The place where Z died for me disappears around a corner.
Z.Dead.
That’s when the shaking starts. My teeth chatter so hard that I bite my tongue and taste blood. My hands are covered in Z’s blood. It’s sticky and dark, staining the lines of my palms like a fortune I can’t understand.
Z can’t be dead. He can’t?—
“Harper. Harper, look at me.” Caleb’s hands frame my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Breathe. You’re in shock. You need to breathe.”
But I can’t. My lungs won’t expand. There’s a steel band around my chest crushing tighter and tighter.
“He knew.” The words come out broken, gasping. “He knew Senior would kill him one way or another. He planned his own death so Bruiser would be safe?—”
“I know, baby.” Caleb holds me against his chest, one hand cradling the back of my head.
“I hated him.” I’m sobbing now. “I still?—”
The car takes a sharp turn, and I press my bloody hands against my face, smearing Z’s blood across my cheeks.
“You and me against the world,” I whisper. “That was our thing. Since we were kids. When nobody else gave a shit about us, we had each other. And I—God, Caleb, I?—”
“Harper, he still lied to you about being Bruiser’s dad. He got Silas locked up in prison and did a ton of other heinous shit. He held agunon you.” Caleb’s voice is gentle but insistent. “You didn’t abandon him. He abandoned you first.”
I know he’s right, and still I can’t stop arguing. “He was being manipulated. Senior groomed him since he was a teenager to use him as a weapon against my family. And Frank was so violent with him before that, all growing up. Z still tried to make up for it all in the end.” My voice breaks. “And it cost him everything.”
The driver—one of Isaak’s men I don’t know—catches my eye in the rearview mirror. “Ma’am, we’re twenty minutes from the safe house. Medical team is standing by if you need?—”
“I don’t need medical attention.” My voice sounds hollow. “I need my son. I need Bruiser. I need to?—”
What? What do I need? How do I explain to my nine-year-old that the man he thought was his father just died saving us? Fuck, no, my son shouldn’t see me when I’m like this. I’ll just traumatize him more.
A sob wracks its way out of my chest.
How do I make sense of this?
“We’ll figure it out,” Caleb says, reading my mind the way he always does and pulling me into his arms. “Together. You andme and Bruiser. We’ll figure out how to explain it in a way he can understand.”
“He’s nine years old.” I’m sobbing into Caleb’s chest, but I can still see my bloody hands, watching them shake. “He’s nine years old and I’ve put him through so much trauma. Fuck, his wholelifehas been trauma. And now this—Z is dead and my uncle is a monster, Silas is either dead or God knows where, and I can’t show up back home covered in blood and?—”
“We’ll get cleaned up first. What’s most important is that Bruiser still has you.” Caleb’s hand catches my chin, forcing me to look at him. “He has you, Harper. The strongest, fiercest, most incredible mother I’ve ever seen. You’ve kept him safe and loved and happy through everything. One more hard thing won’t break him because we won’t let it break him.”
The tears come harder now, silent and streaming down my face. Caleb wipes them away with his thumbs.
“Z proved he was family tonight,” Caleb says softly. “Real family. He chose you. He chose Bruiser. He chose to break the cycle Senior had him trapped in. It’s a gift. Terrible and painful, yes. But still a gift.”
I close my eyes and see Z’s face as he mouthed those words—you and me against the world—one last time.
He knew this would free us. Freeing me from the guilt of hating him, and Bruiser from a father who was never really a father to him like he should have been.
Freeing all of us from Senior’s web of manipulation and revenge.
Z burned himself to ash so we could rise from it like the phoenixes I was always tattooing.
“You and me against the world,” I whisper into Caleb’s chest. “But it’s not just you and me anymore, is it? It’s you and me and Bruiser. It’s the family we choose for ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Caleb says, pressing his lips to the top of my head. “Yeah, baby. That’s exactly what it is.”
The SUV speeds through the night, carrying us away from death and toward life. Toward our son and whatever comes next.