Page 114 of Wicked Ends
Last night when I’d gotten to the hospital, Cole had been in surgery. Head injuries were tricky, the surgeon had told me. I’d filled out all the paperwork as his next of kin and then sat in thewaiting room, as had all the Harbor Hounds. Despite security’s best attempts to clear the room out, it had remained packed with cuts, sitting in silence, holding a vigil for their leader.
“The surgeon says it went well, but the swelling has to go down now,” I said woodenly.
“Yeah, and this fucker said it would have been ideal if he’d woken up today… but he hasn’t, and he has no idea when he will,” Gage growled. “What kind of update is that?”
“Look, don’t lose your shit.” Maddox stepped out of the room. He nodded to me.
“I can’t sit around and do nothing,” Gage said. “At the very least, we need to go and fix this mess with the suppliers. What kind of ‘warning’ puts the pres in surgery? Those fuckers! Give them the fucking money, or whatever. We need to make sure this never happens again.”
Maddox met my gaze. He was the only one who knew I didn’t have the money.
“Let’s not rush into anything. Cole will be awake soon, and he’ll let us know what he wants us to do. If he’s not awake in a few days, we’ll rethink it.”
Gage made a sound of disgust.
Maddox slapped a hand onto his chest. “Go and take your fucking complaints outside. I’m second when Cole is out for the count, so listen to me and stop bitching.”
Gage looked like he wanted to disagree. The three of them had been best friends going on twenty years, but that didn’t mean they didn’t argue. They did plenty. But not like this. Gage vibrated with anger, and I knew how he felt. It was an anger builtfrom fear. Fear of losing Cole. I could barely function, the fear was so heavy.
“I’m going to go and make sure that he doesn’t get arrested,” Maddox said and raised an eyebrow. “You find out any more about the missing money?”
I shook my head. What could I tell him? That I knew who had taken the money, but it was too late to get it back? That it was gone forever? That while I’d been falling in love… I tore my tortured thoughts away from Ari and tried my best to meet Maddox’s gaze.
He sighed and walked away. I turned to Cole’s room and stepped inside. My brother didn’t appear anything like himself, pale against the white sheets.
“Still lying around, lazy fucker? When are you going to get up and take responsibility for your men? Gage is losing it,” I said to Cole’s unconscious form.
I sank into the seat next to him.
Maddox’s question haunted me. No. I didn’t know more about the bag. I didn’t need to know more. I had all the important information. Ari had given it to her brother. She’d ended up in Hade Harbor because she’d stolen from him in the first place. I hadn’t even known her real name. I’d thought she had no family. I didn’t know what was lies and what was truth now, looking back at our time together.
Arianna Spencer. Professor Spencer. It felt like a different person, someone I’d never met before. I couldn’t reconcile the image I had of my birthday girl with this idea of who she apparently was.
Why hadn’t I confronted her about the bag, something Maddox was clearly waiting for me to do?
Because I was scared.
Confronting her meant I’d lose the only person who had ever worried about me. She would just be another person who had used me. And even if her brother’s story had been some kind of twist on reality, the stark truth was that he had taken the money… and Cole had paid the price. And I’d let it happen, led by my dick and my weak fucking heart. I’d put him in this position, playing games with one hundred fucking grand, and now, I had no idea how I was going to make it back to pay off the debt.
I took a deep, shuddering breath. It actually hurt. My chest felt like it was being pierced by needles. Fuck, it hurt.
And this was why you didn’t let people in. Because they disappointed you. Because they used you. Because, at the end of the day, everyone was out for themselves, keeping their secrets, guarding their hearts, and Ari had been no different.
No, it was just me who’d let her see the wretched and broken parts of me… and in return… she’d fucked over me and Cole.
I took his calloused hand. My fear and pain shifted to anger. I wished I’d never met Ari, never fallen for her, or her secrets, never gotten Cole involved. Getting kicked out of a game because she was letting Professor Casanova hang all over her had only been the beginning. I hadn’t realized there was so much more damage that could be inflicted. And I was the fool who had let it happen.
Not anymore. One thing I’d learned young: if someone hurt you, you hurt them back.
Always.
The end-of-term music theory presentations were all anyone in class had been talking about for weeks. I’d been done early, but that morning, after sleeping rough at the hospital and dodging ten calls from Ari, I had a few extra slides to add to my presentation. I needed her to stop calling. I needed her to stop pretending to care. She had to leave me alone right now, and I knew just the way to do it.
I felt numb by the time I arrived at school. The shock of seeing Cole laid out and hurt, fresh out of surgery, had transformed into an icy cold that seemed to permeate my chest, right down to my heart.
Ari’s classroom was busy when I arrived, everyone taking their seats, clutching their notes and slide printouts. I sat at the back and watched her. She was messing with her laptop, checking the time. At one point her eyes met mine, and she gave me a warm smile.
A few days ago, that would have melted me on the spot. Today, it barely made a dent in the ice inside my chest. I looked away and focused on the trees swaying in the breeze outside the window. The world felt washed of color, like Cole’s pale cheeks.
