Chapter 24
AERIN
“Here.” Rex stands over me with a steaming mug of tea in his hands. When I don’t move, he leans down and places it in front of me with a hand on my shoulder. “Drink it, Aerin. Trust me.”
Pidge sits across from me, his lips pressed flat together while worry lines twitch and weave across his frowning face.
Behind him, the single light on the back porch highlights the five bodies visible through the cracked door, each one covered in a blanket.
I still can’t believe Falco fought so many people to protect me.
Bullet’s in the next room with Falco putting his years as a combat medic to good use.
The chair next to me creaks as Rex lowers his bulky form into the seat.
To keep up the pretense that I’m okay, I pick up the hot cup and take a sip. The moment the hot liquid touches the back of my throat, I break into a coughing fit.
“Is there alcohol in this?” I gasp.
“You need it,” Rex replies. “It’ll make you feel better.”
“Bullshit.” Pidge leans forward suddenly, placing one arm on the table between us. “Tell me what happened here.”
“You first,” I say after another careful sip. “How are you even here? You were on the phone with me and now you’re here and I don’t understand.”
Rex and Pidge exchange a glance. “I’m here for the same reason you called me and not your father.”
My heart skips a beat and instantly it clicks in my mind. “Falco doesn’t trust my family, does he?”
“His years in the mafia have taught him many things, but this is the third attempt on your life, if I’m not mistaken.
After what happened to you when you were taken from the bar, Falco made his suspicions clear to me.
Either your family has a traitor or someone on the inside wants you dead.
Either way, he not so subtly asked us to remain nearby when he traveled up here. ”
“I never saw him call anyone?”
Pidge removes his phone from his pocket and taps the screen, then he slides it toward me where a text from Falco shines up at me. “What? Falco doesn’t have a dog, does he?”
With a humorless smirk, Pidge takes his phone back.
“You learn to say a lot by saying nothing,” Pidge says.
“He has his suspicions and wanted some backup. We were just…” His hand curls into a fist and presses against the table as if something has overcome Pidge with such ferocity that he can no longer speak.
“There was a pile-up on the highway,” Rex interjects. “We would have been here and in position hours ago except we had to take a ridiculous detour. If we’d been here then…” He half glances over his shoulder as if he’s able to see through the wall and into the room Falco’s in.
“Do you really think you could have stopped this?” I ask softly. “I’ve seen Falco fight. To end up like…” The words catch in my throat. “You know how the mafia works.”
“I do,” Rex replies. “But Falco wouldn’t have been alone.”
I focus on my drink. By the time it’s finished, I’ve detailed everything that happened from when I woke up to that stranger over me to when Pidge and his friends arrived and broke down the front door.
“You did good.” Rex reaches forward and very briefly touches my forearm. “Not many people could have done what you did, even with training.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I murmur, trying to fight the swell of sadness that rises in my chest. Every time I close my eyes, all I see is Falco lying bleeding on my bedroom floor and his skin pale.
“You saved his life,” comes Bullet’s voice from the doorway.
All three of us turn immediately.
Bullet’s eyes are tired. Blood streaks his hands and his grey tank top, and he stands there while clutching his elbow.
Pidge rises from his seat and steps forward as if eager but unsure how to help. “How is he?”
“Alive,” Bullet replies. “I’ve given him a few pints of my blood, stitched up what I can. If he makes it through the next couple of hours, then he’ll be fine.”
“Oh my god,” I whisper, tightening my hands around my mug. “Maybe I should call my dad.”
“No,” Pidge snaps, then he catches himself and hesitates. “Aerin…who knew you were coming here?”
Our eyes meet as Bullet moves to the table and Rex exchanges seats with him. As Bullet sits, his hand falls from his elbow revealing the bandage covering where he’d taken his own blood.
“I…don’t know. My whole family and whoever they told I’d guess.”
“Exactly. Which means the moment you make that call, you’re telling whoever tried to kill you that you’re alone up here and your bodyguard is down. What do you think they will do with that information?”
“I’m not alone though.” My attention slides through all three of them. “You’re here.”
“No, we’re not,” Rex says. “We’ve all got our own ties to families that aren’t yours. And Falco calling in outside help? If anyone finds out we’re here, we’re all dead. Falco included.”
“And you just saved his life,” Bullet remarks. “So I don’t think you would risk it, would you?”
I shake my head slowly, slumping down in my seat. “Is he really going to be okay?”
Pidge slowly retakes his seat as Bullet nods. “I hope so. You did an amazing job, which I know won’t feel like much right now, but without you he would have bled out on that floor.”
Tired sadness stings at the back of my eyes and I can’t hold Bullet’s gaze. “But it’s also my fault this happened.”
Rex scoffs slightly on his way through the archway and into the kitchen. “It’s a dangerous slope if you start blaming yourself. Is it your fault for being the target or his fault for accepting the position in the first place?”
“Rex is right. Blame is squarely on the bastard who caused this. No one else.” Bullet’s hands clasp together, his eyes screwing up. “He’s clearly just a fucking self-sacrificing prick.”
“Bullshit,” Pidge remarks tiredly. “He’s got a death wish, plain and simple. Always has done since Gina.”
Despite the exhaustion throbbing through my skull, that catches my attention. “Gina? Who’s Gina?”
Bullet shares the same curious glance at Pidge, who frowns deeply. “No one.”
“No,” I snap suddenly. “You can’t say something like that and not tell me more.
And don’t you dare tell me it’s not your story to tell because I just…
I just covered myself in his blood to keep him alive, I did things I would never even think of, and now we don’t know if he’s ever going to wake up, so just… who is she?”
