Chapter 60: Chapter 60

AJ’s schooled feature fell, and Reno could see the hurt in his eyes. “No offense, dummy,” said Catalella, “but I’d rather have you play doctor to both Lisette and me. We don’t need another Ross occupying a hospital bed. You need to be looking over the other doctors’ shoulders and making sure they do everything right. Plus, I don’t want any boy germs in my body.” Catalella scrunched up her nose like a nine-year-old.

To Reno, Catalella was exactly that, a child. He threw a nasty glare at Michael. Surely even through the haze of his greed Michael Mathews could see that Catalella was a child too. Sure, she was seventeen, but she had been coddled all her life, so she’d never had the opportunity to face life head on. She had AJ, Lisette, and her parents as a buffer. What the hell was Michael Mathews going to do with a teenager in the hours that he isn’t sexually harassing the rest of the female population? Shame on him.

“Boy germs huh? How I wish,” AJ muttered the last part under his breath.

Reno caught it and he couldn’t help but feel the same way too. How he wished Michael’s boy germs never got into Catalella.

“You make a good point, Ross number three. I will talk it over with Lisette’s team of doctors and let you guys know. Reno, come with me?”

“Sure, see you later number three.” Reno gave Catalella a quick kiss and left the room. He couldn’t help the pleasure he felt when Michael moved out of their way and ran to Catalella’s bedside like a little boy hiding behind his mother’s skirt.

Once they were in Lisette’s room, Reno let out a groan of frustration. “I just wanted to nail his face into the wall.”

“Trust me, so did I. We can’t do that now.” AJ put his hand on Reno’s shoulders. “I need to talk to the doctors. Lisette’s immune system isn’t compromised, but they might not think Catalella’s idea is the best one.”

Reno walked away from AJ and headed toward the window. He stared out at the New York view and all he could see were buildings and more buildings and people hurrying around doing their business. They were oblivious of the hearts breaking in the hospital, of the hard decisions being made every second that ticked by and the frustration a man in love felt having no say over the life of his girlfriend.

“What do you think?”

“About what?” he answered distracted.

“What do you think about Lisette being a donor? You heard Catalella. You two are practically married. You have a house outside of the city with—”

“—two girls and one boy,” Reno cut in, “I know.” He smiled, but something else ate at him. “Hearing that she’s already planned out our lives makes me feel terrible for thinking that she was cheating.”

Reno walked over to the foot of her bed and held onto one of Lisette’s toes. He looked at her, and his heart broke away into little pieces. She was hurt, she was really hurt. Her right leg was in a cast, and it was held up in the air by a set of traction pulleys. Her right arm was in a cast and lay across her chest. As Reno walked over to the side of the bed, his hands smoothed the length of the metal brace that was holding her together. The ribs on the right side of her chest were all broken, she had a punctured lung and a broken collar bone. Half of her face looked like it didn’t belong on his beautiful Lisette. Her right eye was swollen shut and her beautiful brown skin was now black, blue and purple.

Every time he took inventory of her broken body, rage burned white hot in his chest. He pulled back his hand when he realized how violently he was shaking. It was anger that possessed him, made his chest heave and his lungs ache at how fast and short his breaths were. Anger made his heartbeat with such savagery, blood rush through his veins and pound in his ears.

It was the weakness he felt in that moment that fueled the anger and made the murderous thoughts in his head vivid. Those murderous thoughts had Reno covering the distance between Lisette’s bed and the door in three long strides—he was going to kill Michael Mathews, consequences be damned.

Reno let out a feral growl when the weight of AJ’s body fell onto his back. “You can’t do what you are thinking, man!”

“Get. Off. Me!” He bucked like a wild horse trying to throw AJ off, but it didn’t work.

It was worse when the object of his rage took that moment to emerge from Catalella’s room and stand in the hallway that divided the two girl’s room. A horrendously cruel laughter released from his lips when he saw the terror in Michael’s eyes. He forgot the man on his back and lunged forward for Michael. His attempt was foiled when another body charged at him from the front, sending all three men tumbling back into Lisette’s room in a great heap.

