Chapter 38 - Nolan
NOLAN
“Juliet!” My heart is ripped right out of my fucking throat as Gio and I throw ourselves at the two women at the edge of the rooftop.
One second they’re both there, and then they’re not.
“No!” At first I think it’s my denial that shreds the silence.
Then, I realize, it’s Gio as he dashes to the ledge, nearly throwing himself over in his own haste, stopping only because I reach out to grab him by the back of his collar just before he, too, goes over.
There’s a splash and the two of us hover over the side of the building looking down, squinting as we try to make out if she survived.
Below, the pool ripples with the impact of their bodies.
The water glows under the floodlights, blue and red.
I can’t tell if it’s blood or a reflection from the lights on some of the surrounding buildings.
I’m not sure I want to know. My throat closes around her name as I try to shout it once more.
“Fuck—fuck!” Gio’s already moving, running for the stairwell. I turn to follow when a sound cuts through the chaos.
A strangled sob. My eyes widen and, of course, I should’ve known—there was only one way Juliet would be in that kind of danger.
If Lex was incapacitated. And it looks like he is as he lies on the roof, blood pooling around him as he sobs, his body shaking with the force of the emotion.
After all… he might have just watched our girl fucking die.
“Gio!” I call, halting the other man. “Wait!”
Lex struggles onto his knees, a hand pressed into his thigh and blood seeping through the once snow-white fabric of his button-up suit shirt over his shoulder.
His face is twisted and wet. The sight guts me.
My best friend—this unbreakable bastard—is shattering right in front of me and if I don’t find out if she survived, I’m going to shatter right alongside him.
“I tried—” His voice cracks, high and small. “I tried—”
With hesitation, I go to my knees beside him. “I know.” There is no doubt in my mind that he would’ve done anything to protect her. I grab his face, forcing him to look at me. “Stay with Gio. He’s got you, you hear me?”
“Nolan—” Gio starts as I get to my feet.
“Stay with him!” I bark, harsher than I mean to, but I can’t let myself fall apart too. “Get him help. I’ll get her.” If she’s there.
Please be there, Princess… please be alive.
As if he hears my silent plea, Gio nods, trembling, and goes to Lex’s side, dropping next to him, already ripping off his jacket to press to Lex’s wounds.
My chest feels too tight for breath, but I don’t wait to see more.
I’m already running—slamming through the stairwell door once again, feet hammering down concrete, lungs burning as I take three steps at a time.
It was only four or five floors—I remember seeing the sign for the upper pool somewhere…
The echo of my heartbeat is a war drum in my skull.
By the time I spot a plaque that directs me to the pool, I feel ready to combust. My body slams into the door, but it automatically holds strong and I spot the scanner for the key card a second later.
Withdrawing one of the room keys Viks had given me before we’d left the limo behind, I scan it and burst out onto the lower rooftop, the cold night air punching me in the face.
Chlorine and copper are the first scents to slam into me.
There’s steam coming off the heated pool, surrounding the figures within it.
“Juliet!”
Relief floods me when I see that she’s alive, so ripe that I nearly fall to my knees then and there. She’s struggling to keep her head above water as she tries to swim to the edge. Her face is contorted in pain and she’s only using one arm.
I don’t bother to remove my coat before I dive into the water after her. Warmth surrounds me a split second before I reach her, pulling her against my body as I break the surface of the water. She cries out when I press against her side—her arm.
“What is it?” I demand, running my fingers over her even as I drag her after me, tugging her to the shallow end. Once her feet hit the floor of the pool, she seems to do better, but she’s still panting and gasping.
My hand lightly brushes her shoulder and she gasps again, her face paling. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Princess, let me…” The words trail off as I realize the issue. Her arm is both dislocated and broken. Shit.
“It hurts,” she hisses as I do my best to lead her to the steps. She’s going to be in so much pain when I have to lift her out.
Floodlights flicker over her beautiful face and for a moment, I’m struck fucking stupid by our luck. She just fell five fucking floors into a damn pool and survived.
Standing before me, soaked in moonlight, I take her in. There are red marks on her shoulders and chest, her dress is soaked and nearly see-through, and it’s clear she’s going to be heavily bruised and need a hospital. But she’s alive. She’s fucking alive.
Pausing and bending my head to her good shoulder, a breath shudders out of me. “Thank you…” I whisper the choked words.
“What?” she replies.
If I didn’t think it would cause her more hurt, I’d squeeze her to me. Instead, I lift my head and press the softest kiss I can manage to her temple. “Thank you,” I say the words again. “Thank you for surviving.”
Juliet is quiet for a long moment. “I almost didn’t,” she confesses. I know and that realization was the scariest fucking moment of my life.
Pulling away, I help her out of the pool, lifting her over the edge and ignoring her wince.
Blue streaks of hair cling to her face, darker than normal.
Just as I suspected, she’s going to need to have her arm set.
The limb hangs wrong, bent where it shouldn’t be.
Blood from a cut across her forehead mixing with the water streaming down her cheek.
“Juliet.” My voice is shaking as I drop to my knees in front of her.
“W-what happened to her?” Juliet asks, her gaze moving over my shoulder, and I follow.
Roquel lies there. Still. Floating near the edge of the pool with her dark hair fanned out like a halo in the water.
Her body unmoving, face turned toward the stars as if she’s already somewhere else. I turn back to my girl.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, hands reaching for her. “You need—”
“Is she dead?” Juliet interrupts, still staring beyond me.
