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“On the floor below us, with a police detail watching him until they can take him in.”
“Why do you think he did it?” Ev asks.
I think about it all again. “Because he was after the baby,” I gasp.
Zig and Ev are out the door before I can say anything else.
“Go,” I order Slade and Jagger.
“I’ll stay with her. I won’t leave her side,” James vows.
With a quick nod, Slade and Jagger follow them.
James sits beside me and takes my hand, using his other to wipe away my tears. “Calm down, Astrid, or you’re gonna make yourself sick. And I don’t think you want to be throwing up with all those stitches holding you together.”
“I can’t help it. Why would he save my life just to try to kill a baby?”
“I don’t know, Astrid. I really don’t.”
It feels like we wait a lifetime for them to come back. When they do, I know something is wrong. “Please tell me he didn’t get away.”
“He’s dead,” Zig answers.
I sigh with relief, but the grim look on his face has my breath catching. “What? I thought you’d be relieved.”
“I am. But Dean didn’t die from his injuries. He was suffocated, and there wasn’t a single police officer around when it happened.”
“Someone shut him up,” James summarizes.
“Looks that way.”
“Shit,” James curses as Zig’s eyes move to mine.
“I need to get back to my family, but we are not leaving you here. As soon as you’re well enough to travel, we’re all heading back to Apex. The guys can pack up whatever you need and send it to the ranch.” I nod in shock.
I’m not going because I’m being told to, though I want to go with them. I need to.
James squeezes my hand as Zig looks at him. “I’d like to extend an invitation for you to join us too. I know you care about Astrid, and I think we could use all the help we can get.”
“I’d be happy to come with you. I might never let Astrid out of my sight again.”
His words are barely out of his mouth when the hospital room around me dissolves. I find myself looking at a basement somewhere. James is lying on the floor with a woman leaning over him, crying his name as she presses her hands against his chest. Blood coats her skin and pools around them both.
When his eyes slip closed, she tips her head back and screams.
I snap out of it and find a bunch of concerned faces staring back at me. I turn my head to look at James, feeling my heart break, to see wide eyes.
“Something changed when you said you’d come with us.”
“You saw.”
“What?” I ask confused.
“I saw flashes. It wasn’t clear, but I saw Astrid. I saw.”
Shocked, I sit silent, tears running down my face. “Maybe Salem was right. Maybe there is more to my gift.”
“What did you see?” One of the guys asks me.
