Page 142 of Stitches

We all remained silent at his words.

“Good.” Church let his head fall back. “We need someone to stay with her while we find whoever did this to her. Is she safe?” He turned his attention to Asylum.

“Do men who touch what belong to us die?” He cocked his head to the left.

“They do,” I said, getting to my feet.

“Then you know the answer to that question.” Asylum closed his eyes. “I’m going to stay right here too. I’m too weak to leave, and honestly, I want to be with her. This is where I need to be.” He was pale and shaking and seemed oddlynormalin character. No rhyming or anything but pure worry on his face.

“Call us if anything changes,” Ashes said, getting to his feet.

Asylum gave him a tired nod.

“Let’s go.” Church turned and walked out of the med ward, us following him into the night.

* * *

We’d madeit a point to tell no one about what had happened to Sirena. We’d gone back to where she was found and looked around but couldn’t find anything. Church made us go home and sleep while he returned to the med ward.

I’d wanted to go too, but I saw the look on his face. He was worried about me and wanted me to rest.

As much as I wanted to scream at him that I needed to be there too, I’d gone with Ashes home.

We both lay on the wraparound couch, dozing off here and there. The moment my eyes snapped open though, I was dressed and heading back to the med ward, leaving Ashes to sleep since I knew he’d barely done any of it.

“How is she?” I demanded, meeting Church in the lobby.

“Sleeping. She still hasn’t woken, but they gave her a lot of pain meds. She most likely won’t wake for a while.

“Asylum?”

“Not here. I made him go home and sleep. He fought me.” He pointed to the blackening beneath his eye. “But I won in the end.”

I nodded tightly. “And Sin?”

“Still with her. Won’t leave.”

Something about that did something good to my insides. A painful good.

“I’m not going to make him leave,” Church continued. “Not this time.”

“Good,” I said.

Church nodded for me to follow him.

“As long as Sin or one of us is with her, she should be fine. As soon as she wakes, I’m bringing her back to our house.”

“Should we tell Cady?” I asked.

“No. I know Ashes wanted to, but let’s not. She’s fucking hell to deal with on a good day. Let’s just keep this to ourselves for now until we see what happens. I even got them to not call her parents.”

“How?”

“I threatened to steal their children and feed them to the rich,” he said simply. “Not even Sully knows she’s here. I don’t know for how long, which is why we need to move fast. One of the nurses told me he’s out for the weekend, which makes this work in our favor. She’s in a private room.”

He pushed open the door to the room she was in and led me inside.

Sin lay with his head on her mattress, her hand in his. He lifted his head up, his eyes filled with sleep.

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