Page 130 of Kings & Carnage

She climbed into the ambulance and sat next to me. "My last name is actually Rodriguez. Are you all right?”

She looked different, young and fit in jeans and her police coat, her hair loose around her shoulders, her face devoid of makeup.

"I think so. I mean, I might lose a toe or three, but they don't know yet," I said. "You're… a police officer?”

"Detective actually. I’ve been undercover on this case for a long time." She smiled. "Maybe you should join the force. You cracked the case before I did.”

"Not soon enough," I said, thinking about Emma and the other girls.

"I'm sorry about your sister.” She sounded like she meant it.

"Will you look for them now?” I asked. “For all of them? In the woods?”

She nodded. "Already on it. We have a team incoming now. We'll start around the cabins and fan out from there.”

I tried to blink back my tears but they leaked down my temples anyway.

Emma was gone, and I was going to have to find a way to live with that for the rest of my life.

"She'd be proud of you," Detective Rodriguez said. "She is proud of you.”

I stifled a sob and nodded because it was all I could manage. I didn't know what to say. Maybe I should've been surprised that she’d been undercover at Aventine, but I kind of thought I might never be surprised again. About anything.

Then again, as I watched the Kings break away from the police, Neo heading for the ambulance as Rock and Oscar started for the Hummer, I remembered that not all surprises were bad.

"Looks like your friend is coming," Detective Rodriguez said. "You're really lucky to have each other.”

Didn't I know it.

She climbed out of the ambulance. "We'll be in touch," she said to Neo as he climbed in to take her place.

His face was pale and drawn. He took my hand in both of his and touched it to his lips. "Are you okay?”

"Depends," I said. "Will you still want to fuck me with seven toes?”

He started to laugh, but it turned into a sob, and he buried his face against my chest.

“I fucking love you, Jezebel.”

I stroked his silky hair. “I fucking love you too.”

Epilogue

Willa

Iwas disoriented when I first opened my eyes. I wasn't in my room in the Kings' house and I wasn't in any of their rooms either. The ceiling was made out of acoustic tiles, laid out in squares, the light dim.

Then I remembered: the chase through the woods, Neo killing Roberto, Detective Rodriguez visiting me in the ambulance.

Neo saying he loved me.

I'd been in the hospital for two days and had narrowly missed losing some of my toes. I was dehydrated and being treated for exposure. My voice still sounded funny from the smoke at St. Andrew’s.

But I was alive.

I was comforted by the weight of Oscar on one side of my hospital bed and Rock on the other. It had been that way since I’d been assigned a room, the Kings taking turns staying with me, making sure I wasn't alone for even a second.

I made a show of complaining but I secretly loved it. There had been a moment in the woods when I’d thought I would never see them again. It still felt like a miracle to be alive and together.

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