Page 10 of Always Mine

The cuff was attached to Lash’s wrist.“We’re heading home.You’re getting a shower, changed, and then you’re going to have something to eat.”

“I need to be in the hospital with her.She could wake up at any moment.”

“And until she does, you’re going to take care of yourself.”

“No,” Anthony said.

Lash laughed.“Do you think I am going to take no for an answer?If you want to play this game with me, then you and I will play, but trust me, Anthony, you are going to lose.”

He stared at his dad and had no doubt in his mind that his father had something up his sleeve.There was a chance he would make it impossible for him to get to Daisy, or he would do something to make it difficult.

Anthony glanced back at the hospital.“I can’t leave her.”

“You’re not.Daisy would not want you to kill yourself while waiting for her,” Lash said.

He took a deep breath.Anthony didn’t like this feeling.In the last twenty-four hours, it was like he was making up for the twenty-four years of his life when he didn’t feel anything.Anthony missed the lack of pain.

He didn’t want to feel this way, but each second Daisy was alone in that hospital bed was like his whole body was being torn open.Layer by layer, he was being stripped of what made him, him.This was all wrong.He wanted emptiness.To not feel anything.

Then he saw the knife sliding straight into Daisy’s body, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.He knew he had fucked up.Daniella had plunged the blade into Daisy’s chest, but she didn’t kill her, not yet.

“Daisy can’t die,” Anthony said.

“She is not going to die, and you and I are going to take care of you.It is what Daisy would want.”

He wanted to fight and argue.Looking back up at the hospital, Anthony could finally agree that he hated these buildings.Chained to his dad, he had no choice but to follow.It was the last thing he wanted to do.His dad hadn’t come to the hospital on a bike, but in a car.

Anthony had to climb through the driver’s side to get into the passenger seat as he was chained to his father.This sucked, big time.Glancing down at the cuff, he knew there was no getting away from this without his father’s permission.

Rubbing at his temples, he tried to rid that feeling from his chest.He stroked a hand across his heart, and that pain kept slicing through.Not only was it a pain in his chest, but his gut twisted.Anthony had never felt fear, not once.Not when he walked into the mess that had once been Daisy’s father.He had taken control, even though she had seemed panicked, and he had known what to do.It was pretty easy, finding one of the guns, lining it up with what was left of his head, and pointing it at the right spot.

Daisy’s real father had been a piece of work no one could stand.No one was going to miss him, and no one would care how he died.He didn’t do anything.He wasn’t responsible for anyone, he was nothing.

When he fought at the Quad, there had been no feelings.Hurting people was easy to him.When he saw them in pain, it meant nothing.The girls he rejected meant nothing to him.The only person who meant anything to him, where he felt that lightness, was his brown-haired, brown-eyed girl.His Daisy.His love.

As far as he was concerned, Daisy had and would always be his.Without Daisy there was no reason to live, to breathe.

“Daisy can’t die,” Anthony said.

“She is not going to die,” Lash said.

He turned to look at his father, but Lash stared straight ahead.“If Daisy doesn’t make it, please kill me,” he said.

This made Lash veer to the side of the road and pull over.

“What the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?”

“I know right now everything is a mess and that I caused it.If Daisy doesn’t make it, there’s no point for me.I don’t want to live in this world without her, I can’t.”

“Damn it, Anthony, I want you to stop this.”

“She is everything, Dad.Imagine trying to do anything without Mom,” he said.He knew it was a low blow for his father.There was a time Lash did have to survive without Angel, when she had no choice but to be admitted to a psych ward.

“Don’t, Anthony.”

“I would rather you do it, but if not, I’ll get Devil, because he knows ...he understands.”

“I fucking understand!”Lash slammed his free hand against the steering wheel.“Don’t you get that?It’s okay for you and Devil to just end your lives and think it will be fine.”He took a deep breath.“But life does not offer that kind of luxury to everyone.Taking your life is the cowardly way out.Daisy would hate if you did that, and she would hate that you would leave the club alone.”

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