Chapter 24 Loche
Loche
Iopened my eyes, finding myself connected to lines, cords, and devices I hadn’t seen before.
Was I in a hospital?
Through a foggy haze, memories came flooding back to me. The surveillance footage. The call from Cole. The drive to Ever’s house. The fight with Travis. He’d stabbed me, right? My hand drifted down, finding dressings where the stab wound had been. Yup, that fucker had stabbed me.
Shit. He’d also stabbed Ever. I tried to sit up, but pain and equipment prevented me from getting too far.
“Take it easy there, slugger.”
What. The. Fuck.
I turned my head to see Ever’s friend Katy sitting in a chair next to my bed. Forget the hospital, I’d died, and I was in hell.
“Wow. You really are good-looking conscious.” She observed, patting my arm. “Good for Ever.”
“Where is she?” I asked, more confused now than worried.
“She went to grab a coffee with your mom in the cafeteria. She’ll be back in a few minutes.
She didn’t want you to wake up alone, so she asked me to stay.
” Katy laughed. “Man, she is going to be super pissed you woke up while she was gone. Maybe fake being asleep before she walks into the room and magically wake up as soon as she’s next to you. I’ll have your back.”
I groaned.
“It could be worse. You could be dead.”
“That’s looking on the bright side.”
“You know, you really should be less of a grump. If not for my party, you would still be staring at Ever through her bedroom window.”
“I never once stared at her through her bedroom window.”
“Mmhmm.”
I ran my hand over my face, almost wishing it were a chloroform rag. “How is Ever doing?”
“She’s been worse.” My stomach dropped as Ever was wheeled into the room in a wheelchair by my mom. “Of course, she’s also been better, too.”
“Whoa. Check out that heart rate,” Katy said, staring at my heart monitor. “If you get any more excited, you’ll have the nurses running in here.”
My mom parked Ever’s wheelchair next to my bed before turning around and leaning down to kiss my forehead. “Thank God you’re okay,” she said. “But I swear to God, Loche, if you make me worry like that again, I’ll kill you myself.”
Ever snort-laughed. “I think I’m in love with your mom.”
“You know I can’t make that kind of promise, Mom. How about I just promise to do my best, instead?”
“If that’s the best you can do,” Mom sighed, “I guess I’ll take it.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think Ever has any more homicidal exes, so at least I won’t be stabbed by any more of them.”
“Don’t put this on me,” Ever said, unamused. “I’m sure there are plenty more people out there who would line up to stab you who have nothing to do with me.”
My mom’s eyes widened, and she turned to look back at Ever.
“Respectfully,” Ever said, clearing her throat.
“She’s not wrong.” I smiled at Mom when she turned her head back to face me. “It’s just my natural charm.”
“Great,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’m going to have a heart attack one of these days because of you, Loche Greene.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep him in line.”
I looked over at Ever and smiled.
“Well,” Mom said, clapping her hands together, “I think I’ll give you two a minute to talk before the nurse finds out you’re awake.” She looked back at Katy, who remained planted in the chair, and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh,” Katy said, “you mean me, too.” Reluctantly, she stood up, looking between me and Ever before setting her sights on me, motioning at her eyes with two fingers and pointing at me as she followed behind my mom.
“She’s wound up today.”
Ever snorted. “That’s nothing. You should have seen her when your friends were here. I thought she was going to spontaneously combust when Malachi walked in wearing, and I quote, ‘his slutty little glasses’.”
I looked down at Ever’s feet, which had been bandaged, explaining the need for the wheelchair, and frowned. “How bad were you injured?”
Ever followed my eyes down to her feet. “Frostbite.”
“Shit. Are they—can you…”
“I can walk. It wasn’t severe enough to require amputation, but I had some pretty nasty blisters.”
“And your back?”
“Some minor nerve damage. I may have some permanent numbness. I’ll recover, though.” She smiled.
“You look pretty amused for someone sitting in a hospital room.”
“Are you even concerned about what your injuries are?”
“I’m alive, aren’t I? I mean, as long as they didn’t cut off my penis, I’m good.” Ever’s face fell, causing panic to take hold. “Shit!” I lifted the sheet and pulled up my hospital gown, breathing a sigh of relief when I saw my better half still hanging out where I’d left him. “Oh, thank God.”
Tears fell down Ever’s face. She was laughing so hard she’d begun to slide out of her chair.
“Real funny. But I guess I deserved that.”
