handedly.

Before I could put my car into gear, Viper and Spartan jumped into my car. "You need to calm down, Ghost. You"ll be no good to Allison if you charge in like a madman.

Spartan chided. "Running in there recklessly will only get you shot."

He was right, and I knew it. I took a deep breath, attempting to steady my pounding heart. "Do you think the entire police force is there?" I asked.

"Jacob mentioned they were. Getting close will be tough," Viper replied.

"I"ll park a couple of blocks away and sneak into the hospital. We need to find out which floor Allison"s on so we can get her out and deal with those Russian Mafia scum. Do you think the hospital is hiding the other guy?" I glanced at the others.

"I"ll call Ryan or one of my other brothers to know what floor Allison"s on," Viper offered. "We can"t let them know what"s happening, or they"ll be down here."

We made it to the city in record time, and I parked two blocks away with our weapons on us; we cut our way through trees until we reached the hospital and looked at each other. Every police car in the county must have been there.

Viper"s phone buzzed, and he looked at it. Ryan had texted that Allison worked on the third floor. It was the cardiac floor. "Why don"t we each take a floor since we don"t know what floor the Russians are on? If they are shooting, we"ll probably hear them," I said, glancing at the guys.

"I"ll take the third floor to where Allison is," Viper said. "That way she won"t blow her top when she sees you, and the two of you won"t start arguing."

"Really, Viper, do I look like an idiot? I"m getting Allison out of that hospital if I have to carry her kicking and screaming from there," and another thing, "How the hell would I argue with her when she won"t even talk to me?" Ghost said angrily.

"Okay, you go to the third floor. Just remember Allison is our only sister, and we want her to live a long life," I wasn"t even going to answer that question; Viper knew how much I loved Allison. We made our way to the side of the hospital.

I looked up and saw a ladder high up on the wall. I looked at Viper. He held his hands together. I put my foot in it, and he pushed me up into the air. My fingers almost touched the ladder one more time, and I grabbed the ladder. We lifted and pulled each other up until all of us were on the ladder.

Damn, we saw three police officers run around the building. When they looked up, I put my fingers to my lips. I was surprised when they nodded and kept going.

Viper jumped on the second-floor rooftop. I kept going up until I reached the third-floor rooftop. Hopefully, there was an open window so I could get inside.