Chapter Fourteen
THE AMBULANCE SIRENSwail above me, but the sound feels distant.Muffled. Like hearing the world through water.
I’m numb.
Completely, utterly numb.
I should be crying. I should be screaming. Instead I’m just sitting here like a broken mannequin, which Jassy would probably say is very on-brand for me.
My eyes stay fixed on Zacharie’s hand wrapped around mine. His grip is tight—too tight, really, his knuckles white with the effort of holding on. Like he’s afraid I might slip away if he loosens his fingers even slightly.
And even now, even bleeding, even with paramedics swarming around him—his thumb traces that familiar pattern on my knuckles.
Here. Now. Breathe.
The gesture cracks something inside my chest.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” he says.
His voice is steady.Calm. The same voice he uses when explaining security protocols or talking down armed criminals.
But I can see the truth.
His face is pale beneath the dried blood still streaking his temple. His breathing is shallow, labored, each exhale costing him something. The paramedics move around him with urgent efficiency, hands pressing gauze against his shoulder where the bullet tore through, their murmured instructions sharp with barely concealed alarm. The smell of copper and antiseptic fills the cramped space, and I can feel the cold metal of the ambulance wall pressing against my back, grounding me in a reality I don’t want to be part of.
“I’ve had worse,” he adds.
I nod.
“So everything’s going to be okay.”
He says a couple other things, too. Something about Braxton being dead. Something about security details and safe houses and plans he’s already set in motion. But none of it really sinks in.
All I can see are faces.
Dane, pale and unconscious in a hospital bed.
Trina, smiling in photographs at her own funeral.
The other girls from the auction—thriving in their new lives, Tanya had said. Clean breaks. Fresh starts. While I’m still here, still creating problems, still dragging everyone around me into danger.
And maybe...
Maybe it’s also my fault that Braxton became the monster he was?
