Lie to Me: Chapter 15

Present

“Oh you’re an angel,” Skye mutters as I hand her the cup of coffee. One thing about being a nurse? You’re always understaffed, which is why we’re both here at the hospital working the night shift when we should be at home enjoying our days off.

“That bad?” I ask before taking a sip from my own cup.

“I have one crazy fucking family. Hey, remember I told you about that sickeningly sweet couple from before? You took them off my hands… Well, the guy’s brother was shot so now the whole family is here.”

It takes me a moment to process what she’s talking about, and when it does, my blood freezes in my veins.

“Which brother?” I bark at her. She jolts backwards from my reaction with a furrowed brow.

“Uh… Mark? Marcus? Something like that.”

“Room number,” I demand.

With wide eyes, she tells me the room number and I’m running there without even thinking about what I’m doing.

I make it to the hallway outside his room, and spot Izzy and Luca standing outside. Just as I’m approaching the door, I hear Luca speak.

“Excuse me, miss. You can’t just go in there.”

I turn and glare at him as Izzy’s mouth opens, clearly about to tell him who I am, but his hand reaches out and wraps around my wrist before she can.

I’ve never actually met Marco’s older brother, and all the times I imagined it, it certainly didn’t go like this.

I spin around, dislodging his hand and holding my arm against his throat until I have him backed against the wall. I can see Izzy leaning against the wall grinning in my periphery, but I focus on the asshole in front of me.

“Don’t you ever grab a woman without permission,” I spit.

He cocks a brow. “Don’t just go walking into your patients’ rooms when they’re with their family members.”

“That would be a valid point if she wasn’t a family member, son.” A voice sounds from behind me and I take a step back, spinning around to see Salvatore Romano standing at the door to Marco’s room, with who I recognize as Enzo and his wife behind him. I don’t have the capability to read into his words right now, the only thing I can think about is seeing Marco.

They give me a wide berth as I storm past them and into the room, the door softly clicking shut behind me as I stand and glare at the man laid up in the bed.

Marco curses under his breath as he spots me enter the room.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, getting shot? How bad is it?” I ask as I run my eyes over him. He looks okay. Tired, but okay.

“I’m fine. Took a shot to my shoulder. We normally wouldn’t come to the hospital, but I passed out, so my brothers brought me here because it was closer. I’m getting ready to discharge myself because I’m not staying here all night,” he grunts.

“You’re leaving against medical advice?” I ask with a raised brow, and he nods slowly.

“That’s not fucking happening.”

His brows rise at my tone, but luckily, he chooses to remain silent.

“You’re not leaving. And I’m having Skye swap with me so I can make sure you stay.”

His lips twitch after a moment of me glaring at him.

“I missed your stubbornness,” he says with a smirk. I roll my eyes before settling in the chair next to his bed and picking up his chart, my eyes frantically running over the words written on the page, making sure I know everything about his condition.

“You were worried about me?”

Fuck.

He’s right. I was worried.

I shouldn’t care what happens to him, but I do.

As soon as I heard the confirmation that it was him that was shot, nothing and no one could have stopped me from getting to him.

Goddammit.

“Shut up and go to sleep,” I mutter.

Three days after I received that text from Izzy, a bouquet of lilies arrived while I was on shift from Luca. I think it’s fair to say that Izzy tore him a new one after the way he treated me. The flowers left me chuckling since I always built Luca up in my head to be this cold-hearted asshole of a guy.

Marco discharged himself from the hospital after I finished my shift. He’s texted me a couple of times a day to check in with me and make sure I haven’t received any more notes or felt anything off while keeping me updated with his healing process. I didn’t ask, but I’m glad he has. I think he knew I would want to know, but that I also didn’t want to voice it.

It’s been three weeks since that night at the hospital, and I’m slowly coming around to the idea of talking things out and letting him tell me whatever it is he seems to think I need to know, but I’m not quite there yet. I will be soon. I think. Maybe.

What Marco doesn’t know is that I’ve received a note every day this week, all the same repeating message. Except this time, the notes were left on my dining room table, so this asshole has been breaking into my goddamn home. After Izzy broke into my apartment, I had cameras placed throughout, but they must be hacking into them somehow because the footage keeps being erased. Which is why four days ago, I placed a sensor above the door that can’t be accessed remotely, which told me they’ve been coming in around 6:00 p.m. every day since. Since I usually work until 8:00 p.m., I’ve never been home when they’ve broken in.

That changes today. I managed to clear it with my supervisor for me to leave work early, telling her I had an appointment I couldn’t miss. I’m waiting on the roof for the device that links to the sensor to go off so I can head down to my apartment and see who the fuck has been messing with me these last few weeks.

The device vibrates in my hand, indicating the door is being opened, and I rush down the stairs, stopping short at the door that leads to the hall outside my apartment. I take a deep breath before peering through the window, finding the hall empty.

I make my way to my apartment, noting the door has been left open a crack. I don’t know how long they usually sick around for. They could be going through my things or they could just be dropping the note off and leaving every day, which is why I’ve gotta be quick about things. I don’t particularly want to bring the fight out here since my neighbors will no doubt call the cops, and cops do not like the O’Brien family.

