Page 2 of Ghost Hunted

He sits down on the bed beside me, letting his hand fall on my arm. I whip it back like I’ve been shocked.

“I’m sorry, Logan. But the better news,” he adds in a somewhat more cheerful voice, “is that your friends are going to be alright. Damien and Everest. They were all knocked out cold from the explosion, but they’re going to be okay. I think Damien’s already awake, and Everest is still under, but the doctors say he’ll be fine. No lasting brain damage.”

I shake my head again. “No. Everest didn’t lose consciousness. He’s the one who said…”

They’re dead. They’re all dead!

I close my eyes as the painful memories crowd back in.

“Oh.” He pauses. “Well, he must have lost consciousness after. Maybe it was the adrenaline that… well, anyway, you’ve all been unconscious. But you’ll make it. Thankfully.”

Thankfully. The word falls like lead in my stomach. She didn’t make it. I don’t think I’ll ever be thankful again.

“And… Aurora.” I wince, still trying to get into a sitting position. I feel so helpless. So horribly helpless. “Where is she?”

“Back with family. The family.”

I groan loudly. “No… no. She’s mine. I need to…”

“What do you mean, she’s yours?” Emilio Cabello narrows his eyes at me. “She doesn’t have an ounce of blood in her that belongs to you. She’s the daughter of Carmelo Moretti. It’s only right that she…”

“No,” I insist, this time managing to sit up despite feeling lightheaded. Like I’ve been drugged—which I guess I have been, so they could fix my body. “No. Lia was raped. Aurora does not belong to the family whose son forced himself on her mother. Aurora is mine. She’s all I have. You have to help me. Please.”

I sound far too much like I’m begging, like I’m back in high school, worshipping at my Lia’s feet. Only now, it’s not her but her father who can save me. Who can make things, if not right, then… better.

But he shakes his head. “They’re still the closest thing she has to family. She’s in the hospital, recovering. They’ll be here in an hour. There’s nothing you can do about it. I’m sorry.”

His apology sounds even more fake than before. He turns on his heel and leaves the room.

I force my dizziness aside and stand up with difficulty. I’m all tangled up in wires, but I unplug them, one by one, and it makes the dizziness worse. But I don’t care. I stumble toward the door. Somehow, I manage to make it, grabbing onto the handle and whipping the door open. I reach the hallway, gasping from the way the stale air of the hospital seems to be pushing down on my chest.

Aurora. Aurora. Aurora.

I can’t lose her. Not on top of Lia. I just can’t let the family take her. I’ll never allow her to grow up in their midst. Anything would be better than that.

“Logan.”

“Fuck!”

I stagger back, nearly falling from the surprise of crashing into Damien. He’s just turned a corner and was making a beeline for my room, looking just as pale as I feel.

“Logan, are you okay?”

“Doesn’t matter if I am,” I groan. “I’d rather be dead. My life is over.”

For once, he doesn’t fall back into his usual sarcasm. He just looks at me seriously. “The Morettis will be here in twenty minutes…”

“Twenty minutes!” I’m beside myself with panic. “Cabello said an hour…”

“Cabello is a real bastard. I’m going to kill him.”

“Damien, stop. Stop with the jokes. I have to get to her… To Aurora…”

He puts an arm on my forearm. “I know, Logan. We have exactly nineteen minutes to make things right. It’s going to be okay. Vale and Igor are coming. Vale has an automatic, and Igor a machete.”

“The fuck… a machete…” I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to wrap my head around those words. “What’s he going to do with a machete?”

“What do you think? Igor’s not a fan of guns. He prefers to gut people. Watch the blade sink into the bone, you know.”