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“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” I said, air hissing through my teeth.
The glint in his eyes sharpened, and I slipped an inch. He was groaning with the effort of pushing that knife toward my heart, and there was only so much I could do. Any move I made that took away from my concentration would cost me my life. And then Evelyn’s.
Evelyn yelled, and the sound of glass shattering made me close my eyes. Nathan went limp, and I didn’t hesitate. We rolled together as I flipped the knife, and it slid into his body far too easily. He stared at me for a moment and blinked. The madness died, and in the moment before he was gone, I saw who he might have been.
Then he was gone.
The door crashed open, followed by a screaming nurse.
Ev was swaying on her feet, and I moved to catch her. “Watch out.” I lifted her off the floor. Her feet were bare and the shards of the lamp she’d broken over Nathan’s head were everywhere. “Are you all right?”
She looked up at me, eyes glassy with tears. “Am I all right? He almost killed you.”
“But he didn’t,” I said. She was still in my arms and for the time being, that was where she was going to stay. “You saved me.”
“He—” She swallowed. “He’s gone?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn melted into tears. In the time I’d known her, I’d never seen her cry. Not truly. She’d teared up, but nothing like this. These sobs came from somewhere deep. Relief, because the nightmare was finally, truly over. Nathan was dead. He couldn’t hurt her anymore.
I held her close until her crying slowed. Nurses and the police came while she cried, and I waved them away. They went. Nathan’s body wasn’t going anywhere.
Finally, when her breath had evened out, I tilted her face up to mine and kissed her. “It’s really over now. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
She shuddered, and I reached over to the bedside table to get a tissue and helped her dry her eyes.
“The police are here,” I said gently. “They’re going to want to talk to you.”
She nodded. “Just about this though, right? I’m not ready for the rest of it.”
“He’s dead. You don’t have to press charges to keep him in jail. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t have to tell anyone what happened. Ever.”
With all the pain and anguish that Nathan had caused, it felt like he would have gone less quietly. But from where I sat, I could see the blood pooling on the floor, and I wished that I could feel the slightest sliver of guilt for killing him. I didn’t. Neither Evelyn nor I would have to look over our shoulders again, wondering if he was out there.
When Charlie came back to the door, I nodded. I didn’t let go of Evelyn as they took the body away, and she hid her face in my shirt as the gurney was wheeled out.
The statements were short and simple. Knowing what he did about Nathan, Charlie believed me when I told him that he’d come at me with the knife. And the broken ceramic all over the floor proved that Ev had thrown the lamp.
Nathan’s biggest asset had been money. The kind of money that could pay off lawyers and cops to get him out of jail or buy fifteen custom gravestones and protection so tight that no one could find him. But even money couldn’t fight death, and his death was clear-cut self-defense. He’d known that Ev and Lena would send him to jail, so he’d taken one final chance and lost.
The cops left soon after, and we moved to a different room, away from the blood and the carnage, leaving the final black rose behind.
“Evelyn!” Lena burst through the door in a gown and still hooked up to an IV, a harried Grace running in after her.
I’d finally put Ev down, and Lena practically tackled her friend. Though she was mindful of her wounds. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” The bakery owner was crying, and Evelyn was too. There was something different about Lena. Even at her most vibrant, she hadn’t sounded like this. Words poured out of her. “I’m so sorry. I tried to do something. I tried so hard, but I couldn’t move.”
Nausea filled my gut as I realized that Lena had been forced to watch Evelyn be tortured. If I’d seen that...
“There’s nothing you could have done,” Ev said. “And you’re okay?”
“I’m high as fuck right now,” Lena said. “And I’ll be honest, I probably won’t remember any of this. But I’m okay.”
Ev looked at Grace, who was smiling. “She’ll be all right,” the redhead confirmed. “She’s going to stay with me for a few days.”
Harlan stepped into the room, and the second he did, Grace’s eyes were on him. I didn’t fail to notice the way she looked him up and down like she was making sure that he was okay. “Grace.”
“You’re in one piece, I see.” Her tone was sarcastic, but I heard relief too.
