Page 105 of The Devil's Scars

Chapter Nineteen

Two days later, Zoe gazed at a sleeping Willa, still unable to believe that she was here – in Denver, in this hospital, in this bed. She was supposed to be safe and sound and happy, wandering the sun-kissed, golden deserts of New Mexico with Jimmy, on her dream trip. Or painting the bedroom wall in their new place. But instead she was here, and she was beaten up, starved, dehydrated, and…

Zoe’s eyes drifted to Willa’s right hand. To what wasn’t there anymore. She winced, and flexed her own fingers, then took Willa’s left hand gingerly, not wanting to wake her up. God, what Willa had been through…

She had always known that Gil was a monster, of course. But this was beyond what she’d ever thought him capable of. It was light-years beyond what she’d thought anyone capable of.

Fucking animal, taking an innocent woman’s finger to send me a repulsive message… one that I didn’t even get in the end because Arrow picked up the box, not me.

And then he’d blown up her place of work, and it seemed that his aim was to hurt as many people as possible, maybe kill a number. All to – what? Get Keira back? Was his plan to sneak into Zoe’s office through the storage room, knock her out, take Keira, then set off what the cops now knew was a homemade explosive? Hopefully kill Zoe, her staff, her customers, and bonus points for totally destroying the place that had given Zoe a job, and a second chance at life?

If that was the plan, then what had gone wrong in the end? Why had he detonated the bomb with Zoe outside the building? And the bigger mystery: how had Gil ended up on the floor of the storage room, unconscious and maybe even dead before the fire got to him? Keira had been left alone to perish in that back room, which surely had not been Gil’s intention. According to Willa, this whole thing had been about getting Keira, and the two of them disappearing to start a new life somewhere far, far away from Colorado.

So, had the bomb been on a timer, and did it maybe go off early? Did Gil set it off by accident? Or did he look at Keira and change his mind at the last minute, suddenly become afraid that he’d spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder for the police, and he’d decided to do a whole murder-suicide thing, and just cross his fingers that people would be hurt, or worse?

Zoe had been perplexed by the fact that the front windows had been blown out, but somehow Gil and Keira had both survived the bomb blast. The one cop had told Wolf that it looked like the bomb had been placed in Zoe’s office with the door to the main work area left open – and Gil and Keira had been around the corner in the storage room. It was one of the scenarios being floated around – but it wasn’t yet definitive.

So many questions; so few answers. And none would be coming from Gil. The coroner had just confirmed that the body on the floor in the storage room was indeed his. Zoe had guessed that, naturally, but still. Now it was official.

He was dead and gone, and his secrets had gone with him. But he was never coming back to hurt Keira, not ever again.

The cops were investigating, of course, but Zoe didn’t think they’d find out much more than they already knew. Oh, they’d find the warehouse where Willa had been held, no doubt, and they’d get some sense of Gil’s movements by tracking his cell phone records and credit cards. But Zoe knew that he’d been watching her, and Keira, and Maria, and Scars, and Wolf, and the parlor. That was all she needed to know – she wasn’t even remotely interested in exact dates and times. What she knew was enough to freeze her blood.

He knew where I lived… he knew where Keira slept. What the hell else do I need to know? That’s enough to give me nightmares for years to come, thank you very much.

Willa moaned now, turned her head, and Zoe gently squeezed her hand a bit. She wanted Willa to know that she wasn’t alone. Her friend’s beautiful blue eyes opened slowly, and a puzzled look crossed Willa’s face as she looked around the room.

“Hey,” Zoe said. “It’s me. You’re OK. You’re safe.”

Willa stared at her, then remembered everything in a rush. She took a shaky breath. “How long was I out?”

“Since we last talked, you mean?” Zoe stroked her friend’s tumbled red hair off her pale cheeks, avoiding Willa’s black eye and bruising. “About five hours. It’s going on dinner time now.”

“Did you stay here the whole time?”

“No. I went to quickly check on Keira… and Scars.”

“Has he woken up yet?”

“No, hon, not really.” Zoe tried to keep her tone light, unconcerned about the fact that the man that she loved had been out cold for close to forty-three hours. Like she wasn’t a damn heaving mess of internal worry, like she wasn’t mentally in the fetal position and shrieking in panic and fear. “He comes to for a few seconds, then drops off again. I don’t think he’s seeing or understanding anything. The painkillers are strong enough to take out a T-rex.”

“Damn, Zoe. I’m sorry.” Willa shifted on the bed, wincing as the nasty bruises on her back twinged. “And Keira?”

“She’s good. Much better. They took the tube out an hour ago, and she’s breathing just fine on her own now.”

“Who’s with her?” Willa asked. “Maria?”

“Yeah. It’s OK, Willa. She’s OK.” Zoe smiled. “Maria’s not going anywhere, believe me, not until she gets kicked out by some burly security guard types, and even then, I’m not sure she’d go. Between me and her and the guys, we’ve got Keira covered every minute of the day and night, believe me.”

“Thank God.” Willa sighed. “Jimmy?”

“He landed an hour ago, and Wolf told me that Holt will pick him up from the airport. And of course, you guys are both staying at my place.”

“Ohhh.” Willa’s eyes filled with tears. “God, Zoe… I can’t wait to see him. He’s spent the past two months thinking that I’d dumped him for some hot biker… he must have been so upset.”

“I know, hon.” Zoe said, thinking that as bad as being dumped by text must have been, she was sure that Jimmy wasn’t the one who had been through hell on earth. That dubious honor was reserved for Willa. She hesitated, then opened her mouth again. “Willa?”

Her friend looked up at her, and her blue gaze sharpened. “Don’t you dare.”

---