Rex returns from the kitchen with several prepackaged sandwiches and dumps them in front of Bullet. “Eat,” he says firmly. “You’re the only one with Falco’s blood type.”
Bullet grumbles while I hold Pidge’s gaze in a heated glare until he shrugs one shoulder. “Maybe it’ll piss him off so much it wakes him up. Gina was his ex.”
“Girlfriend?” Bullet asks between mouthfuls.
“Fiancée.”
My heart lurches. Falco had a fiancée? Never once has he mentioned, or even hinted, that he was ever that close to anyone.
“Falco’s PTSD is severe, surprising no one. We’ve all got it, right? Jumping at shadows, not sleeping, not eating, nightmares, tension all the damn time.”
As Pidge talks, I match each sign to what I know of Falco. His lack of sleep stands out the most, and the fact that he’s always tense. On the drive up here, he did reveal that he’s always on edge. Given his years in the military, who can blame him?
“From what I understand, Gina was something of a childhood sweetheart. Met before he signed up or something. She was loyal to him for every tour, or so he thought, until he came home early from his last ever tour and found her in bed with some other guy.”
Bullet grumbles something incoherent into his sandwich while Rex moves to the doorway, peering through the darkness to keep an eye on Falco.
“Anyway, he forgave her because he loved her and wanted to work things out. It was fine for a little while until one night he had a nightmare so severe, he woke up to himself strangling her. She stayed by his side, claiming to be understanding and forgiving. The way he described it to me was that she made him feel like there was light at the end of the tunnel. But that same night, after he fell back asleep, she snuck away to meet up with her bastard lover and was killed by a drunk driver. Falco blames himself. Has done ever since, and I’m pretty sure he’s just spent his entire life waiting for the bullet of retribution. ”
Falco…blames himself? How could he do that when none of it was his fault? My confusion must have been clear on my face because Pidge continues.
“He blames himself for scaring her. He thought that if he’d been normal and healthy, he wouldn’t have scared her into the arms of that bastard and she would still be alive.”
Suddenly, it all makes sense.
Falco’s leaning into me only to suddenly push me away, all his attempts to keep me at arm’s length making me think I’m going crazy about whether or not he’s interested in me. The fact that he always keeps himself on edge and alert, even tonight when he wasn’t even sleeping, and it saved my life.
It’s like his resolve cracks every so often and he caves, then he corrects himself. He’s either scared of repeating past mistakes, or he feels like he can’t trust himself.
How twisted it is that I understand him more now that he’s at death’s door.
“That’s awful,” I murmur. “I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.”
“We’ve all been there,” Rex says grimly. “We’ve all got baggage like that. Makes us perfect for the mafia. It’s familiar. Killing is easy. Protection is easy. The threats are the same.”
If he survives, I’m going to say something.
Doesn’t matter what he says or does in response. If he survives, then I want him to know that someone cares about him as a person and not as a bodyguard.
Running one hand down my face, I wrestle with the urge to yawn.
“You need to sleep,” Bullet says, watching me over his third sandwich.
“How can I sleep when he’s like that?”
“You saved his life. There’s nothing more you can do now. Let me take care of him. You need rest.”
“Text your family though,” Pidge says suddenly. “Not now, but when you wake up. Falco can’t be moved, which means you need to find a way to ensure we’re not disturbed by anyone.”
I nod slowly and stand. “Won’t that just tell whoever is trying to kill me that I’ve survived this?”
“By morning they’ll already know,” Rex replies, jerking his head toward the back porch.
“They’ll have been dead for hours, and whoever sent them will figure that out.
But if you act normal, then we can imply that Falco got to them without alerting you.
Makes him seem more dangerous and buys us some time. ”
“Okay,” I nod again. “Makes sense.”
“Sleep,” Bullet says while gazing up at me. “We’ll take care of both of you.”
Moving to the couch where Pidge set up a bed for me, sleep doesn’t feel like it’s possible, but I’m out before my head even touches the pillow. Thankfully, I dream of nothing but darkness and wake late the next morning in a hot flush of panic.
Falco survives the night, but he contracts a fever, which puts his survival on shaky ground.
While I slept, Pidge and the others cleaned up the cabin and somehow made it look like there had never been an attack here.
The blood is gone, mostly. The bodies have vanished from the porch, one of the coffee tables has been repaired, and a new vase taken from a different room now holds the plastic flowers in the hallway.
It’s like last night was a dream.
I send a message to my brother thanking him for letting me use the cabin and splurging about how much I love it here, so I’m probably going to stay the week. He tells me that’s a great idea because Mom has gone full bridezilla mode and no one is safe.
Shit. The wedding.
I’d forgotten about that.
It doesn’t feel real. Nothing does.
In fact, everything feels different. The clothes on my skin, the air in my lungs as I drink coffee on the porch and stare off into the forest, even the food Rex cooks. It’s like I’ve woken up for the first time in my life and I can’t explain it.
Outside of maintaining appearances on social media, I spend most of my time at Falco’s bedside. Bullet cleaned up my gunpowder attempt on Falco’s abdomen, and I inspect all the careful stitches up and down Falco’s arm. They’ll scar, deeply, but he’s alive and that’s all that matters.
The days begin trickling by.
Bullet continues to donate blood until he’s satisfied that Falco’s system is back in full swing.
I nurse his fever with cool towels and regular cool baths, all to keep his temperature down.
Bullet shows me a couple of military field tricks involving ice chips under Falco’s tongue and Rex teaches me how to load and unload a gun in the event that I might need to do exactly that.
Then, five days after those assassins tore into the cabin and changed my life forever, Falco finally wakes up.