Page 33 of Ruined
“Paul,” she growls, venom dripping with his name.
“Baby, he deserves everything you gave him and more. If it makes you feel any better, I’d bet he got off easy.”
Her eyes narrow and her mouth twists into an expression of wrath and irritation. “He did, and that’s my fault. I wanted to do so much more to him. I wanted him to experience everything he put me through, including when he forced himself on me. I wanted to take one of the poles lying around and ram it up his ass.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at the image her last declaration sparks in me. The poetic justice would have been a sight to behold.
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “In the moment, though, everything came rushing to the surface, all the pain, anger, sadness, just—everything, and I got lost inside my head, unable to focus on him and what he put me through. Kain pulled me out and stopped me from killing him.”
I step closer to her and place my hands on her shoulders. She looks up at me with watery green eyes. “I’m glad Kain did that for you. It’s one thing to wish a man dead, it’s another to be the one to pull the trigger.”
She nods and gives herself a full body shake, schooling her expression into one that reads no-nonsense again. “So, what do we do now?”
I drop my arms and stand to the side so I can speak to them both. “First, I deal with Kain’s warehouse. Then, I call a meeting of the network leaders. I want you,” I look at Eden, “to speak with them. Bring Virgil’s crimes into the light. We need to gain their support against him and Donovan. I also want them to know what happened today. If, and that is a small if, Kain doesn’t survive, I will kill Donovan and anyone that gets in my way. They need to understand that. Once we have their support, we storm the club and take out Donovan and Virgil.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Eden says, shaking her head.
“Unless the network wants their dirty laundry aired for all the world to sniff, they won’t have a choice but to side with us this time. This time, I’m not taking no as an option.”
A chuckle escapes me at the expression of confusion that crosses Eden’s face. “Sometimes it pays to be hired to clean up others’ messes.”
“So, you have a little black book of your own, do you?” A wicked, satisfying grin passes her face and I offer her one of my own with a nod.
“There’s too much at stake now.”
Picking up my phone,I press the side button to illuminate the screen. No missed calls. No new messages.
“Dammit,” I whisper shout, nearly slamming my phone back down on my desk.
“Anything?” Jax asks, filing the last of our most recent closed case notes.
“Nothing, it’s been four hours since he called.” A maelstrom of emotions war inside me. Worry for Kain, not knowing if he’s all right is killing me. But a stronger feeling of frustration with Lucifer for not keeping me updated, drowns out some of my concern.
“I can finish up here if you wanna take off and go check on them,” Jax offers, waving towards the exit.
“Are you sure?” I ask, already standing from my desk and gathering my things.
“Yeah, man. Go check on your brother and girl. I got this.”
“She’s not my girl but thanks, I owe you one,” I say, slapping him on the back and rushing from the precinct.
I sit in a daze, staring up at the old Victorian house.How did I get here?I don’t remember stopping at red lights or stop signs.Did I hear any horns or sirens?Isn’t there a name for this feeling?Highway hypnosis, that’s it.
I give my face a little smack to knock some the fuzz from my mind and convince myself to get out of the car.
Walking through the front door, I’m hit with the ominousbeep … beep … beepof a heart monitor echoing through the large foyer from down the hall to the left. I follow the sound to the room they use as a makeshift emergency room and come to an abrupt stop, frozen in the doorway. A sinking hole of regret and apprehension form in the pit of my stomach at seeing Kain lying in a hospital bed, pale and lifeless.
“You can sit with him if you’d like.”
I startle, not expecting anyone else to be in here. Though, I’m not sure why. It’s not like they’d leave him alone in his condition.
Standing at the foot of the bed, Wyatt glances up at the monitor screens and jots notes on a chart housed in a metal clipboard.
“Just tell me, is he going to be okay?” My voice is colder than I mean it to be. A sad attempt to hold my composure, refusing to let the confusing emotions whirling around in my chest out. I rub a fist over the ache forming behind my sternum.
“That’s really up to him. If he wakes up in the next twenty-four hours, I’m hopeful he’ll make a full recovery, of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t have a long difficult road ahead of him.”
“And if he doesn’t?”