AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I slipped my arm through his and pillowed my head on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to him.
He shook his head. “This isn’t your fault.”
He was wrong, but I was too much of a coward to say otherwise.
We found a vending machine on an entirely different floor. Edmund had to pay; neither I nor Lavena had money on us. He didn’t complain as he pulled out his wallet.
It was evident Marcella had been crying when we returned. Her mascara was smudged around her eyes and her foundation was streaked, but she smiled when we returned and motioned me to sit next to her with my paper cup of coffee.
“The police were here,” she whispered. “They wanted your statement.”
I nodded, that making sense. “Are they still here?”
Marcella shrugged, brown eyes moving to the opening. “Probably, but,” her attention returned to me, “you can’t tell them what happened.”
I blinked. “What? Why?”
She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “They won’t fix this the way we will. Getting them involved was why Darius went to prison. They make a mess. We will deal with this our way once and for all.”
I probably should have thought about it a bit longer than a second, but she was right. That was how it needed to be. “What’s the story?”
There was a ghost of a smile on her face when she replied, “It was a robbery. He wanted Darius’s wallet. Darius refused. The guy had a knife. It happened too fast. You didn’t see anything, except that he was wearing black. If they ask if you can think of anyone who would want to hurt Darius, no. You can’t think of anyone, okay?”
I nodded.
I probably should have felt horrible for undermining the investigation in case they could actually catch the guy, but the person with the knife was only a person with a knife. He wasdoing a job. He was told who to go after, where to be and when. He wasn’t innocence in this and would need to pay for what he’s done, but the real culprit was the motherfucker who sent him. He was the one I wanted to see fry, to bleed out while his loved ones watched.
It should have concerned me just how quickly my pain and terror flipped to rage and bloodlust. It should have scared me how easily the slow and brutal death of another person soothed me, but it didn’t. All I knew was that if Darius didn’t make it, if I lost him, I would hunt down every person responsible and gut them alive.
The two uniformed police officers who found me ten minutes later did their best with the little information I could give them. They scribbled it all down and I watched them try to build a picture from a scene that didn’t happen.
“We’re going to do everything we can to catch whoever did this,” the younger of the two assured us.
I appreciated his enthusiasm, but he wouldn’t. He wasn’t looking in the right place.
Kas arrived shortly after the pair left, hauling a duffle bag. I took it gratefully and wandered my way to the nearest bathroom. Lavena and Kas followed silently.
She’d swapped her own dress for jeans and a comfy sweater and brought a pair of sweaters and puffy tops for me and Lavena as well as shoes and a whole pack of wipes. The two helped me use half of it scrubbing Darius’s blood off my hand, arms, chest, and legs. No one spoke for several minutes until the job was done.
“Thanks,” I said.
The two gave me tired smiles, but neither spoke.
We changed quickly and returned to the waiting room to find a family with three small children taking up an entire wall. The youngest wailed, clutching his ears. We took our spots withoutlooking at them. Lavena rested her head on my shoulder, and I leaned mine over top of her head and we sat that way.
It was ten in the morning when a doctor finally emerged with news.
“It was a rough night,” he said with a little chuckle, “but we got him patched up. There were four entry wounds, one on his side and three in his abdomen. Someone up there was looking out for him because somehow, all the vital organs were missed. He’s finally out of recovery and in his room. We’re going to keep him a few more nights just to make sure he’s okay to go home, but from what I can see, he should be back on his feet in no time.”
“When can we see him?” I blurted before he finished speaking.
“I can take you now, but it’s family only.”
“We’re all family,” Lavena said, sliding an arm through mine and Kas’s.
The doctor looked on the verge of arguing, but one look from Alexander and he seemed to change his mind.
