Page 126 of Commit
“He carved the number fourteen on the inside of her upper thigh. That’ll scar, especially since there was already some scarring there, and so will the knife wound in her shoulder. There is a chance of muscle or nerve damage, but right now they aren’t sure. But other than some rope burns around her ankle, some bumps and bruises, and a mild concussion, she’s fine. Physically, at least. I can’t say what the fuck her head’s like.”
“She’ll be okay. I’ll make sure of it, even if I have to climb inside her head and fight all her demons for her.”
“I don’t doubt that for a second. Kenzo’s tossed Landon’s place and taken anything electronic; the same goes for his office at the law firm. I don’t know if he had anything on there that could incriminate you, but I wasn’t taking the risk. We had no choice but to bring the police in. It’s standard procedure when a firearm is involved, you know that.”
“How much do they know?”
“Enough. We had any record of the numbers carved into Starling and Abbot’s skin removed and covered with dressings so nobody sees them. I don’t want them linked to the other cases. The police aren’t any closer to finding the serial killer they were looking for, and now they never will be. With any luck, they’ll assume he’s been caught or has died. We’re playing it off as jealous rage. Landon had a mental breakdown when he found out you married Starling so soon after his mother died. Seeing Starling’s mouth stitched shut and you with a literal knife wound in you back, nobody’s going to claim anything other than self-defense.”
“If it was my bullet that killed him.”
“It was. He was already going down when I fired. Not that they’re going to find him.”
Everyone’s quiet for a minute, even Kenzo, as I take it all in.
“You gonna be okay? It’s gotta be rough knowing you killed your son, no matter the reason,” Kenzo asks, as blunt as ever.
“He touched Starling, made her bleed, fucking terrorized her. I was never going to let him live after that.”
Kenzo nods. “Good. What about Abbot?”
I look down at Starling and feel my jealousy warring with my need to make her happy. I know she’s pissed at me for ruining her chances of college. I know I’ve hurt her; that’s the whole fucking reason she left and got hurt. But even knowing that, I won’t take it back. Especially not now. The thought of her being away from me makes me lose what’s left of my mind. It’s not fucking happening.
She might hate me forever for taking her future from her, so the least I can do is let her hold on to a little bit of her past.
“She loves him, and he loves her. If I take him from her, she’ll take herself from me. I can’t risk it. Not again.”
“If it helps, what they have isn’t the same as what you have,” Atlas says, and Kenzo nods. “If they wanted to be together, they would have found a way around you. They could have run far away and lived out their lives together.”
“They might love each other, but something was missing for both of them. It’s not that hard to see that for Abbot, the relationship was missing dick, and for Kitten, it was missing you.”
“That was pretty profound for an asshole.”
“Thank you. I’m here all week.”
“Hudson?” Starling’s whisper has me jerking my head to look at her.
“Welcome back, Birdie.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and I curse as I tug her against me, biting my lip as white-hot pain spears through me.
“I’m okay.”
She lifts her head and reaches up to cup my face.
“I spent all afternoon thinking of ways to kill you, and then you were dying, and I—” her voice breaks with a sob.
I kiss her forehead and hold her.
“I’m not going anywhere, Birdie. It would take more than death to keep me from you. I love you.”
She sucks in a breath, tears in her eyes. “I love you too.”
I give her the softest, barely there kiss, not wanting to cause her any more pain but needing to seal our declarations.
Pulling back, she turns her head to look at Atlas and Kenzo.
“Thank you.”