Page 85 of Heartless
You’ll have to break down the door, Reaper. She’ll die if you don’t.
I stopped assaulting the door and looked around behind me, eyes landing on the bronze sculpture next to the stairs just as Jandro, Gunner, and Hades came flying down from the second level.
“What’s going on?” Jandro demanded.
“Bring that over,” I said, pointing. “Fucking now!”
It took both of them to carry the heavy thing to me. Once in front of the door, the three of us held it like a battering ram, flat base toward the door, and started swinging.
“On three,” I instructed, my chest already collapsing like a black hole at the silence in the room. “One, two,three!”
We used momentum and all of our strength to drive the bronze into the door. The wood splintered and buckled at the first hit, but didn’t open. On the second try, it caved in and with a kick from Jandro, the damn door finally crashed open.
None of us stopped to assess, we just acted. We saw Shadow kneeling on the floor with his hand around Mari’s throat, her face covered in blood and her body too fucking still. All three of us went straight for Shadow, but Jandro and Gunner were faster. While they pulled him off of her, tackling him to the ground, I feared the worst as I went to check on my wife.
“M-Mari...” I shook so fucking hard, my teeth chattered as I leaned over her to listen for breathing. But Jandro and Gunner were whaling on Shadow and I couldn’t hear shit over the pounds of fists on flesh.
My trembling fingers felt along the side of her neck, and I wanted to scream at the feel of tacky blood on her skin. How the fuck could this have happened? How could weletthis happen?
Her pulse was weak but steady under my fingers, and a shaky sigh of relief escaped me, my head dropping heavily.
“She’s alive…she’s alive.” Coherency was flowing back to my brain now that I knew we still had her, at least for now. “We have to get her to the hospital.”
“What do we do with him?” Gunner shook out his fist, his face full of disdain for Shadow, now lying passed out between him and Gunner. Jandro on the other hand, appeared torn, his face a grimace of pain as he looked between Mari and the friend we’d all wrongly trusted with her.
I didn’t give a shit how he felt.
Once we got Mari stable, Shadow’s life was mine to take.
“Throw him in the governor’s jail at City Hall,” I ordered, scooping Mari up carefully. “I’ll deal with him later.”
Dawn was peekingover the sky once Dr. Books came to update me, his sneakers squeaking over the tiled hospital floor. I rose up from the waiting room chair, Hades and I walking up to meet him.
“How is she?” I demanded before he could get a word out.
The doctor gave me an odd look, his brows knitting over the frames of his glasses, almost as if he was suspicious of me.
“She’s doing okay, resting now. Some ligaments in her neck have torn, so she’ll need to be in a neck brace for a few weeks and will be sore for a while. But she’ll make a full recovery.”
I will kill him. Then I’ll bring him back to life so I can kill him again. He’ll wish for the filthy cage he was born in when I’m done with him.
“Thank fuck.” My head tipped backward, eyes closed in relief despite the rage roaring in my ears. “Can I see her?”
“Not tonight.” The doctor was tight-lipped and firm. “She is sedated and the most important thing she needs right now is rest. And,” he lifted his chin at me, “before you speak with her, we’ll need to hear from her what happened.”
I blinked at him. “I told you what happened.”
“Yes, but,” he sucked in a breath, “should your wife tell us a different version of events, we’ll need to take her account into consideration. Everyone at this hospital has gotten to know Mariposa and cares deeply about her. We’ll keep her safe.”
The implication of his words sent my blood boiling. My fingers itched at my sides to swing into his judgmental face, but I knew that wouldn’t help me.
“She ismywife.”My teeth felt like boulders grinding against each other.
“Yes, well, she wouldn’t be the first woman on earth abused by a spouse.”
“How dare you fucking—” I forced myself to stop, spinning away from the doctor before I crashed a fist through his jaw.
My breaths sawed in and out of my chest as I fought to keep myself from losing my shit. I had barely saved her in time, and now this overeducated prick was talking to me like I’d done this to her myself.
