Blood Legacy

18

To be honest, the bullet wound itself wasn't that large, but damn, it hurt. He walked over and placed it, grabbing the gauze and tying it around my shoulder firmly. "I'm glad to see you're up and moving."

"Me too, but it's still painful. Is there a different pain pill I can have?" It'd be nice to be able to drink some water and stay awake for a while.

He quickly got dressed. "Yeah, let me help you. Evan just got back." He helped me get dressed and even brushed my hair for me.

A few minutes later, we headed out to the kitchen and found Evan sitting at the table.

Evan already had a pain pill out and a glass of water with toast sitting next to it.

I grabbed the pill and drank some water, washing it down. My stomach was a little upset, but not like it had been. I picked up the piece of toast and took a bite. "Thank you."

"No problem." Evan gave me a smile that didn't meet his eyes. “You’ll probably get sleepy soon, so plan on a nap or a lot of coffee.”

"What's wrong?" Liam pulled out the seat at the round table and helped me get situated. "Did you find something out?"

"Yeah." Evan picked up his own glass of water and took a large sip. "So... apparently, those three didn't last very long."

"Dad said that they wouldn't cooperate and essentially your dad tortured them to death." Liam sat next to me and scooted his chair closer.

"Well, that was a nice way of putting it." Evan huffed and shook his head. "Kai and Micah informed me that as soon as they got back here to campus, they placed the three men in the basement room and left to go find the council. When they came back minutes later, the three men were already dead."

"You mean the council didn't question them after all." Liam stilled next to me.

"According to Kai and Micah, they weren't questioned. There wasn’t enough time. They had been gone only five to ten minutes and never found the council." Evan ran a hand down his face. "The only logical explanation is that our dads were waiting in another room downstairs, and when Micah and Kai left to head to the council room to find them, they snuck in and killed them. Our dads had to have only wanted to bring them here to pretend to question them with the real intent of killing them on sight."

"But why?" None of this made any sense to me.

"Because the Council wanted to give the illusion that they tried even though they didn't." Liam took my hand in his. "This proves that they hired them."

The gravity of what he said took a second to fully sink in. The council had tried to hurt me, possibly even wanted me dead. If they had done that, what else were they capable of?

W

hen Liam and I headed back to my dorm, we found Bree on the phone, pacing in a circle.

Her head snapped in our direction, and she cleared her throat. "She's here. I'll see you

soon." There were dark circles under her eyes, and her body appeared to collapse as she blew out a huge breath.

"Are you okay?" Something bad must have happened.

"Am I okay?" Bree's voice was low at first but got higher. "Really?"

"Don't be a b***h, Bree." There was a warning in Liam's tone as he stepped in front of me. "She's only here because she insisted."

"What am I missing?" It was obvious she was very upset.

"My brother called your parents and me to ask if we knew where you might have gone off to." Bree pointed straight at her brother. "And then, I don't hear from him for three days and can't find you anywhere." She held up a hand. "Oh, wait. No, I found your cell phone in the corner of the woods where it had obviously been dropped."

"You didn't tell her you found me?" That didn't sound right, especially if he made the time to call them in the first place.

I had just gotten off the phone with my parents, so I knew they'd been kept in the loop. Liam agreed to bring me home this weekend to see them. He didn't want to risk them coming on-site since his father was acting desperate. Max had already gotten hurt; we didn't need anyone else becoming easy prey.

"No, I didn't." Liam's eyes narrowed on his sister. "I knew she'd talk to Kai and he would let her know you'd been found."

"Had I known you were injured, I would've forced my way into his dorm." Bree's eyes were dark and filled with anger. "Kai mentioned to me this morning that you'd been shot and was wondering how you were doing. He asked if he could come by and visit you when Liam was here. So, of course, I called my brother to find out what the hell was going on. But I just kept getting his voicemail."

"Why didn't you tell her?" She had every right to be upset. Had the shoe been on the other foot, I'd have reacted the same way.

"Because she'd overreact like she is right now." Liam held his hand out, moving it up and down as he pointed his fingers in her direction. "You were hurt, injured, and needed rest."

"Had you told me that and let me peek in on her, I wouldn't be acting this way right now." Bree narrowed her eyes at him, and they took on a glow. "You still treat me like I'm a little kid that you have to keep in the dark."

"We had s**t going on." Liam crossed his arms and looked down his nose at her. "Heir business." "Stop it." I had to side with Bree on this one. "You should have told her. How would you like it if the shoe was on the other foot? She's my family now, too."

"I thought I was doing the right thing." Liam glanced at me and sighed. "You're right." He focused on his sister. "I'm sorry."

"Wait..." She took a step back, and her forehead wrinkled. "Did you just apologize to me?"

"Yeah, I should've told you. Honestly, I was so focused on Mia and keeping her family updated that I didn't purposely mean to leave you out." He shrugged his shoulders. "It's just when you get upset, you kind of get loud."

"Yes, Liam, when I was ten, I'd get loud." Bree shook her head and pursed her lips. "But I'm twenty now and have grown up from there. You probably haven't realized it since you and Dad keep trying to treat me like a little girl who needs to be controlled."

Most likely this particular conversation had been coming for some time. My kidnapping had been the catalyst to finally bring it to the surface.

"You're right." Liam nodded. "I'll do better in the future."

A genuine smile spread across her face. "That sounds like a plan."