CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN
Drago
We’re back at my place, and I told Lily to stay downstairs. Not because I didn’t want her close. Because I couldn’t bear to let her see what was waiting for us upstairs.
I keep checking my phone for updates from Finn.
Lev’s in a coma.
They got the bullet out and repaired as much as they could. A blood transfusion. Finn kept spitting medical terms at me like facts are supposed to soften grief.
Every single one just fucking broke me more. But I’m doing what Lev asked me to do.
Protecting his daughter. Keeping her safe.
Even if it’s from more trauma.
The hot water in the bucket steams against my hands. The smell of soap barely cuts through the metallic tang clinging to the hallway.
Blood.
Lev’s blood.
I shove the sponge back into the water, squeeze it out until it’s heavy and red again, and press it to the wood.
Scrub.
Scrub.
Scrub.
It just smears.
Like the house won’t let me erase him. Like I’m cleaning the last parts of him that are left.
My throat tightens as his broken voice replays in my head.
Was that the last time I’ll ever speak to him? There are so many things I didn’t get to say. So many things he didn’t get to experience.
Lev never got a life outside of this. He never stopped fighting, never stopped running. He never just… lived.
And I vow I will. I promised him I’d save his baby. Now, I have to make her happy.
That just surviving shit stops for me today, because the other half of my soul is downstairs, and she deserves all of me.
Not just the parts I can give her. Not just what I think I’m capable of. She deserves my whole heart. She deserves the man I promised myself I’d never become. She deserves peace.
And I owe her my damn life.
I sit back on my heels and blow out a breath, staring at the blood on the white walls, the streaks where my hands have wiped and wiped and wiped, and it still looks like death.
Maybe I should just burn this fucking place down too.
Like Inferno.
Because no amount of Lily’s sage is going to burn these memories from my brain.
What if I never brought him back here? Would he still be alive? What if I didn’t give Maria permission to enter Decadence?
