Dancing with Satan

Chapter Fifteen

A pillow was pressed tightly into my face as Liam touched my gun shot wound. I was desperately trying to keep myself calm and not knock his ass out cold, but when he roughly pulled off the bandages; I threw that idea out the window.

Throwing the pillow across the room, I bolted up and pushed him away. ''That hurts!''

''What did you expect?'' Liam asked, his energy drink by him.

''You could be more gentle,'' I spat, unwrapping the bandages myself. I cringed as I did so. ''There.''

Liam grumbled something and leaned down and swiped up the towel and rubbing alcohol. He held my leg and poured the alcohol over it and then wiped the edges off with the towel. ''When was the last time you took pain killers?''

''I don't know, not since this morning I guess,'' I replied. Liam put my leg down and I moved towards the fresh bandages to wrap it myself. No way in hell was I letting him get back around it. ''But I'm fine, I don't need any.''

''Are you sure? You look like you're in a lot of pain,'' Liam said, studying my face.

''That's only because you were so rough. I was fine before,'' I grumbled, falling back onto the bed when I was finished. ''I'm alright, Liam.''

Liam nodded, gathering some things in his arms. ''Call out if you need anything.''

''I will, not that you'll be paying attention.''

''Why's that?'' A knowing smirk crossed his face.

''Because I'm going to guess that you're heading back to the chick that's been occupying your bed all day,'' I grinned, ''She's waiting on you.''

Liam laughed, ''Didn't think you knew about that.''

''Nothing gets past me anymore. Especially when I can hear you two,'' I smirked. ''Go on now, don't keep the lady waiting.''

''You're pretty messed up, you know that?''

I turned my head to him. His lips twitched up at the corners. ''I know.''

Liam left me alone again and I stared up at the ceiling like I had been doing all day. Obviously I had a lot of time to think about what Ryder said. I mean, it wasn't like I could leave my bed. If only!

I've come to the conclusion that Ryder is just worried about me and the safety of everyone else. Truth be told I already knew that, but I just didn't want to accept it.

Jesse wasn't using me. I knew that much. No, I hadn't been talking to him long. And no, I didn't have any actual proof that he wasn't. There was just something inside of me telling me that Jesse wouldn't do that. Not to me, at least.

There wasn't anything that I could do to make Ryder believe me, so I had to be more careful if I continued to meet Jesse. I didn't want him getting killed, after all, and I wouldn't put it past the guys to follow me. Then again, I was rarely out of their sight anyway.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up quickly. I smiled when I realized I had a text message from Jesse.  How are you?  It read.

 I'm okay, just resting. But I have a question for you, I texted back. Almost as soon as I sent it my phone started ringing. I picked it up.

''You have something to ask me?'' Jesse asked.

I smiled, ''Yeah, actually, and it's pretty random.''

''What is it?'' He asked.

''Why didn't you get into a fight today with Ryder? After everything that has happened? We stole money from you and you're just...letting it go,'' I said. I hated to bring up the past but I couldn't help it. Letting your rival club steal money from you without revenge wasn't normal by any means.

''There are some things you'll never understand about me, sweetheart.''

''I'm not going to argue with that, Jesse, but this scares me. You aren't the type of guy that lets shit go and neither is Ryder. So I'd like to know why you two haven't killed one another yet. You've had plenty of opportunities.''

''Let's just say, Ryder and I use to be close. We grew up together,'' Jesse's voice dropped almost as if it was hard to look back on the memories and speak them out loud. ''I can't kill him, no matter how much I hate him.''

''That doesn't make sense. What do you mean you grew up together?'' I nervously played with my sheets and listened to his sigh through the phone. Clearly he didn't want me to ask questions.

Hearing Jesse say that he couldn't kill him no matter how much he hated him was a huge mind blower within itself. Never had I heard of Jesse Miller sparing a guy that screwed with him before.

''It doesn't matter anymore. It was the past.''

''It does matter. Tell me!'' I heard him sigh again.

''He's my half brother, Sage,'' Jesse admitted.

I almost dropped the phone but was quick to catch it. ''What the hell did you just say? Did I hear you right?"

''He's my brother. I'm not lying.''

''He's your...brother? What? That's not even logical!'' I spat, clutching the phone tightly.

''Yeah it is, because it's true,'' Jesse said. ''We're a year apart.''

''But you don't even look alike!'' I argued. Well, they did have the same color hair and eyes, but that didn't mean shit.

''Hence 'half brother,' Sage. We have different dads,'' he said in an annoyed tone.

''So you're saying I've been lied to for the past two years? You two hate each other and instead of taking care of the problems yourselves, you bring in the clubs and have them fight one another? Killing each other?'' I asked, ''I don't think things can get anymore fucked up than this.''

''It's not like that, trust me. You need to ask Ryder about it. I'm not bringing that back up right now.'' 

''Apparently you do it everyday. Every time you and your club has come after us, killing us, it only happened because you hate Ryder? We've lost people!''

''I've lost people too because of your club, so don't even go there,'' Jesse growled.

''Is that the real reason you kidnapped me? To get back at your brother?'' I asked. I thought I had figured this out already and yet here I was doubting myself.

''No,'' he spat, ''I needed that money and you damn well know it.''

I rolled my eyes. ''Whatever. You didn't get it. I'll talk to you later.''

I hung up without another word and threw the phone on to my nightstand. I felt like everything I had ever known about Ryder was a lie. He wasn't even who he claimed to be.

They were half brothers.

Freaking half brothers! How did I let something like get past me?