“You sure did.” She sat back up, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Your appendix was removed, by the way. The knife lacerated it. You actually got really lucky.”
“Yeah, I did,” I said, meeting Ever’s eyes. “I’m sorry for everything.”
“You’ve already apologized to me.”
“I know, but I thought I was dying then. Now that I know that I’m not, I feel compelled to reiterate my apology.”
“Are you really sorry about everything?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was, not for being with you. I could never be sorry for the time we spent together.”
“Good. Because I’m not either.”
“Does that mean we’re going steady?”
“I think that means I want you to ask me out on an actual date.”
I sat up straighter on the bed to face her, wincing with pain. “Ever, will you go out with me sometime?”
“No.”
“What? Really?”
“When it comes to you, I won’t be responding favorably to requests using my government name.”
I nodded, holding back a chuckle at the insolent smile on her face. “Nevermore, do you want to go out to dinner with me sometime?”
“I think I may, actually. God help me.”
“Great, I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Your wheelchair or mine?”
She laughed. “I don’t think I really need this thing, but your mom insisted, and she kind of scares me.”
“You and me both.”
Ever sighed. “It’s going to be weird going back to the office after this.”
“Maybe for you. I’m not going back.”
“Why?”
“Do you really need to ask that?” I chuckled. “My uncle kind of stole money from the partners, and if the police find any evidence to support anything I’m sure he’s told them about my illegal fight club and revenge-for-hire nonprofit, I’ll probably be behind bars right along with him.”
“Yeah, about that,” Ever said, capturing my attention.
“According to Malachi and some connection he has to law enforcement, they really aren’t paying too much attention to Conrad.
Plus, he has nothing concrete he can peg on you.
He was only using what he thought he knew to blackmail you because, you know, a felon is going to felon. ”
“Well, either way, I tendered my resignation right before I left to find you. I won’t be working in law anymore.”
“What are you going to be doing? Thirst trap on MaskTok, perhaps?”
“Is that a thing? Huh. I guess I have a plan B now in case my actual plan doesn’t work.” Ever raised an eyebrow as if to say, Get on with it. “A talent scout attended the fight you were at. He witnessed me getting my clock cleaned thanks to a certain someone.”
“My bad,” she muttered under her breath.
“But he also witnessed me putting up a pretty damn good fight beforehand. I’m being signed to fight with the Marauders. I’ll be making money. Legally.”
“That’s somehow less hot.”
I leaned back in the hospital bed, smiling the first genuine smile I’d had in a very long time. The kind of smile I’d admired on other people, wondering what they had that was so good in their lives. Never in that scenario had I ever thought I would be joining them in their unbridled happiness.
“Are you tired? I can leave and let you get some rest?”
I reached my hand out to Ever, who took it tightly in hers, winding her fingers around mine. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m home now. I don’t need to run anymore.” She squeezed my hand. Still drowsy from the sedation, I closed my eyes and gave her hand a squeeze back. “I meant to tell you thank you for saving my life.”
I opened my eyes to see her, staring out the window at the light snow falling from the sky. “No, Ever. I didn’t save your life. You saved mine.”
Three weeks later, I walked into the law office of Harrison, Hawley, Haak, and Smith—now minus the Harrison—for the last time.
The new receptionist they’d hired to replace Shelby, who was currently sitting in the county jail awaiting trial, looked up at me with confused eyes as I walked past her desk.
“I’m Loche Greene,” I called back to her, noticing a change in her expression that told me she no doubt had heard more about me than I would ever know about her.
I walked down the hall on the way to my former office, passing Conrad’s office and the stacks of boxes inside it.
The partners had already boxed up the evidence of his illicit deeds and turned them over to the prosecutor.
What was left was the perfect embodiment of the man Conrad was: an empty space devoid of character.
The door to Ever’s and my office was open when I came to it, finding her inside working diligently as though she hadn’t just been released from the hospital a few weeks ago after being stabbed by her ex and stalked for over a year by the asshole leaning against her doorway right now.
I don’t care what the misogynist pricks of the world said; there was no man out here who could match the strength of the women I’d known in my lifetime.
“Fucking hell, Loche.” Ever jumped, startled when she caught sight of me. “Did you miss stalking me so much that you decided to take the show on the road?”
“You gave me a key to your house, so I can’t break in anymore. Kind of ruined all my fun, so I thought I’d recreate the magic here.”