AllFreeNovel
Share Us
While I watch, I see James’s chest rise and fall. He stirs, then turns on his side, opening his eyes to look at me. Before he can scream or say anything, I throw the knife at him, watching it sink to the hilt in his eye.
Now they’re all dead.
Just to be sure, I go around and check their pulses. Yep, dead.
Blowing out a deep breath, I try to clean myself up as best I can before I make my way to Damon’s room. My nose has stopped bleeding, but my arm is leaving trails down the hallway. I’ll make sure to clean that up.
“Damon, it’s me,” I say after I knock on the door.
It opens quickly and Damon throws his arms around me. I hiss when I lift my arm to wrap around him, but I don’t regret holding him in my arms.
He’s trembling slightly and I hold him tighter. “I’m here, baby. Talk to me.”
Damon shivers. “They’re dead.” He lets out a shaky breath. “I thought I would feel worse if they died. I mean, I envisioned it, but I thought I was a bad person and told myself I would feel like shit if they really died. But I don’t.” He peers up at me and I see tears brimming in his eyes. “I’m free,” he whispers, then buries his head in my chest, sobbing.
I hold him, rocking him slowly. “You’re free, baby,” I murmur. “You’re free.”
I’m not sure how long we stand there, and it doesn’t matter. I hold Damon until his cries subside.
Tilting his head up, I wipe his tears with my clean hand. “I have to get someone here to clean this up. You want to stay with me or stay in your room?”
“I’ll always want to be where you are,” Damon whispers earnestly.
Nodding, I tuck him to my side, and we walk to the living room. We sit on the couch and I pull my phone from my pocket to call Quin.
“It’s done,” I tell him when he answers.
“Clean up?” he asks.
“Yep.”
“Done. My contact will be there in twenty. Don’t leave. They might need help. And don’t worry, they’re discreet.” We click off and I pull Damon on my lap.
“You’re bleeding,” Damon says, pulling my arm towards him. “Here, we have a first aid kit.”
He hobbles to get it, holding his side, and I lean back, closing my eyes. They’ll be black and blue soon from my broken nose. I touch it gingerly and wince when my fingers land lightly on it. Fuck. I haven’t been in a fight like that in years. Three opponents in less than an hour. I’m getting too old for this shit.
Damon comes back and sits on the floor in front of me to clean the gash on my arm. I curse when he rubs alcohol pads over it, the burn making my heart stutter a little. He gives me an apologetic look but keeps gingerly cleaning me up.
I get fed up with the slow burn and take a bottle of alcohol, open it, and dump it on the slice. “Fuck me!” I growl, clenching my teeth so I don’t cry out more from the immense pain.
Damon gives me a reproachful look. “That was unnecessary.” He pulls my arm back to him, using gauze to mop up the alcohol and the fresh blood that’s dribbling down. When it’s clean, I twist my arm and see the gash isn’t deep, but it’s long.
Taking some clean gauze and medical tape, Damon wraps my arm up. When that’s done, he sits beside me, taking a fresh wipe to clean my face. “I don’t know how to set your nose. Do you?”
I nod, but don’t move to fix it. I’m already in pain from my arm—my nose can wait.
Sighing, Damon says, “Thank you. For coming for me and doing what you did. I thought I’d be stuck here forever. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too, baby.” If it weren’t for Brent and the shit James pulled before, I wouldn’t be here. If it were under different circumstances, I would thank James for bringing us together, but fuck that guy. I’m glad he’s dead for what he did to Brent, and what he did to Damon for over a decade and a half.
James and his sons terrorized this sweet man for years, stole from him, treated him like a maid, and basically made him a prisoner in his own home. They treated him so bad that I wonder how he turned out so fucking amazing.
He’s the sweetest man I’ve ever met. He’s optimistic, he’s loving, very caring, smart, and one of the best people I know. I get to see the real him.
During our two weeks together, he blossomed. He grew before my eyes. I knowthatDamon, not the one that was so beaten down that he was afraid of his own shadow. Not the one that was miserable in every aspect of his life, and not the Damon that hated putting on his clothes every day because he wasn’t comfortable.
I got to know the real Damon and I fell in love with him.
