Page 151 of Relapse

But there was still my family to worry about. I couldn’t ignore the fact that Noah was on their radar now.

Jace might have been painting a reassuring picture, making it sound like I’d get to see Noah again. Like he was happy to have all of the press and media time. But for all I knew, he could have been planning something else entirely. He had access to Noah. He had the opportunity.

After everything that had happened, I didn’t trust any of them.

These were the same people who had put us both in the hospital in the first place. Hurting Noah again wasn’t beyond them.

My gut was telling me that this overdose wasn’t an accident. What if my family found a way to finish the job—silence Noah before he could talk, cut Damian at the knees, where they knew it would hurt the most?

It might be the death of me, but I had to tell him something.

Damian stopped a few feet away, swaying slightly. I reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him close with a strength I didn’t know I still had. My voice dropped to a whisper, just loud enough to be heard between us.

“Listen to me,” I breathed against his ear. “This wasn’t an accident. Someone got to him.”

Damian went still, but his eyes were focused on me. He was listening.

I tightened my grip on his arm. “Dante Thorne. He’s the ringleader. He was the one who orchestrated the beating. He recognized Noah when he tried to help me. Find him, Damian, before he can finish what he started.”

Damian searched my face, clearly stunned that I was telling him any of this. I felt like he was truly seeing me, for the first time.

“There’s something else,” I added weakly.

I didn’t want to have to do this. It was another promise to Noah that I would be breaking. But I had too. If I wanted Noah to have a fighting chance, I had to try.

Damian nodded. “Go on.”

“Your…father.” The words itself were like bile coming from my mouth. “He’s been hurting Noah. Again. Unspeakably. You can never leave him alone with him.”

The nurses swarmed me then, suddenly remembering I was a patient too—probably their most critical one now.

Damian’s face fell, and he looked back over his shoulder to where David had been standing moments before. He was searching for something, trying to verify what I’d told him with his own eyes. But the look in his eyes told me he already knew. The suspicion had been living in him longer than he’d admitted.

I became aware of Delane once again. She was still pressed against me, her body the only thing keeping me from collapsing onto the tile. I had forgotten she was there. Shame burned hot in my throat as I looked down and found her staring up at me, eyes swimming with tears she refused to let fall, her brow furrowed in a silent question I couldn’t answer. She looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here, holding up the man who’d dragged her through hell and back.

“Thank you,” I whispered, lifting my arm away from her and letting a nurse take my weight instead.

Delane nodded once. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, stood there for a heartbeat longer than necessary, then turned and walked away without looking back.

Chapter thirty-seven

Things Fall Apart

NOAH

Voices. Lots of them.

“Mr. Hansen? We’re glad you are starting to come back to us. You’re in good hands Mr. Hansen.”

I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Mr. Hansen, right now you are back in the ICU. You had an overdose. You are okay and you are safe.”

I didn’t want to see anyone. I hadn’t even wanted to wake up. I had wanted that hit to be the end of me.

But here I was. Back again. Lazarus.

The nurse said I was lucky. That’s the word she used—lucky. Like waking up with a tube down my throat and a headache that felt like someone took a hammer to my skull was winning the fucking lottery. I didn’t feel lucky. I felt like a failure.