Chapter 24
Scarlett
In the middle of the rager that he planned and doesn’t get to enjoy, Bohnes collapses in our bed and sleeps like the dead.
Like the dead. Not dead. Just like.
I’m standing in the foyer, slamming a hammer into a nail like it owes me money. Teeth gritted. Angry tears at the corners of my eyes. I’m still wearing the ruined wedding dress and the classic red and black Louboutins that my girls gave me when I showed up to the church with no shoes.
The Nightmare sign was in the trunk of the battered Chevelle, towed via my own connections and left right there in the middle of the raging party for everyone to see.
It’s no secret what happened today. Some dashcam picked me up as I was driving underneath the semi-truck and the video got posted online. I’m viral again.
The sign’s been cleaned up, sealed with resin or something. Bohnes outfitted it with hooks to make hanging it easier. The word Nightmare sticks out at me as I finish the second nail and then go to lift the sign into its rightful place.
“Use me. I’m here to be your muscle, Scarlett. I don’t know how many times I need to say that.” Widow helps me lift the sign up. I could’ve done it without him, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.
“Knowing that he’s up there being operated on…
” I trail off, starting to panic on the inside.
Now that we’re home, feelings are luxuries that I can indulge.
Can, but shouldn’t. The party that Bohnes planned is happening all around us, the front yard and the woods filled to the brim with classic cars and Prescott brats.
Plenty of good weed and alcohol, courtesy of our very deep pockets.
I haven’t seen any Oak Valley Prep or Fuller High students which means that Wolfman’s radio plea worked. If it suits our shared dark desires, this neighborhood can keep a secret. Talkers end up in lockers, you know? Or…tellers end up in cellars.
However you want to phrase it: keep your mouth shut or face the consequences.
“Knowing that he’s being operated on, you want to go up there and get in the way.” Widow puts his hands on his hips, still wearing his suit and mask. Everything. We’re all preoccupied and things are moving fast. There was no time to change as we rushed Bohnes home and got him upstairs together.
Alexei is in our bedroom with the family’s personal, on-call, on-salary med team that’s handling Bohnes. He promised that he’d know if something inappropriate was being done. The medical professionals in that room know that if Bohnes dies, none of them are leaving alive.
“That’s why I only want to be in there and exactly why I’m not.” I put my hands on my hips, too, studying the sign. No time to change out of the mud-blood clothes that I murdered a ton of guys in, but plenty of time to hang the wedding gift that Bohnes was supposed to give me tonight.
The party is beautiful, lit with bonfires and supplied with music from the pop-up KMZI 66.
6 stage that’s in the middle of the courtyard near the fountain.
Wolfman, Milicent, and Nessie are all wearing rubber Halloween masks from the Hellhole costume shop and doing a live show right there in my front yard.
Kellin arranged this because he’s amazing. Like, he’s fucking amazing. He is.
“Bohnes will be okay,” Widow tells me softly, putting a huge hand on my shoulder. All of the security shutters are closed, protecting us from the wandering eyes of the Prescott crowd. I can let myself lean back into him. Close my eyes. Unravel briefly. Just briefly.
Ash shuffles down the hall with two mugs in his hands and one tucked between his elbow and his bloody clothes.
“Thought we could use some coffee,” he says, offering me one. I accept it, if only so that he doesn’t end up dropping them all to the floor. Widow grabs another. I take a sip and find that it’s spiked. And also really, really good. Not just normal coffee, but something fancy with syrups and shit.
“Bohnes is unpredictable. If he thought he was going to die regardless, he’d ask to go to the church so we could be married before he passed.
” I almost drop my coffee on the floor, stepping away from Widow and pacing the spot in front of the sign.
“I want to be something better than a someday ex-husband,” I read aloud, pausing to take another sip of the coffee.
It’s way too fucking good. Ash is insane. “Fuck.”
“He wouldn’t lie to you like that,” Ash amends after a minute. “Bohnes wouldn’t. If he were dying, he’d have just said so.”
I start pacing again, antsy and frustrated and scared. I’m fucking scared. Nothing can happen to Bohnes. It just can’t. If he dies, these other three men are screwed. I’ll lose it. My mind will shatter. I can’t do that to them.
The walls start to vibrate at the beginning of the next song.
“BANG BANG BANG” by the group BIGBANG. Wolfman’s pick, weirdly enough.
