Page 20 of Black Hearts
“What he said,” Will muttered.
“Fucking ditto,” Bennet added.
The room fell silent once again, nothing but the beeping of the machines around me filling up the air. It was Bennet who broke that silence by asking, “Did he… did he try to—” It would seem he could not voice the question, and when I looked at him, he stopped.
I knew what he was going to say, even if the others didn’t. Or maybe they did, and they just didn’t want to think about it. Either way, I had to tell them that, no, my father didn’t try any of that with me.
Now, if he would’ve had me longer, if I would’ve still been blinded by him and everything he said, maybe he would’ve tried something with me. It wasn’t a thought I enjoyed giving time to, but after everything my father had said, after what he did to me, it was impossible for me to wholeheartedly say he’d never do that to me.
“No,” I whispered, and the moment I spoke the word, I saw the guys visibly relax, their shoulders releasing their tension. The tears had stopped falling from my eyes—which was good. My father did not deserve anything from me, not even my tears.
The room grew silent after that, nothing but the hospital machines filling the air. No one spoke, no one moved. I wouldn’t say it was a comfortable silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, either. I was just grateful to them for coming for me, for doing what they did. If they hadn’t, I’d be dead. No doubt about that.
Without them, I’d be dead. Never thought I’d say the Scott men saved my life. I always thought they’d be the ones to take it, to claim it, to do whatever they wanted with me—and now look at us. Look at them, look at me. If monsters could love, surely they loved me.
And I loved them.
After a while, my eyelids grew heavy, and though I tried to fight off the waves of tiredness hitting me, it must have been obvious, for Jaxon suddenly got up, his head gesturing to the door. “We’ll let you get some rest.”
“Are you leaving?” I asked.
“No,” Jaxon was quick to say.
“What we should do is find some decent food in this place,” Will muttered, rubbing his stomach in slow circles, as if that would pacify the hunger in his gut. “I’m fucking starving. You think they got Jell-O?”
Bennet rolled his eyes, scowling. A very Markus-like expression. “It’s a fucking hospital, dipshit. All they have is Jell-O.”
“Then let us go on a very important quest,” Will said, moving to hang one of his arms around Bennet’s shoulders, who then tried to shrug him off—and failed. Will clung to him like a monkey. He laughed at Bennet’s current glower, and then he looked at me. “Any flavor you’d like, love?”
My own stomach twisted at hearing that word, but in a good way. I shook my head once. “Surprise me.”
“That we shall,” Will said, and together, he and Bennet left the room, leaving me alone with Jaxon, who stood beside my bed, staring down at me, probably wondering if he should give me the room to sleep more.
I swallowed, and then I lifted a hand toward him. “You don’t have to go,” I told him. “You could stay. Make sure no one tries anything with me while I’m out.” I wasn’t sure if I meant it as a joke or not. With how things had been… maybe I was more serious than joking.
He let out a soft sigh, sitting back down, still holding onto my hand. “All right, I’ll stay.” He leaned over the bed, his other hand moving to my head, swiping my hair away from my forehead. I’d bet anything I looked a fright, a greasy, dirty, exhausted specimen of a girl, but Jaxon still looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Crazy to think this all started with him kidnapping me.
My eyelids grew too heavy, and they closed of their own accord. Still, I wasn’t quite asleep yet, so I murmured, “I wish our lives were normal.”
How much had I wished for the same throughout my life? How often had I spent the hours locked away in my room dreaming of a normal life? Going to school, going on dates, to football games and dances, getting a part-time job somewhere just to get some experience under my belt; all things I’d wanted.
“If our lives were normal,” Jaxon whispered, the hand that had moved my hair aside now caressing my cheek, “we would never have met. Call me selfish, but I’m not willing to throw you away for normalcy.”
He was right. If our lives were normal, we wouldn’t be here. Jaxon wouldn’t even be on my radar. I had no idea where I’d be, who I’d be with, but it wouldn’t be with him or Markus or Will or Bennet or Theo. None of the Scott men.
Being normal was what I’d wanted for so long. All this pain, this misery and torment; by trading it away for a normal life, I’d trade away my men, too, and any hope of happiness with them. I wasn’t willing to lose them. Jaxon was right. I’d take the pain as long as I had to, as long as I had them with me.
“Kiss me,” I whispered, starting to lose myself to the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Though Jaxon still held my hand and touched my cheek, I was starting not to feel it. It was like the exhaustion had a stronger grip on me, and it wouldn’t let me go until it claimed me once more.
I heard Jaxon lean forward, the chair he sat on creaking as he moved, and the last thing I felt before drifting off was the soft touch of his lips on mine. It was enough to help me forget about the pain and the horrid memories of what my father had told me.
Never had there been a more perfect thing to fall asleep to.
When I was stronger—basically, when I could sit up on my own for longer than ten minutes without feeling the overwhelming urge to take a nap—I had Jaxon call the police. I knew it was better to get them out of our hair as soon as possible.
I was torn. A part of me wanted the police to find him, because they’d arrest him, lock him up, put him on trial. We could figure out a way to tip them off about him being the Hillside Stalker, and he’d get life in prison or maybe even the death penalty.