I grit my teeth. Fuck, I hope so. Before I can answer, however, the door leading back into the hotel swings open and Viks is standing there. His chest rising and falling with his fast breathing. He doesn’t pause, but takes several steps towards the pool and jumps in with both feet.
Together, Juliet and I watch as he hauls Roquel Lee’s soaked body out of the water and lays her out flat on the stone tile. I feel nothing as he checks her pulse with two fingers to the bitch’s throat and then presses his ear to her chest. He begins to do chest compressions.
A part of me wants to tell him to stop, to let the cunt die.
He was the one who’d suggested that we could call Rylie to hack the hotel’s camera system when neither Juliet nor Lex would respond and the meeting time came and went with no sign of her stalker.
We couldn’t go in blind, but when I saw her shoot Lex the second time, I knew she was going to kill Juliet—possibly even both of them.
If she doesn’t die now, I’ll just have to do it later.
Juliet shivers and I whip my head in her direction. She’s got her one good arm wrapped around her middle, her eyes rapt on where Viks is trying to get Roquel to breathe again. Her nipples pebble against the pale fabric of her gown and a soft growl leaves me.
Ripping myself up from the ground, I stalk to the towel counter a few feet away and grab an armful. When I reach Juliet once again, I open up one and drop it around her shoulders, wrapping the coarse fabric over her upper body before I drop another to her lap.
Seconds pass and then minutes. Finally, Juliet speaks. “She’s dead, Viks,” she murmurs. “There’s no point in trying to save her.”
Viks sits up, the dark ink of his tattoos flexing as he shifts.
He’s panting and staring down at the girl laid out before him.
I’m not sure why he even bothered to try and save her, but I can’t deny that I’m happy she’s no longer a problem.
All of the shit she’d spewed at Lex and Juliet on the camera recording made it clear that she has been the villain all along.
“She’s dead,” Viks agrees. That seems to break the unusual spell cast over Juliet.
“L-Lex?” Juliet’s voice shakes and it’s not from cold. Fear etches into her features, stealing across the pale cheeks and erasing even the hints of pain she’s in. All for him. Lex.
“He’s alive,” I tell her. “Ambulance is on their way. Gio’s with him.”
“W-what about Mads?”
I glance over at Viks and he offers Juliet a small smile that I’m sure is supposed to be reassuring but on him looks more like a grimace.
“She was alive,” he tells her. “Just unconscious. When the ambulance gets here they’ll take her too and make sure she’s all right.
You can see her when you get to the hospital. ”
Juliet’s shoulders sag and she doesn’t even comment on his answer as her big blue eyes bore into me. “Roquel… tried to kill me,” she murmurs. “She killed Morpheus.”
“I know,” I say. “But you’re okay, Princess.” I gently sit down at her side and bring her against my chest. “You’re okay and that’s all that matters.”
She shakes her head. “No… no, she’s fucking… dead, Nolan. She’s dead and she didn’t fucking pay for what she did.”
I turn a glare to the dead woman as Viks stands to his feet and scrubs a hand down his face, wiping off the water still clinging to him and dripping from his chin. “What now?” I ask him.
Viks blows out a breath. “Now, we take the hotel footage to the police and clear Juliet’s name,” he says.
“Do you think it’ll be good enough?” Juliet asks as she looks up at him.
“She admitted to everything,” Viks replies. “The embezzlement fraud, the murder victims, and… everything else.” He gestures lamely as if he’s unsure what else to say.
Despite the towels, Juliet’s body begins to shake and I know that it has nothing to do with the cold.
It’s the adrenaline coursing through her system, still there even if the major danger has passed.
I need to get her to the hospital, to my mom—the only person I can trust with the woman who carries my fucking soul.
“Don’t worry about that now,” I tell Juliet, pulling her closer even as I try to not jostle her broken and dislocated arm. I need her warmth, the pressure of her existence. The reminder she’s still here.
I cling to the physical sensations of her. The smell of chlorine in her hair burning my nostrils in the best way. Her heartbeat. Her skin as it pebbles with gooseflesh. All of it is the proof that she didn’t fucking die.
Losing her… it was never an option, but if it had happened, I think the guys and I would’ve lost ourselves too. Without her, there would have been nothing left to save.
I press another kiss to her temple and glare at the dead woman. She’s lucky, too, though she’ll never know it. Because had Roquel Lee survived this night, it would have been to be killed via a fate worse than death. Torture and pain so severe that it may have even fixed her deranged mind.
None of it is necessary now, but I still need to make sure that my people are taken care of.
Slowly, I get to my feet and lift Juliet into my arms. She doesn’t protest like I suspect she normally would.
She must really be hurting. “We need to go to the hospital,” I say coolly. “Lex and Juliet both need a doctor.”
Viks is quiet for a moment, but he nods his head and fishes a set of keys from his pocket.
I walk towards him and he drops them in Juliet’s lap.
“There’s an SUV parked in the back lot. There’s a special series of buttons in the dash—it’ll light up like an emergency vehicle.
Use it and get them to a hospital. I’ll meet you there. ”
“You’ll take care of this?” I clarify.
He nods and that’s all I need to know. Turning from him, I stalk toward the exit and try to erase the sight of Juliet’s fall from my memory.
Juliet slumps against me. Her breath catches, but her muscles are too lax for me to know that she’s anything other than unconscious.
I look down, taking in her features and committing them to my mind, tracing each dip of her features from the slope of her nose to the curve of her cheek.
I take each and every minute detail and burn it into my mind.
Because if I do anything else—if I let myself think of anything else—I’ll see her falling all over again.