Page 151 of Pucked Around and Found Out

Oxygen mask over her face. IV in her arm. Monitors beeping steadily. Her eyes are closed. Not moving. Just like in the kitchen.

Terror claws at my throat.

I push the door open and step inside. Carnage is there, standing by the window. He turns when I enter, and his expression immediately shifts, something complicated passing through his eyes.

We just fought side by side.

He helped break me out of that facility. Coordinated the assault that saved my life. But now, looking at Toren in this bed, all that camaraderie evaporates because I know he wants her and he hates me for having her.

“How is she?” I ask, moving toward the bed.

“Alive,” Carnage says, his voice carefully neutral. “Breathing on her own now. They had to intubate her in the ambulance, but she's stable.”

The words should comfort me.

They don't.

Because she's lying there unconscious and I can't—I can't⁠—

“The baby?” I force out.

“Heartbeat is strong,” Carnage confirms. “Doctors are monitoring, but so far no complications.”

I move to the bedside, my legs feeling like they might give out. Up close, I can see the ash smudged on her face. The way her chest rises and falls, shallow but steady. The faint bruising around her throat from smoke inhalation. She looks so fragile. So breakable. She almost died. I sink into the chair beside the bed and reach for her hand. Her skin is too cold.

“Has she woken up?” I ask, not looking away from her face.

“In and out,” Carnage grits out. “Mostly out. Doctors said it's normal, her body is shutting down to heal. The smoke inhalation was severe.”

I nod, not trusting my voice. We sit in silence for a moment. The tension between us is thick despite fighting together earlier. Because this isn't about war, extraction or violence.

This is about her.

“You ran into a burning building,” Carnage finally says. “For her.”

“And?”

“You could have died.”

“Your point?”

More silence.

“Masen's dead,” Carnage he finally says. “She must have killed him. Hit him with a cast iron skillet until his skull caved in.”

I look at him then. “How the fuck do you know?”

“She told me when she woke up. He was going to shoot the baby,” Carnage continues, his voice hardening. “Told her he was going to kill it to hurt you. To take away your future the way you took away his NHL career.”

White-hot rage floods through me.

“If he wasn't already dead,” I say quietly, “I'd kill the cunt slowly.”

“I know,” Carnage says. “That's why I'm telling you. So you understand what she went through tonight. What she did to survive.”

I look back at Toren, and something in my chest cracks wider. She killed her own brother. For our baby.

For us.