I silently push the door open, peering through the opening. When I don’t see anyone, I step inside and lock the door behind me.

Stupid to lock myself in an apartment with a stranger who keeps breaking in and leaving me thinly veiled threats?

Probably.

Do I do it anyways without letting anyone know what I’m doing, even though there could probably be a small army here in minutes?

Absolutely.

I head through the apartment, finding a guy I don’t recognize just stepping out of my bedroom. His eyes widen when he spots me, a feral snarl taking over his lips as he pounces.

Mystery guy approaches me with his fist cocked, but I’m faster. I duck left and lunge for the floor, sweeping his legs out from beneath him so he falls face first to the floor. By the time he’s managed to flip himself onto his back, I’ve closed the distance. I straddle his torso, keeping his arms locked with my knees while I pull the rope from my back pocket. I shift and rearrange us both until I’ve got his hands tied, but his legs are cocked upwards and his tied hands are resting near his ass, making him look like a trussed up turkey.

“Who are you?” I bark, and his answering glare only pisses me off more.

“Listen up, asshole. Clearly, you know exactly who I am, which means you know exactly who my family is. I won’t hesitate to take this,” I pull a knife from slot in my belt and hold it up in front of his face, “and slice your balls from your body before feeding them to you. That is, unless you start talking, of course.” I look at him with a sugary sweet smile to soften the blow.

I am a lady, after all.

“I was hired,” he spits, his eyes full of venom.

“By whom?” I arch a brow while sliding the knife down his stomach towards his crotch.

“I don’t know, okay?” he pants. “It was all done online. They transfer the payment after I send them a photo of proof of delivery each day.”

“How many times have you delivered the note?”

He describes each time he’s hand delivered a note to me, and it’s clear that he’s the only one who’s been hired to leave them.

“Where’s the phone?”

He nods towards his pocket, and I pull out his phone, tilting it towards him so I can use facial recognition to unlock it before scrolling through his recent texts. I pull up the thread to see photographic evidence of him leaving me notes, including a video of him sliding one under my door that first day.

I pull out my own phone and send a text to Izzy, since she seems to be some sort of computer genius.

Izzy’s reply comes in within seconds.

I sit back against the wall, drawing my knees up and twirling the knife between my hands.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

Mystery guy stares at me for a moment before answering, “Reggie.”

“Nice to meet you, Reggie. I’m Sloane,” I say with a grin. “Tell me, how many more women’s apartments are you breaking into other than mine?”

His eyes widen, his gaze darting to the knife that I’m still playing with.

“N-none. I swear. You’re the only job I’ve had,” he whines, and I hum my acceptance to his answer.

It doesn’t matter either way, since he won’t be alive to see tomorrow.

Before I can continue our little chat, there’s a knock at the door. I grin at my new friend before climbing to my feet and heading to the door. Looking through the peep hole, I spot Izzy. I knew she’d come as soon as she saw the message, what I didn’t anticipate is the two hulking men standing behind her. I disengage the lock and swing the door open.

“Why the fuck did you bring them?” I ask her and motion towards Marco and Luca.

Both men—who are dressed identically in suits—raise a brow at the same time.

Fucking creepy.

“I’m sorry,” Izzy says, biting her lip. “They’d had a meeting and were picking me up from Alec’s office when you sent me the message. It sounded urgent and I didn’t know if you were in danger, okay?” She waves her arms dramatically. “I was worried, sue me.”

I let out a sigh and step aside so they can come in before closing the door behind them.

I chuckle the moment they realize what they’ve just walked in on, seeing the huge guy tied up and flailing around on the floor. They each turn to look at me with a mixture of looks ranging from curiosity to anger.

That anger obviously comes from Marco.

“What the hell is this?” he asks, and I roll my eyes.

“This dude’s been helping himself into my apartment all week, I just decided to be here this time so we could make friends. Isn’t that right, Reggie?” I direct my attention to the man on the floor before handing the phone to Izzy.

“Reggie here was hired online to deliver my little love letters. Any chance you can use that,” I nod towards the phone, “to figure out who hired him?”

Izzy smirks. “Of course I can.”

I nod my thanks before turning back towards Marco and Luca. “You don’t need to be here.”

“Yeah… I still feel bad about what happened at the hospital, so how about I take care of him for you?” Luca asks.

I raise my brow at him. “So you should. Didn’t Daddy Romano ever teach you not to put your hands on women without consent?”

The air in the room shifts and Luca’s eyes dart towards his brother.

“What the fuck is she talking about, Luca?” Marco asks, his tone cold as ice.

Luca raises his hands in a surrendering gesture before muttering, “It was a misunderstanding, is all. Believe me, your girl put me in my place.”

Marco turns to me and I give him a nod.

“Who would have thought that out of the three of us, Enzo would be the one to fall for someone normal?” Luca asks with a chuckle before gesturing to Reggie. “Mia regina, can you grab his legs for me? Let’s get him out of here so these two can… talk.”

I go to intervene, but Marco’s hand on my arm paired with a sharp glare has me deciding against it.

I let out a huff. “Fine. But you better give him a good death, he’s my new friend,” I say with a pout. Izzy cackles while Luca and Marco share a look I can’t quite interpret.

Look at me, moving back to the city and making friends.