Playing Criminal

51- Okay

“So I’m Dr. Wei and I’m the primary doctor on your case. Lean forward.”

I did as she said so that she could place the cool metal of the stethoscope on my chest. Which, let me tell you wasn’t easy with the way my shoulder was bandaged so that my arm was lying across my chest.

“Breathe.” She commanded and I did, though I hated the feeling of the oxygen tubes tugging at my nose.

“Good.” She smiled after she’d listened to a couple of breaths. Your lungs seem much stronger today, which means that most likely nothing was punctured after the fall. Because of the bruising in your ribs, however, we won’t be able to get an x-ray to tell us for sure so we’ll want to keep you overnight again for observation. Still, it looks like you’ll be just fine Ally.”

“Thank you.” I mumbled softly, not even listening. All I could focus on was what in the hell was going to happen to Jack and me if Mr. Brighton and all my parents were in on this.

As soon as the door shut, I turned to Jack again. “What the hell did you do?”

“Now don’t jump to conclusions.” Jack shifted again and ran his hand nervously through his hair. “I know I have a shit ton of explaining to do.”

“No kidding.” I grumbled as I leaned back onto the pillows sitting against the headrest of the hospital bed.

“Sassy as always, aren’t you Princess?” Jack grinned, making the fluorescents of the hospital glint off of his lip ring.

Gosh, those lips…

And in that instant a lot of my anger dissipated because all I wanted was too…

“Yep.” I replied smartly before my thoughts could get away from me.

He laughed and scooted his chair closer to me.

“Okay so I guess I should start from when I first talked to Mason again. It was when we were at Todd’s.”

My interest was piqued almost immediately. That phone call, the one I was worried about…

“Mason heard that I’d run off with you and wanted me to turn you into our gang as blackmail against the Widows. I told him I couldn’t do that to you, but he reminded me I owed him – which I sure as hell did. What I didn’t know was that Mason had my call tracked, and the Widows were able to hack into that tracking data and storm the place.”

“Which is how they got Todd.”

“Exactly.” Something passed through Jack’s eyes as if he recalled something bitter, but I didn’t call him out on it yet, waiting for his next words.

“Now, after that first call I got back into contact with Mason and we communicated fairly often. I figured it would be better to be in the know than not. So, when Mason told me how he planned to sabotage the Widow’s and take over I started to feel pretty nervous. I knew when Mason first knew about you, that you were in some deep shit, but when I realized just how seriously both gangs wanted you, I freaked. Still it wasn’t until Caden grabbed you that I knew I needed a plan of action. After talking with Mason for so long, I knew there was no way in hell he’d help me rescue you. It didn’t matter that we were gang members; you could only be a pawn to him. Instead, I reached out to Carolos. Carlos and I had been close; we’d both lost brothers. However, unlike my brother who was killed in a brawl, Mason took out Carlos’ brother along with a couple of other thugs when Carlos’ brother tried to back stab the gang. Because of that, I knew Carlos had been looking to get revenge on Mason for a while. But even then, it was just Carlos and I against both the Widows and my gang. There was just no way in hell we’d be able to pull it off. And when Mason announced the week of the deal, asking me to use my day off to participate, I knew that I was running out of time. Going to that deal with Mason was the only good shot I’d get at trying to get you back so I knew I had to take it.