He’s toying with me on purpose.
“I’m going to love taking you apart.”
My hands shake.A tear begins a slow descent over my cheek, down my neck.
Why are they taking so long?I shouldn’t have told him to leave.Should have jumped, reached, anything.Then I wouldn’t be here.
What if I can’t do this?
Pops sound as multiple boxes open, and immediately, he’s firing inside the room.I risk a glance.
His back is to me, and he’s inching inside.I need him to take one more step …
He takes it.
Got you, you little shit.
I slam the door closed behind him.
Then I run.
Lucky is waiting for me when I break out into the stairwell again, and that’s when I hear gunfire upstairs.
“What—”
“No time,” he says, swallowing me in a hug, and I feel a familiar tug in my gut.
Sterling is mid-yell when we blink into Lucky’s apartment.“… meant to be protecting her.Anything could have—Mia, fuck, are you okay?”
Am I?I don’t think my knees are working.They’re liquid beneath me, folding as I slide down to the floor.My heart is racing.
“You’re late,” I whisper.
The floor is shaking.No, that can’t be right.It must be me.It’s hard to tell.There’s nothing to focus on, nothing but a blank void of space in my mind, a white expanse with nothing to cling to.
Pressure closes in on me, enveloping me in heat and the familiar scent of Lucky’s shampoo, Sterling’s aftershave.Oh, that’s nice.I let them gather me up off of the floor and sink into the solid feel of someone’s chest as my eyes close.
“We shouldn’t have left her.”
Sterling.
We sink down.The couch?I don’t care.It’s nice here, in the heat of his arms.Safe.Still.I hear his heartbeat.It’s strong, like him.
There’s a distant echo of movement, a cupboard, the tap.
“I know.I thought I was fast enough, thought I could get you out of there and get back to her, but she wasn’t there, and I?—”
“I know.Fuck, her heart is beating really fast.I think she’s having an adrenaline crash.”
Am I?All I can feel is warm and safe.Then the cool press of a glass in my hand.Oh, water.I blink open my eyes as I take it from Lucky and feel his fear like a physical thing in the air between us.
“It’s okay,” I say—because it is now.
I’m here, and he’s here, and Sterling is here, and we’re all okay.
“It’s over now.”
“Yes, it’s over,” Sterling assures me.
