That would kill me.
When I gathered my bearings, I slid into the driver’s seat of Ryder’s Jeep and reached for the handle of the door. I gripped it tightly, pulled it shut, and then I put the car in gear. I heard a couple of beeps behind me, but I didn’t look in the rearview mirror. I didn’t pay them much attention at all, to be honest. I felt numb and oblivious to everything... except for the hand that banged on the window next to me.
I screeched and gripped tightly onto the steering wheel.
“You have to move!” A male hospital traffic warden frowned at me through the glass. “This is a drop-off zone only. Move it, lady.”
Fuck you.
I nodded my head to the man, pulled out of the no-parking zone, and slowly followed the signs to the multi-story public car park to find the first three floors of the car park were full.
Apparently, everyone and their auntie in the Tallaght area were fucking sick today.
I was pissed off when I got to the fourth floor of the car park, but I found a spot next to the elevator and stairs so that relaxed me a little bit. When we first got here, I was more than happy to let the brothers take the lead and run into the hospital, but it had been ten or so minutes since I had any sort of information and now... now I was antsy. I wanted to know if Kane was okay.
He needed to be okay... he just needed to be.
After I had parked the car, I locked it up, got a parking card from the machine and left the multi-story car park to head straight for the A&E. I glanced up at the Accident & Emergency sign as I walked into the hospital and swallowed down my nerves.
I looked around for the brothers and Keela but didn’t see them. “Crap,” I murmured out loud.
What in the hell was I going to do now?
“Can I help you, miss?” a security guard asked me from my left.
I nodded my head and walked over to the man. “Yes, please. Me friend was taken through A&E not so long ago; he arrived in an ambulance. His name is Kane Slater, me friend, Keela Daley—she’s a little redhead—came in with him. He collapsed. Two of his brothers came in here about ten minutes ago lookin’ for him, you couldn’t miss them. They’re both tall, over six foot, one has a buzz cut on both sides of his head with longer brown hair on top, has a dragon tattoo down his right arm, really good lookin’ like his brother—”
“Ah, yeah. American blokes, right?” the security guard cut off my rambling. “Pretty sure the lad you just described threatened to break me nose if I didn’t let him and his brother through the doors to see their little brother.”
I winced. “Alec is usually really nice, I swear.”
The security guard snorted. “I’m sure, but unfortunately I can’t help you. You have to be family or a patient to get through the doors behind me.”
Crap.
“Well, it’s funny that you mention family because—”
“Aideen!”
I jumped when a voice shouted my name. I spun around and almost burst with excitement when I spotted Nico running through the automatic doors of the A&E closely followed by a worried looking Bronagh, Branna, and Alannah.
“He is family!” I said to the security guard. “He is Kane’s- I mean the patient’s younger brother.”
The security guard looked at Nico when he came to my side and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Any news?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “I was parkin’ the car, and now I’m tryin’ to get back to see what’s happenin’, but I need to be family.”
Nico glared at the security guard. “She is family. They all are,” he said and gestured to the girls beside him.
The security guard groaned. “You expect me to believe all four of them are—”
“My wives,” Nico cut the security guard off.
I looked at Nico with wide eyes and so did the other girls.
“What?” the security guard said after a pregnant pause.
With a straight face Nico gestured to me and the other girls. “They’re my wives. My legal wives... we aren’t Catholic.”
Oh. My. God.
The security guard blinked at Nico, then looked at me and the other girls before looking back at Nico. I was convinced he was about to call bullshit on Nico’s lie until he opened his mouth and said, “You lucky bastard.”
Wait, what?
Nico nodded his ever-expanding head and sighed. “I know, it’s damn hard to choose which one of them to sleep with at night, but we devised a schedule to keep things fair. I don’t want them fighting with each other just to get my attention, you know? I mean, I can barely keep up with them. Sex with each of them daily is a lot of work, but someone has got to do it, you know?”
I felt my eye twitch as I watched Nico effortlessly lie to the security guard who was gazing at him and lapping up his every word like he was talking to Jesus Christ in the flesh.
“Fuckin’ hell,” the security guard breathed.
I looked at the girls and found all three of them shaking their heads at Nico then rolling their eyes at the more than gullible security guard.
“Yeah,” Nico breathed. “Can you let us by to go see my brother? I can’t leave them out here alone. Getting backlash from one woman is torture, but four of them? You’ll be sentencing me to death, bro. Death.”
Oh, a Slater was going to die today and my money was on it not being Kane.
“Man, of course,” the security guard said and reached out and patted Nico on the shoulder like he was ‘the man.’ “Go right on in. Your two other brothers are down the hall and in the last waitin’ room on the right.”