Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“You had to—” I couldn’t even get the words out, they were so abhorrent.
You had to shoot the man you loved. Your other half. Your soul mate.
“And I would do it again,” she said softly, looking into my eyes. “And Samson wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“I don’t understand why this happened,” I said helplessly, my breath hitching. “It’s not fair.”
“There was something wrong, No,” she said, wiping her eyes. “There had to be. Nothing else makes a damn bit of sense.”
“I kept thinking he would get better.”
“So did I,” she whispered, looking down at the bed. “You told me that he shoved you. You warned me.” She lifted her head and her eyes were filled with shame. “When I asked him about it, he acted as if he didn’t know what you were talking about. And I couldn’t—I couldn’t imagine a world where he would lay a hand on you, so I believed him.”
I swallowed hard, looking away.
“None of this is your fault, Nova,” she said. “It’s mine, and this is my penance.”
“Shooting Pop?” I asked, the words torn out of me.
“Living without him,” she clarified. “Maybe if I’d gotten him some help sooner, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Are they going to put you in jail?”
“You don’t worry about that,” she said, attempting and failing to smile at me. “I’ll get it all figured out.”
“They have to know it was self-defense.” I looked down at my bruised and battered body.
“It’ll all come out how it’s supposed to,” she said simply. “Now, your Rumi left to give us some time to ourselves, but he’s been pacing outside the door for almost an hour. Want me to let him in?”
“Are you leaving?” I asked anxiously.
“I’m just going to check on your brother again, alright? I’ll be right across the hall.”
“Okay,” I murmured as she stood up and leaned in to hug me.
“I love you,” she whispered into my hair. “So much I can barely contain it.”
“I love you, too,” I replied, the familiar words comforting me as I held on to her.
“We’re gonna get through this, baby,” she said, kissing my head. “You’ll see.”
“I miss him already,” I confessed.
“I’ve been missing him for months,” she replied.
Seconds after she’d left, Rumi came striding back into the room, the largest bouquet of flowers I’d ever seen in his arms.
“Did you rob a florist?” I asked in surprise as he set them down on the counter.
“I had some time to kill after Ash kicked me out,” he said sheepishly, coming to my side. “How you feelin’?”
“My head hurts.”
“I bet it does.”
“Everything hurts, actually.”
“I bet it does,” he repeated.
“Hey, Rum,” I murmured as he gently ran his finger down my cheek.
“What’s up, sugar?”
“I need you to call the police.”
“What the hell for?”
“I’m ready to tell them what happened.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” he asked, frowning. “Maybe you should wait.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have to be relivin’ all that shit yet. Give it a day or two, yeah? Let your body heal a little.”
“I love you, Rum,” I replied. “And I love that you want to shield me—”
“Fucked that up, royally,” he muttered.
“But I’m going to be reliving the last twenty-four hours for the rest of my life,” I continued, ignoring his self-flagellation. “Talking about it won’t bring it back up. It’s already there.”
“Alright,” he said slowly. “Let’s call Dragon in here first, though, okay? Make sure—”
“Make sure, what?”
“Just make sure that it won’t fuck anythin’ for Ash, yeah?”
“Okay,” I replied with a sigh. “Call him in.”
Rumi pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“Can you also call the nurse? My head is killing me.”
Rumi hesitated.
“What?”
“Well, you’re not supposed to have flowers while you’re still in the emergency department,” he said sheepishly.
I laughed and then groaned, my rib protesting. It felt like I was being stabbed.
“Okay, okay,” he said, grabbing the little remote by my bed. “Calling the nurse.”
By the time Dragon, Grease, and Casper filed into my room, the nurse had already been in to give me ibuprofen—which wasn’t making a damn bit of difference.
“Hey, doll,” Casper said, the first one to actually move further than a foot into the room. He came up beside me and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “How you doin’?”
“Not great,” I said dryly, making him smile.
“You’re talkin’,” he said. “That’s somethin’.”
“Rumi says you’d like to talk to the police now,” Grease said, nodding to his grandson as he came closer. “There anythin’ you wanna talk to us about first?”
“No.” I looked at Rumi in surprise. “He thought that maybe I should talk to you first. To make sure that I didn’t say the wrong thing, or—”
“There is no wrong thing,” Dragon said from his place by the door. “Samson lost his mind and beat you nearly to death. Don’t need our permission to tell the cops exactly that.”
“Do you think they’ll leave Nana alone if I tell them?” I asked, afraid of the answer.