Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
I go after them, grab a paramedic by the arm and make him face me. “Are they going to make it?”
The other man slams the door.
“Sir, we need to go. Now!”
“I’m riding with you.”
“There’s no room!” The other door is slammed shut, and the driver takes off.
“Fuck!” I push my hands into my hair and look around at the chaos of my sister’s wedding. A night that’s turned the courtyard of IVI bloodier than it’s ever been. Bloodier than perhaps that scaffold that stands concealed but ready in the small, grassy area behind The Tribunal building.
I need a car. I need a fucking car.
“Sir! Santiago!” I spin to find Raul, Judge’s driver, rushing toward me. “I’ll take you to the hospital. This way.”
I follow him to his Rolls—the one Judge and Mercedes rode in—and we drive at breakneck speed toward the hospital, the sirens that were fading growing louder when we pull into the lot just as they’re unloading the Montgomery brothers.
Fuck. Both of them like this. Both unconscious. Surely, the gods cannot be this cruel, but they are. I know that well.
“Thank you,” I tell Raul.
“Sir, his wife?” he asks. “He’ll want her here.”
I stop, think, then nod. “Yes. Okay. I’ll make a call. She’s at De La Rosa Manor.”
“I’ll bring her.”
I text Marco as I rush into the hospital to let him know Raul is coming for Mercedes. I can just imagine how crazed she must be right now. How panicked. She was prepared to raise her children on her own. It took so long for Judge to get to this point. To marry her. And it feels like fate has betrayed her doubly. To hang that future in front of her eyes only to snatch it away so violently.
No. I cannot think like this.
He will survive. He will make it. He has to. His brother, though, he looked really bad, the skin of his face an unnatural gray.
“Where are the Montgomery brothers? They were in the ambulance that just came in,” I say to the woman at the reception desk. She should know them. This is a Society hospital.
She takes a look at me, and I glance down, seeing the smear of Judge’s blood on me. Given that and the half-skull tattoo on my face, I understand the panic on hers. But I don’t care. I slam my hands on the counter.
“Where the fuck are they?”
“Surgery. Surgery rooms six and seven.”
“Mr. De La Rosa.” I turn to find Dr. Barnes hurrying in through the sliding glass doors. He gives the woman at the desk a nod and takes my arm. “Come with me. I’ll take you where we can wait.”
“My sister. She’s on her way.”
He turns to the woman at the desk. “Make sure Mrs. Montgomery is taken to waiting room one.”
Mrs. Montgomery. She has barely been that for a few minutes. Will she be a widow already?
Jesus Christ.
“Sir, let’s go. I can check in and let you know what’s going on in surgery.”
I nod and let him lead me to a waiting room that is meant to be comfortable and welcoming. I doubt it provides either comfort or welcome to those who must wait here, though. And tonight, it’s all pacing and watching that damn screen with information that never seems to fucking update. I remember the last time I sat in this waiting room and watched the same board for news on Ivy. When I was sure I’d lost her.
Fate has been ugly to us.
“Santi?” Mercedes’s choked voice breaks into my dark reverie. I turn to see her still in her dress, blood still smeared on her face, dark across the chest of the crimson dress, the swell of her stomach. Her makeup is smeared, and she’s crying.
I go to her, take her in my arms and hold her tight as her body is wracked by sobs too violent for any human being to bear.
23
JUDGE
I wake with a headache that rivals any I’ve ever had.
A gasp nearby has me turn my head in that direction but opening my eyes seems to present a challenge I am not up for.
“Judge!” It’s Mercedes. Her voice breaks on my name as both of her hands close around one of mine. I drag my eyes open, the light so bright behind her it’s painful, but in that light, she looks so lovely, so like an angel with a sweep of dark hair cascading around her. I smell her shampoo when she leans closer to peer at me. For a moment, I wonder if I haven’t died. If we haven’t died. “Judge,” she says again more quietly this time as she sucks in three short breaths. Tears mar her beautiful angel’s face. She looks like she’s been crying for days.
“We must be dead,” I manage as I reach up to brush my fingers over her face and wipe away some of those tears. I have seen too many of them during these past months.