Page 162 of Drown My Sorrow

“Okay,” I murmur. “I’m paying attention, and I’m not going to freak out until I know she’s okay.” I wait, and the words just won’t stay in. “What is she even doing here? I thought she was waiting for us to come back? Wasn’t that the plan?”

“It was the plan,” Keagan agreed.

“I want whoever did this to her dead. I want them done and destroyed.”

“It will be my pleasure,” Beau purrs and drags his teeth over my neck, leaving me shuddering with goosebumps running up and down my arms.

Gael turns his head a little bit and curses.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think we’ve got reporters following us.”

I cringe, but Beau just murmurs nonsense in my ear. Shale puts a hand on my thigh, while Keagan, who is in the front, peers in the mirrors.

“The hospital is close now. But they’re probably going to be waiting for us.”

I hate this. I hate all of it.

Gael parks the car. We get out, and, sure enough, we’re mobbed.

“Who do you know in town, Aspyn? Is it one of your mother’s Johns? Are you going to get tested to see if you have a disease? Are you having therapy for your leg?”

I stalk past as best I can while Beau happily throws himself on the nearest reporters.

“Ooops. I tripped.”

He gets up and steps on a phone, kicks a camera, and scares the shit out of a woman before he jogs and catches up to us.

“Was that fun?” Keagan whines. “It looked fun!”

“Don’t worry, Kea, there are plenty more where they came from.”

Keagan looks delighted with Gael’s nickname for him and beams.

Gael leads us through the hospital corridors and into a maze of cream-coloured sameness that has my head spinning as I try to remember which way we came from.

Eventually, he stops outside a set of random doors. They look exactly the same as any other random doors, but these are the ones Gael is pointing down.

I brush them open, only to find a nurse with a clipboard frowning at me.

“Hi!”

“Hello, can I help you?”

“My friend Nat is here. I need to see her.”

Her expression clears. “Bed 18A. Follow the corridor down, turn right, and then it’s the fourth door on the left.”

I dip my head, but I’ve already forgotten her. Nat is here, somewhere, and until I see her, I will be imagining the worst. I get to the room and step inside. There are six beds, three have curtains pulled around them. But at the very last bed, visible only when I pad further into the room, I find the distorted, swollen vision of my best friend.

“Nat?” I breathe.

She turns towards me; I don’t know if she hears me, but I well up with emotion and hurry towards her.

“What happened? Who did this to you? Tell me so I can sic the Daane on them.”

Nat sobs and breaks down. I slide onto the bed beside her and hold her until she’s ready.

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