Page 104 of The Doctor

“So they just allowed him to walk in?”

“From where I sat, it looked like someone tossed him in the front door,” Mario said through clenched teeth.

“It was all an act.” Clara didn’t stop her pacing, though her footsteps slowed. “He dropped me off at the back, expecting me to wander in from the maze back there around the same time he walked in the front. He knew he could get through Cosimo’s men. He knew he could get inside. He just needed someone to distract them so he could take them out. I was the distraction.”

“Fucking hell.” The words fell from my lips after squeezing through my tight chest and throat.

“So he was egging you on,” Arik said. “That whole thing about choosing Zeno was to get you to step out so he could take Cosimo down.”

“He just didn’t expect you to do it yourself.” The words left me in a hushed breath. I was in awe of her, so fucking proud. Of how she’d taken care of us, how she’d saved our lives, how she’d figured out Cosimo’s whole plot and come up with a way to escape Jet’s apartment and come after us.

Clara pulled her attention to me, and I could see the calm that hovered just above the surface of the raging storm that thundered through her. The corners of her lips twitched, and when I held my hand out to her, she rushed my way.

My body ached as she pressed against me, but it would have hurt more if she weren’t here. I dropped kisses to her head, held her as tight as I could, and a rush of overwhelming pride pulsed through me, swallowing my heart and infecting my mind.

Clara.

My beautiful, crazy, brave Clara.

She’d saved me. She’d saved us all.

“I want to make some rounds tonight,” Jet said, though from the looks of it, he wasn’t talking to me. “We need to check in on the families. I don’t know how many other people Cosimo and his sycophants had reached out to in order to get them on their side. Get the word out about what happened. Let them see we’re strong and we’re not going to be taken down by the corruption Cosimo brought to our lives. If they don’t agree with the direction the Syndicate is going, tell them they can talk to me.”

Jet finished instructing his men, then had Lev drive me and Clara home. She stared out the window at the city streets while I tried to get updates on Paulo’s and Queenie’s conditions via text.

I was distracted by Clara’s bouncing leg and the tapping of her fingers upon her knees and chest. I was distracted by thoughts of Cosimo’s gun held to my head, which only served to bring me back to the night I lost my father when another gun had been to my head at Cosimo’s order.

I was distracted by a heavy pain in my chest every time I thought of everyone affected by Cosimo’s greed.

So many people were lost. So many who were loved, cherished, and treasured. People who mattered to someone, who gave something to this world.

All Cosimo did was take and steal, ending those lives without a thought.

While I was distracted, Lev pulled to a stop. It wasn’t until the door flew open that I pulled my gaze up from my phone. Clara was rushing up my front steps with an urgency I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to muster for at least another month.

Thanking Lev, I jumped from the car and raced after her, only to slam into the door when I got to the top of the steps. By the time I unlocked it and rushed inside, I found remnants of Clara’s storm.

The shoes she’d refused to wear on the ride home had been dropped at the bottom of the steps. The scrubs she’d changed into at the hospital were discarded near the middle and the top. I followed after, ignoring the abandoned clothing as much as my dick would allow me to. I rushed up to my bedroom, only to dash into an empty room.

Everything was exactly as I’d left it this morning, after I’d pulled myself out of the bed Clara hadn’t bothered sleeping in, which had granted me no sleep at all. I’d abandoned her because I couldn’t get over my guilt.

And she still came to save my ass.

“Clara!” I spun on my heel, racing back toward the stairs. I was halfway down the first flight when I saw her, foot hanging over the top step as she started to descend. “Clara!”

Her beautiful brown eyes were already wide when they snapped up to meet mine. My heart dropped to my stomach as I watched her hand miss the rail. Her foot slipped off the top step and her body wrenched forward, and she started to fall.

By some miracle, she caught herself halfway down.

I nearly slipped and fell along with her as I raced down the stairs to her side. I pulled her shaking body into my arms, cradling her against me.

“Clara, are you okay?”

“No!” She thrashed in my arms, pushing at my sore chest and fighting to get away. “Let me go! I have to go!”

“Go where?” I asked, tightening my grip even though every lash of her arms hitting me felt like a stabbing knife.

“To the hospital!” she wailed. “I have to go check on Paulo! I have to make sure Queenie’s okay!”