Page 126 of A Smile Full of Lies
“She’s stable,” the nurse said quietly. “She made it through surgery.” Then they turned away, leaving us there.
He nodded once, barely, as if unable to believe that the words had been real. But his shoulders dropped, and some of the tension left him.
“I need to head back to the station.”
His head lifted slightly.
“Hale’s pulling the warrant now,” I continued. “We’ve got a narrow window before word spreads and someone from Thayer’s crew gets the bright idea to crack that safe and disappear the evidence. We need those shell casings, Knox. Ballistics match means case closed. Justice for your family. For Ros.”
His gaze flicked toward the closed ICU doors. A muscle ticked in his cheek.
I took a step closer.
“But I’m not leaving unless you give me your word you’ll stay. She’s gonna wake up scared, in pain, probably trying to downplay all of it like she always does. She needs someone here. She needs you.”
His voice was low. Rough.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You swear?”
Knox finally looked at me. Eyes dark. Steady. Unshakable.
“I swear on my life.”
Something loosened in my chest.
“Okay,” I said. “Then I’ll go do the paperwork. You just — be here when she opens her eyes.”
He didn’t nod. Didn’t speak again. Just sat there like a storm in the shape of a man, holding vigil for the girl who’d risked everything to protect him.
I turned and headed for the elevators. Ros had done her part. Now it was our turn not to let her down.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
NOVEMBER 3, 1:00 AM
KNOX
The room was too quiet.Too clean. Too fucking still.
Machines beeped slow and steady beside the hospital bed, each sound a metronome of everything I’d nearly lost. Tubes snaked into her arm. An oxygen tube curled beneath her nose. The blankets were tucked too tight around her, like they were trying to hold her together.
But she was alive. Barely.
My fists flexed against my knees where I sat beside her, elbows braced, head low. I’d been like that for over an hour — motionless except for the twitch in my jaw every time the heart monitor hiccupped. My eyes stayed on her face, tracing the line of her jaw, the flutter of her lashes, the soft part of her lips as her chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven breaths.
Her hair was matted at the temples. Her skin was pale, bloodless except for the bruises starting to form around the IV sites. I hated seeing her like this, hated the way the hospital had stripped away everything strong and radiant and mouthy about her and left behind something fragile.
She didn’t look like my Ros. But she was. And I wasn’t leaving this fucking chair until she woke up.
Every muscle in my body was coiled tight, vibrating with rage and relief and something darker I couldn’t name. I hadn’t let myself cry. Couldn’t. There wasn’t space for it. Not while she was still fighting to breathe. Not while the last echoes of Alyssa’s announcement that my former best friend was the one who’d murdered my whole family were still stuck in my fucking ears.
My jaw locked. Ros had almost died. Trying to protect me. Trying to protectus. And the only reason she was still breathing was because Alyssa goddamn Allen had been two minutes faster than death.
Two fucking minutes.
