“Ollie! Enough!” Billy booms.
But I don’t. I can’t. So I curl my fingers, squeezing his esophagus and yanking on it until I know he won’t speak again for a good long while. Winding my arm back, I drive it forward and shatter his nose. I feel the crumble of cartilage beneath my knuckles. And then I feel guilty when my elbow collides with someone behind me, shattering bone there, too.
“Ollie!” Ramone snaps. “He’s done! Stop.”
“Ollie! Rose needs you.”
Incensed, I slam Darcy’s skull against the base of a fir tree, then, twisting, I find Rose and my sister huddled together. Eliza kneels beside her, cupping her bloodied face and attempting to turn her away. “She needs you,” Eliza croons, her chest and shoulders hitching with emotion. She uses the sleeve of her hoodie and carefully swipes blood from Rose’s cheek, tucking long black hair behind her ear.
Eliza’s breathing is even. But Rose’s… I’m not sure she breathes at all.
“Come over here, Ollie.” My baby sister wraps her arms around Rose’s trembling shoulders. “She needs you.”
“Ollie?” Rose breaks, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh my God, Ollie.”
“I’m coming.” I scramble across the mossy ground and scoop her into my arms. “I’m here.” I kiss her temple. Her forehead. Her hair. “You’re okay, Rose.” Her cheek. Her forehead again. “I’ve got you.”
Eliza climbs to her feet and drags the hoodie over her head, draping it over my shoulder. Then she steps away.
“What hurts?” I use the hoodie to wipe Rose’s face. Her chest. Her neck. Am I Doctor Darling right now, cool and collected amongst chaos? Or am I Oliver, the guy who makes poor choices sometimes? The one who couldn’t save his best friend’s wife during a routine delivery, because she started bleeding, and I couldn’t find the reason why until it was too late. The one who called Tommy away from his home and placed Alana in danger a decade ago.
The one who fuckseverythingup.
“Rose?” My eyes burn and turn blurry. The harder I stare, the worse they get. “I need you to take a breath, okay? Rosaline?” I force myself into her line of vision. “You hit your head, okay?”God. Has she forgotten me?“I-it looks like you hit it pretty hard. I’m Doctor Darling,” I rasp. “I’m gonna help you, okay?” I swallow the ache in my throat. The tears burning the backs of my eyes. “You’ve been in a car accident, but you’re going to be okay.”
Her lips droop into a devastated pout, thick and sad and quivering. “I was mixing my dreams up. I didn’t shoot Liam,” she whimpers. “I shot Darcy.”
My breath catches, my heart hammering against my diaphragm. “You remember?”
“Yes. I?—”
“You remember your name? D-do you remember mine?”
“Yes. I remember.” She buries her face against the side of my neck and sobs. “Liam was my friend, Ollie. He was protecting me.”
“I know.” I almost lost her. Fuck. I almostgaveher to him. “I’m so sorry, Rose.” I pull back and cup her face, sniffling and dragging rainwater up my nostrils until it dribbles down the back of my throat again. “I’m gonna help you get better, okay? And I’ll call Doctor Pratlin and get him to help you, too.”
“Eliza!” Billy roars.
I swing around and watch my sister curb stomp the prick. “You.”Stomp. “Don’t.”Stomp. “Hit.”Stomp. “Women!” She grabs Darcy by the throat, much the same way I did, and looks him dead in the eye. “But I’m a woman, and I’m ready to fight.” She slams her elbow across the side of his face and knocks him unconscious, releasing him until he collapses back against the tree. Then she straightens and sets her hands on her hips, grinning as she looks Billy up and down.
He holds his nose, blood pouring through his hands.
Curious, she tilts her head to the side. “What happened to you?”
“Y-you hit him by accident,” Rose sniffles, a shaky smile crawling across her lips and up to almost touch her eyes. “Will he arrest you for that?”
“Absolutely not.” I surge to my feet and pull her up with me, wrapping my arm around her torso and anchoring my hand at her hip. She sways dizzily, so I hold on, swiping her cheeks clear of tears. Useless, really, because the rain continues to bucket down over top of us. “He chipped my tooth a while back. I owed him this one.
“Fuckin’ Darlings,” Billy growls, stalking forward and coming to a stop in front of Ramone. Like they’ve done this before, he lowers his hands and closes his eyes, then Ramone sandwiches Billy’s crooked nose between his palms and snaps the bone back into place. “Fuck!” Furious, he glares across at me. Then he swings his ire to Eliza. “Your boot print is stamped into his face! How the fuck am I supposed to explain that?”
“I stumbled.” Unashamed, she turns our way and wanders closer. “I saw you had the jitz.” She tucks Rose’s hair back and releases a watery, tearful snicker. “I’m so freakin’ proud of you.”
“I was fighting back,” Rose rasps past an aching throat. “I did what you said to do.”
“I know.” She forces herself into our hug and sneakily takes a fraction of Rose’s weight. “I’ve never been so proud of a student as I am right now. You’re the baddest baddie I ever met in my whole life.”
“We need to go to the hospital.” I look toward Billy and scowl as he stands over Darcy.Leave him. Let him drown.“Now.”
