I’d dare say there’s healing going on, and all it took was me getting kidnapped by a fraud of a guru and him trying to kill me.
It’sa long two fucking hours until the hospital will release me. I’m very, very ready for some quiet by the time the nurse finally takes my IV out and signs my discharge papers.
My body still feels wrong. Like it’s recovering from the inside out. My stomach twists with leftover acid, and everything aches. My throat feels like I swallowed bleach and gravel. But I’m alive. I’m upright. And that’s more than Phoenix wanted for me.
“Take it easy for a few days,” the nurse says, fixing me with sharp eyes. “Nothing too strenuous or emotionally taxing. Lots and lots of fluids, got it?”
“Got it,” I say, fighting the urge to bolt. I just want to leave.
With one last, sharp look, he finally hands over the discharge packet.
The second he leaves, Lucky slips his hand into mine and pulls it to his lips. “Let’s get you out of here,” he says softly.
Outside, the sun’s too bright, the air tastes dirty. Lucky unlocks the car—the car that is riddled withbullet holes—and helps me in like I might shatter.
“You can stop hovering,” I say, trying for humor.
“Not a chance,” he says as he buckles my seatbelt for me. “I almost lost you. I’m going to be clingy as fuck for at least a week, Dagger Kitten. Don’t get sick of me while I recover, okay?”
“Um, you took out a fucking psycho to save me,” I point out. “A psycho who, it turns out, had also killed a lot of people, by the way. We’re trauma-bonded now, baby.”
Lucky shakes his head like I just splashed him in the face with ice water with that revelation. “Well, that’s fucking great to hear. But on that… Phoenix is still alive.”
I do a double-take, blinking at Lucky in shock. “He got away!?”
Lucky quickly shakes his head, “No, no, no. I knocked him out.” He points to the bruise on his forehead. “Dad and the uncles tied him up. They’ve got him. The family’s been keeping him somewhere secure. Until you’re ready for him.”
For a second, all I hear is the ringing in my ears. Panic and rage took hold for a second as I imagined Phoenix once again slipping through my fingers. But that revelation, that he’s alive, that he’s waiting for me… My head is spinning a little. “You didn’t kill him?”
“I wanted to,” Lucky says, voice tight as he stands, leaning in my door. “Fuck, Willow, I wanted to. But then I heard you. You were—” His throat works. “You were barely breathing. And I knew that if anyone deserved to end him, it was you. You’ve worked so hard to bring him to justice, to take care of what the system has ignored. You deserve to be the one to do it.”
Something hot pricks the corners of my eyes. It’s not exactly tears, it’s something deeper. No one,no onehas ever understood me like Lucky. I’ve never been able to be my whole self around anyone else. This man could have let his anger, his fury, take over, and he could have ended Phoenix. But he understands what this means to me, and he held back.
He looks over at me finally, expression raw, unguarded. “When you’re ready. We’ll go. You end him. And I’ll be right there with you.”
I swallow hard and nod. “Thank you, Lucky. I want to do it. Today. In an hour. But first, I need a shower. I feel like I was dragged through the landfill of hell.”
Lucky just laughs, and it’s a relief to hear it. “Anything you want, Dagger Kitten.” He shuts my door and rounds to the driver’s seat. He starts the engine. And even though the windshield has two bullet holes in it, and the rest of the car has dozens more, he pulls forward and aims for the road.
“Your house,” I say as I look out the window. “I don’t know if my sisters are home, but if they are, I don’t want to have to answer their questions. They don’t need to know about any of this.”
Lucky reaches across the console and takes my hand. He doesn’t have any siblings, so he doesn’t understand the burden of being the eldest, of always protecting your siblings. But he can at least empathize.
I feel like a zombie when we’re parked, and we ride the elevator up to the penthouse. I don’t even remember walking through the beautiful space. All I can think isclean water, clean water.
The second I shut the bathroom door, I finally exhale.
The click of the lock feels like a breath of relief. Even though none of it was bad, from the moment I woke up, a lot kept happening. Lucky’s family. The truth. Now, I finally have a fewmoments to myself. For a moment, I just stand there, palms flat on the counter, watching my reflection.
The hospital bandage still circles my wrist. My eyes are bruised, bloodshot. My lips are dry and cracked from Phoenix’s poison. I look like a woman who survived something unholy—and did it by sheer spite.
I peel away my clothes like I’m molting a dead thing. My shirt. My pants. Even my bra and underwear feel like I’ve worn them for a month straight. I dump all of it straight into the garbage can.
Finally, I step into the hot water.
The first shock of heat makes my skin scream. The second wave feels like penance. By the third, I tilt my head back and let it burn.
My stomach still twists. The poison, whatever he made me drink, left its mark. The doctors said my body was flushing it out, but I can still feel it burning under my ribs. Like he tried to plant something in me.
