Page 190 of Rose
Ahzii’s chest caved at those words.He needs her.
“Ahzii, we have to go!” Kyre barked, snapping her out of the spiral.
William’s voice echoed in her head—saying he couldn’t leave because of Savior. But if Savior was hurt… how could he have been the threat William warned her about? Did William do it?
Still, she needed answers from the Carter family. She needed to know why they did what they did.
“Ahzii!” Kyre’s voice cracked, breaking her out of the storm in her head. “Come on!”
She moved on autopilot, stepping out of the beach house and sliding into A’Mazi’s Charger, leaving her bike in the driveway.
The blackout choking half the city didn’t make things any better. Streets were swallowed in darkness, traffic lights dead, and every block crawled with stalled cars and frustrated drivers. The farther they drove, the louder her thoughts became.
Logic told her she should’ve stayed and waited for William. But her heart—the same heart Savior had shattered and revived—was clawing toward him, refusing to let him die without her there.
Ahzii burst into the hospital, Kyre and A’Mazi right on her heels. Before she could reach the receptionist desk, Olivia and Sin appeared, eyes red and swollen, clear they’d been crying.
The sight made her chest tighten, her own tears threatening. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay?” Her voice trembled, the anger she’d been holding for Savior now drowned by fear.
“We still don’t know,” Olivia said softly. “Ahzii… can we talk outside?”
Ahzii’s eyes narrowed. If Savior had been behind the fire a year ago, Olivia and Sin had blood on their hands too. Olivia had told her before, there was nothing Savior did that she didn’t know about. And Sin? That was his brother.
“Yes,” Ahzii said coldly, “but Kyre and Mazi are coming too.” She wasn’t walking anywhere alone with them.
Her pulse pounded as they stepped outside into the thick hospital air. Surrounded by Carters, she almost regretted leaving the beach house. All she’d wanted was to see if Savior was alive… so she could tell him to stay the hell out of her life forever.
“Ahzii… Savior was shot—” Olivia began.
“I know,” Ahzii snapped. “Isn’t that why we’re all here?”
“Yeah, but… did you have something to do with it?”
Her whole body went still before her head whipped toward Olivia. “Why the fuck would I have anything to do with Savior getting shot? Oh, wait—let me guess. You think I did it to get back at him and yourunhinged-ass Carter familyfor shooting my husband, me, and burning us alive in that house. I lost mydaughterbecause of him!”
Both Kyre and A’Mazi froze at her words.
“It wasn’t because of him,” Sincere said quietly.
Her glare cut to him like a blade.
“It was because of me.”
A’Mazi’s head turned slowly, eyes locking on his best friend with a look that could kill. “The fuck you mean?”
Sincere’s jaw worked, shame in his eyes. “A man named Lazarus caused a terrorist attack—killed thousands, including kids—at a charity event in Atlanta. He moved to Miami, changed his identity, started over. We were hired to kill him. Savior had me running point. But I didn’t know he had a wife… named Jane Doe.”
Everyone looked at him like he’d spoken another language.
“Who the fuck is Jane Doe? And Lazarus?” Ahzii’s voice cracked with anger. “Last I checked, my birth certificate saysAhzii Roseand my husband’s name isWilliam Davis. So what the hell does that have to do with me?”
Olivia’s expression softened, almost pitying. “Oh… you didn’t know.”
Ahzii’s voice shook as her tears finally broke. “Olivia, I’ve had a confusing couple of days. I found out my husband is alive. I found out the man I fell in lovewith—so fucking deeply—is responsible for putting my daughter in the ground. That same man is lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life, and instead of being on a plane to Bali with mydead-alive husband, I’m here… checking on the man who patched my scars just to be the reason I have them.
“And I can’t for the life of me figure out why I still came here. So please…” she stepped forward, eyes locked on Olivia’s, “enlighten me on what thefuckelse I’m supposed to know.”
“Your husband is not who he portrayed to be,” Olivia began.