“I’m going to kill him,” Reno hissed through clenched teeth. The door shut, taking Michael out of his line of sight. He tried to get off the floor, but he couldn’t move, he was pinned to the ground. Who was the second man?

“Whew! Hey, bro!” DJ’s boyish smile appeared before him. His bearded face burning bright with amusement. “For a second there I thought you would kill the bastard.”

“It’s a good thing he is in a hospital.” Reno stopped fighting them. “I am your elder brother, and I’m telling you to get off me!”

“Since I like having a brother, I’m not letting you do anything.”

Reno yielded to his brothers, and they all lay on the sterile white hospital floor in silence.

“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but hospital floors have all kinds of germs,” DJ teased.

“You are such an idiot!” AJ shot back.

“Says the doctor. You should know how many diseases are on this floor.” DJ jumped to his feet and the rest followed. Just then Dennis and Adrian burst into the room, confusion obvious on their faces.

“What was all that?” Adrian asked.

“A foiled attempt at murder.” DJ didn’t know when to stop.

“What?” Adrian and Dennis exclaimed in unison.

“I’m fine, he’s fine, everyone is fine,” Reno said. “No wait, everyone is not fine. If cancer was contagious, I would blame him for that too.”

“Who?” Dennis asked.

“Michael Mathews,” DJ said. “Exactly what is going on?”

Reno let out a frustrated breath. How was he supposed to tell them what happened to Lisette? These were the men in her life. He had entered her life, when they were taking care of her. The responsibility had been handed to him and he had fucked it up, royally. Laboring at finding the words, he decided the direct approach was the best. “The reason why Lisette was in the accident is because Michael Mathews drugged her.”

DJ didn’t wait for any explanations. He opened Lisette’s door and said, “Forgive me for stopping you. You should definitely go kill the bastard.”

“DJ, close that door,” Dennis ordered. “How do you know it was the Mathews fellow?”

Reno explained that night to them, sparing Adrian Senior all the gory details as much as he could. He could see the pain in the old man’s face as he looked at his broken daughter, lying still in the hospital bed.

“But there was alcohol in her system,” Adrian said.

“Barely any, and definitely not enough that Lisette would lose control behind the wheel. Dad, Lisette was drugged.”

“I hate to play devil’s advocate but how do you know that she didn’t go to a bar after she left the hotel. Someone else could have drugged her.” Dennis’ point was valid, but it was one Reno didn’t want to accept. He already knew his villain, and nothing was going to stop him from going after Michael Mathews.

“I don’t need anyone’s permission to solve this problem. I already know my guy. I love Catalella like a little sister, but she’s going to be a widow soon,” Reno muttered.

“What about Rhyne?”

“What about her?” Reno moved back on instinct when Dennis took a step toward him.

“You go to prison, then what? What happens to the company? Obviously, DJ isn’t here to stay—”

“You got that right, old man.” DJ snorted.

Dennis shot a silencing glare DJ’s way. Reno didn’t know when he got so protective, but he stepped into the path of that glare bringing their father’s attention back to him. “I don’t care about that,” Reno said.

“That company belongs to your children. So yes, forget the company—but how are you going to continue searching for Rhyne if you are in a cage?”

“DJ will find her for us. He’s her brother too!”

“I’m her brother too?” DJ shot in.

Reno rolled his eyes at the goofy grin DJ had on his face. Reno reached into his back pocket and handed DJ Rhyne’s picture. “Is this how she looks like? She is so beautiful. It seems like I have to build a second cage. At this rate we won’t be able to keep our sisters safe from New York men.”

“The cages I assume are for Daniela and Rhyne?” AJ rolled his eyes.

“Can we stay on topic here?” Reno said.

“No way you can go to prison. Keeping the guys away from Daniela is hard enough. When Rhyne walks into town there will be a stampede. Or maybe we could marry her off to Ross when she arrives.”

DJ showed AJ the picture and he let out a long whistle, a wolfish grin on his face. Reno’s eyes narrowed at him. “Hey, you are dating my sister, why can’t I date yours.”

“Reno, bottom line is, you stay away from Mathews.”

Reno was about to protest when Adrian lifted his hand to silence him. “She’s my daughter and your father have a point. Leave the bastard to us. You focus on bringing my little girl out of that coma.”