“We should address the crowd,” I say, turning to find that both boys have taken off their masks so they can drink the coffee.
Contacts are still in though. They’re fucking hot as shit.
On a different day, I’d… Oh, Bohnes. I’m putting his life in Alexei’s hands.
Trusting my Husband to take care of my Nightmare.
I down the rest of the coffee, even though it’s too good to chug and honestly pretty hot.
“Let’s go all Romeo and Juliet and use the upstairs guest room with the balcony,” Widow says, giving Ash an odd look when the man produces an orange from his pocket. Something else, too. A jerky stick or something. “The fuck is that?”
“You should eat. You donated a lot of blood today.” Ash gestures with the snacks, dark-eyed and raven-haired with smears of red on his face.
Even with the masks, his skin is stained with his bad deeds.
That sword shed a lot of blood today. Thirteen, he thinks.
The same number of people slated to die because of Mayor Kelly and CEO Archer’s actions today.
The things I want to do to those men can’t be put in print.
“Thanks.” Widow takes the snacks without complaint, staring at them like eating wasn’t something that had occurred to him. We are human though. We need to shower and change. We need to address the crowd. Not necessarily in that order.
Alexei enters the room, holding a glass of water instead of coffee.
He doesn’t appear grim at first glance. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?
He likes Bohnes now. If Bohnes were dead, then he’d…
Alexei comes to a sudden stop in the doorway, studying the sign and examining the resin coating that Bohnes applied.
Surely that’ll contain all the germs, right?
His eyes soften, a deep sorrow filling them at the sight of it.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” I ask.
My cup falls to the floor. It explodes into sharp pieces in front of the black toes of my heels.
My head swims. I don’t know why I even asked that.
He can’t be dead. It’s not possible for him to die.
Kellin is my Nightmare, and he’ll always be my shadow.
Dying today would be like leaving me in this world unprotected. He’d see it that way, even if I don’t.
I knew I shouldn’t have fallen in love with him.
I fucking knew that I’d lose it completely, that I’d spiral down into a commitment and a desperation so vicious that it’s world-ending.
It feels horrible to say it, but I know that I could never move past Kellin’s death the same way I moved past Lemon or Alexis.
I’m free-falling, dizzy and wild. My palm slams into the wall beside the sign, and I let my head hang down, struggling to catch my breath. Another panic attack. They were gone, and I’m having one because I’m so nervous that I can’t think straight. Alexei never said that Bohnes was dead.
“He’s alive, rodnaya,” Alexei says gently, putting a gloved hand against my arm. “And I apologize for the confusion. The sign made me think of my Papa and how amusing he would find it to see this hanging in his foyer. Don’t mourn Kellin when he’s still alive.”
I turn my head to find Alexei standing beside me.
Ash is already in the process of wiping a warm rag over the cuts on my legs.
He’ll probably clean up the glass, too. I grab him by a handful of his hair and drag him to his feet beside me.
He comes right up to my level and then above me, just like the other two.
Widow is on my left, a puddle of coffee on the floor at his feet, too.
Like maybe he also thought for a moment that Bohnes was dead.
“Let’s get on the radio and tell a few more stories.
I refuse to let Mayor Kelly wake up in the morning with an even higher approval rating than he had before.
” I turn to Ash, my fingers tingling from the silky black strands of his hair that’re wrapped up in my fingers.
His eyes are pits of dark rage, lost in memories of his father.
“Most of the logging land around the city is owned by the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company, which my father co-owns with a politician named John Booth. Expanding the urban growth boundary will allow them to build thousands of units in a district where John needs more votes. Talk about that conspiracy.” Ash is panting heavily, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth.
He puts his hand to his chest. “Scarlett, hanaseyo. You’re making me hard. Do you…want me hard?”
He seems confused.
I release him just as he murmurs too late, I am a disrespectful fuckboy. Or something crazy like that. It’d be hot if Bohnes wasn’t unconscious and recovering from surgery.
My mind flashes white with panic and poor oversight.
“Who’s in the room with Bohnes if you’re right here?” I ask, forcing myself to stay calm. Alexei would never make a fatal mistake like that.
“Nisha and Bastian are with him,” he replies easily, knowing that I trust my friends as much as I trust him. Thank fuck. I sweep a hand over my hair.