Page 91 of Fool's Gold

She makes no further comment. Her movements are perfunctory and professional, and she barely bats an eyelash when a yell cuts through the night.

I glance up too fast, causing me to wince, and there’s Empire, fucking rushing up to us, still in her evening gown. Safe, alive. Here.

“Marcus, damn you!” She doesn’t stop. Only barrels forward and launches herself at me, her arms around my neck and her breasts pressing to my chest. “You’re alive. You’re really alive.”

Despite being in a crazy amount of agony, made all the worse by her knee digging into my groin, I’m not going to let her go. Not when she feels like heaven, and I know, in my gut, she’s the one who saved me.

“Miss, please, we need you to back up,” the younger EMT states.

I wrap her up in my arms and growl over her head in a clear warning that she’s not fucking going anywhere. “How did you find me?” Shit, my swollen tongue makes it hard to talk. The words are a garble and a bit of blood gushes out of the corner of my mouth.

The pain is all-encompassing. With every breath I take, the bruises and breaks and split skin heave and throb. But there is no fucking way I’m letting go of her. Not when I doubted I’d ever see her again.

Empire pulls back long enough to grab something from her purse.

She’s still got her damn purse with her?

From its depths, she drags her cell, and with a flick of the screen, she opens an app. “The same app you use to track me,” she says with a wild grin. She’s breathing heavily. “I used it on you.”

The happiness is tempered by the tears ready to drop from the corners of her eyes, and I squeeze her tight to my chest before I have to watch them fall. “Fuck, Em.”

“Did you not realize it allows me to see where you are?”

“I’m just happy she didn’t toss my phone when she tied me down.”

Empire shudders on my lap.

I never want to say the woman’s name again. Never want to think about her and the end I narrowly avoided. Again. How can a piece of shit like me get this lucky? I escaped the hangman’s noose more times than a cat working on its last life. What’s going to happen to me next time when she isn’t around to save me?

“Come on,” Empire murmurs after I don’t know how much time has passed. She pries herself off my lap, stumbling back on those too-high heels and holding out a hand. “Let’s go home.”

“Miss, he needs to be taken to a hospital,” the EMT argues.

“I’ll have someone come to the house.”

The sound of her snapping is music to my ears. The pain is worth it, almost. The agony is worth it to have her here, even with the nagging sensation tickling at the back of my mind, vying for acknowledgment.

Celeste and her people might be taken in by SWAT, but the contract is still there somewhere, which means Empire belongs to Stanic. Signed and sealed and all but delivered.

The thought eddies out of my head when I take a step and trip, faltering forward and forcing Empire into action. She and the EMTs move at the same time, one on either side of me for support.

The world around us buzzes, everything happening at once, the edges of my vision blurry. Empire’s there saying something about getting a nurse or doctor to come to the house. She’s there helping me into the back of the car, where I immediately drop onto my shoulder, my face sagging into the seat.

She’s there holding my hand, cradling me, as the driver takes off and leaves the blare of the ambulance behind.

She’s there.

But for how long before Stanic comes to finish what he started?

TWENTY-NINE

The man doesn’t stop. It’s one of the things I love about him.

No one cleared him to go home, but there was no way in hell I wanted to spend any time at a hospital. Those clinical, sterile hallways and the scent of things best left alone with every breath… No thanks.

The EMTs pretty much cursed me for using a heavy hand with them, and although it’s not their fault we’re in this position, I can’t let them take him to a hospital. Luckily, Marcus agrees.

Money means I can do what I want, and it’s about time I use that power for good.

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