The past few weeks with Odin had been the strangest and most surreal moments of my life. Yet, if I actually sat and thought about it, they had been the best three weeks of my life.
I didn’t want Odin to die. He didn’t deserve to die.
“Do you know who did it?” I asked.
“He’s been dealt with.”
I knew what that meant, and I stared at Odin and nodded my head. “That’s good. So, they know they failed?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That’s good.” I couldn’t help but grip his hand tightly. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Nothing will. And I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I couldn’t look away and I felt the tears glaze my eyes. I tried to suck them down, but the moment I blinked I felt them fall down my cheeks.
“Don’t,” he said.
“They’re going to keep trying to kill you, aren’t they?” He was never going to be free from what they did to him.
“No, but there is going to come a point when they will have no choice.”
“How?” I asked.
“Because there won’t be a single person left.”
In that moment, that was exactly what I wanted. They were not good people.
“Some will try to escape,” I said.
“They will not succeed.”
I swiped at my cheek, hoping to stop the tears, but now I was crying for a different reason.
“I stink,” I said.
“I know.”
And I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “You’re supposed to reassure me. Tell me I’m fine.”
“I promised I wouldn’t lie to you.”
This made me laugh. “Can I take a shower? Go home?” I held my hand up, that was stuck to the machine I knew was doing me more good than harm.
“Give me a moment.”
He got the doctor to come and give me a final check. I was a little unsteady on my feet, but I didn’t want to stay in the hospital. Doctor Hope promised to come and check on me in a few days, but he actually gave me the all clear. My vitals looked good, and my blood work had come back clean. I needed to go home and take a shower.
Odin helped me into some clothes. They were a pair of sweatpants and an oversized shirt that originally belonged to him, but I didn’t mind wearing them. They smelled like him.
He gathered the few items that were mine, but I held the card and the flowers, because they were my gifts. I couldn’t helpbut press my face into the flowers, as they smelled amazing. My first card and flowers, which had come from my husband.
I didn’t want to know about my family. As far as I was concerned, they were dead to me. After all this time, they had finally done something I could not forgive. Odin was not a bad guy. They had pushed him to this.
It was kind of ironic. The Serra Mafia and my family had created the very person that would cause their undoing, and I was going to have a front row seat.
****
