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Lilah
Covering a yawn, I lazily squint awake, not hearing anyone in the living room. The whole place is quiet.Why is no one here?Where are they?My breath catches in my throat as my body goes from sleepy to awake in seconds and every bad thought is accelerated. What if Ash broke in and killed them?Oh my God, are they dead?I feel the tears before I even realize I’m crying. But wouldn’t I’ve heard the screams or the fighting?
I clutch the soft blanket around me as frazzled breaths come in gasps, feeling their warmth against my face while I hide behind the covers. Is he still here, waiting to kill me next?
I want to scream out for them, but an invisible hand clasps around my mouth.I can’t breathe. Someone help!I take slow breaths, but they’re painful, it’s as though the same hand squeezes my throat preventing me from drawing air into my lungs.
“Morning, baby,” someone says, but the voice is muffled from the buzzing in my ears, as loud as a swarm of wasps.
“Lilah? What’s wrong?” That sounded a little like Damian, I lower the blanket, but I can’t speak yet.Say something, damn it!
“Baby it’s me. I’m right here.” He lowers down to the floor beside me. “I’m sorry I left you alone.”They’re okay. They’re okay. “We went to sleep once it got late. I would’ve brought you into the bedroom with me, but I was afraid to wake you.”
“I—” I breathe in and out through my nose a few times, trying to calm my heart. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I just got—” I sit up, rubbing at my forehead, not wanting to finish that sentence.
“Don’t be sorry.” He sits beside me and reaches his arm out. “Come here.” I lean against his strong body, feeling instantly safe.
“What time is it? How long have I been asleep?” He glides his fingers up and down my arm soothing my frazzled nerves.
“It’s five in the morning.”
“What?” I cock my head back. “I can’t believe I slept all day and night!”
“You needed it. Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, not right now.” I sink further into him, breathing a sigh of relief. “Just hold me.”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do more.”
We sit together silently for a while, lost in each other. How did I ever live without him? I burrow myself into him, wishing I could climb inside and hide away.
Out of nowhere, his cell phone beeps, and he fishes it out of his pocket.
He stares at the screen, sitting straighter while his hand slides away from me, mood abruptly changed. “They got him, baby. He’s being arrested right now.” I’m instantly light-headed, covering a sob with my hand.
“Jax sent a photo. I can show it to you but only if it’ll make you feel better.” Part of me wants to look at it but another part is afraid of seeing his face again. But maybe, just maybe, this is what I need to stop the panic that’s been wrapping around my psyche.
I reach out a shaky hand and curl my fingers around the phone. My pulse begins to scream so I flip it face down.
“You don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to, but I’m here either way.”
“I want to.”You can do this. There’s no amount of time which could prepare me for this moment, so I turn the phone over.
A single flame sparks to life in my gut, building and growing like a wildfire, until it twists through the rest of my body. Everything goes red and all I feel is hatred. I can’t say I’ve ever hated anyone in my life. Sure, I’ve disliked plenty, but to feel a deep-rooted animosity for another person, no I never felt that, not until now. As I look into his face, blood around his nose as Jax pulls his head back for the camera, all I want is to see him dead. I hate the woman he has turned me into. The Lilah before Ash would never wish that on anyone, but I stopped being her a long time ago.
I hate you.
I hand Damian the phone back. “Do you think he’ll get bail?”
He wraps his arm around me once more. “I don’t know.”
“So, he has a decent chance of walking free before trial?” Fear trickles through my system, slowly overwhelming me, like it’s on an intravenous drip.
“Let’s hope not, but I won’t leave your side either way.”
“I won’t have to see him before the trial, right?”
“No, baby.”
