It wasthe longest five minutes of my life, and then the longest twohours.
Rix, Valentina, and I sat there with Carver and the security guys, waiting for an update on Ari’ssurgery.
“Anyword?”
I jerked my head to the side, shaking off my stupor as Con Leahy sat downbesideme.
“Where’d you come from?”I asked, shocked to seehimhere.
“Valentina called Vanessa.You got people who care.We’re here for you.Whateveryouneed.”
Ten minutes later, Lord walked into the waiting room and took a seat with a chin jerk.They waited with me for hours.Ari had never even met them, and I prayed she’d have thechance.
Our lives were a shattered mess of lies, death, and betrayal, but I didn’t care.Together, we could figure out how to pick up the pieces.Withouther...
I didn’t even want to thinkaboutit.
Finally, a surgeon entered the waiting room and I stood.Rix got to his feet beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder.My heart stuck in my throat as I waited for theverdict.
“Ms.Sampson’sfamily?”
“Right here,”Isaid.
The surgeon nodded, and my entire body tensed until he said, “She’s going to be fine.She’s inrecoverynow.”
He continued with a long-winded explanation of what they’d done to repair the damage, but only one word stuck with me, echoing in my head.Fine.Fine.Fine.
“Can Iseeher?”
His gaze cut to me.“Give us a half hour to get her settled in and for her to hopefully wake up, and a nurse will bringyouback.”
“Thank you.”My voice hoarse, I reached out to shake his hand.“Thank you for making sure she hadashot.”
“You stopped the bleeding and got her here.If you hadn’t acted so quickly, we might have lost her.Today is Ms.Sampson’s lucky day.”He released my hand and turned towalkout.
Her lucky day?The day her brother was murdered and her ex-boyfriend nearlykilledher?
As soon as I decided the surgeon and I must have different definitions of the wordluck, it hit me that Ari and I had survived it all and were getting our shot at picking up thepieces.
Together.
64
Ariel
Everything wasfuzzy when I opened my eyes.My mind kicked over into fight-or-flight mode, but a hand clenched mine and Rhett’s voice calmed mypanic.
“Right here, Red.Igotyou.”
My throat was sore and my head swam, but fractured memories sliced throughmyhead.
“What happened?”The memories felt like bad dreams.Nightmares.Like they couldn’tbereal.
“Doesn’t matter right now,” Rhett said, but his tone told me so much more.The nightmareswerereal.
My brother sold me out to save his own life, and had wound up losing his anyway.He’d betrayed my family and his best friend.All formoney.
My eyes burned as tears broke free, splashing hot on my cheeks.“Heath killed your dad.You musthateme.”