Chapter 37
Widow
I’m on my hands and knees in a sea of half-dead bodies and chunks of concrete.
I’m injured, but not terribly. Can’t say the same for the people around me.
It’s hard to really say what happened. One minute, I was helping Ash with his nosebleed, and then there was all that heat and sound and force. An explosion?
I need to find Scarlett.
I lift my head up, blinking through the dust and the flames and the blood running down my face.
It’s lucky that I choose that moment to get my shit together because I just barely manage to catch sight of Ash in the back of an ambulance.
How the hell is there an ambulance here?
The explosion only happened like a minute ago.
I should know because I was awake for all of it, for the floor splitting in half.
Alexei and Emma Jean were sent one direction while Ash and I went the other.
We were essentially ejected into the parking lot with all the protesters.
Dozens of them are dead all around me, their anti-Scarlett signs soaked in blood.
I shove up to my feet, and I start running.
I leap over people moaning for help, step on others if I absolutely have to, my entire focus locked on Ash.
I’m the King of Prescott. I promised Scarlett that I’d take care of him.
Shit, I promised myself and Ash and the whole damn world that I’d take care of him.
The ambulance doors are closing, the gap between them narrowing until they’re shut tight and Ash disappears. Doesn’t slow me down. If anything, the spike of cold fear in my heart adds speed. I’m like a horse with a spur in his side, dodging debris and fire and death to get to my friend.
I told him he’d never have to be alone with Jonas again. Oh my fucking God. I can’t let the mayor turn me into a liar.
One of the doors on the back of the ambulance opens briefly and out comes Ash’s sword, sailing through the air.
I catch it without thinking, using my other hand to grasp the edge of the door.
The muscle thing is so true. I’m stronger than the dude trying to keep me out, tearing that door open and impaling him with the sword.
I’m not stupid. If I were, Scarlett wouldn’t like me. If I were, Bohnes and Alexei wouldn’t trust me.
The man I just stabbed looks like a paramedic, but he ain’t a paramedic.
How did an ambulance get over here so quickly, and why would they drive past so many injured people just to get to Ash?
This is all part of some insane plot where Jonas gives up any possibility of being mayor or governor or anything else in his pursuit to see Ash suffer.
Ash was right. I did underestimate him. What a crazy fuck.
Wrenching the sword free brings the groaning, dying man with it. I whip the blade aside and step out of the way of his falling corpse, leaping up into the back of the ambulance to see that Ash’s eyes are dilated and he’s sweating feverishly.
“Hey, man, you okay?” I murmur, trying to unbuckle the straps around his body and then giving up and using the sword instead.
Ash doesn’t seem able to answer. He’s looking at me like he understands what I’m saying.
Doesn’t talk though. Doesn’t move, not even when I free his arms. Doesn’t help me with the buckles on his legs. “They drug you or something?”
There’s a sound behind me.
I swing around in time to avoid a blow to the back of the head. Stumbling back, I tighten my grip on the sword, staring at another man in a paramedic uniform. He seems surprised to see me there, cursing as he reaches into a pouch on his belt and removes a stun gun.
No hesitation on my part.
I lunge forward and put the blade straight through his neck, ripping it free and spraying the interior of the ambulance with blood. It’s slippery on the metal floor, sending me to my knees in a puddle of hot red. With my right hand, I reach down to check for my gun.
It’s gone, lost in the blast that sent us from fifteen feet up in the grandstand to the pavement just outside of it. All I’ve got is a sword that I barely know how to use.
Both of the back doors open wide, nobody in sight. At least two men, one each behind the metal—
There aren’t two men. Of course not. Too easy.
Four of them appear, guns raised and pointing right at me.
I’m on my knees in a puddle of blood, bruised and sore and severely lacking in artillery.
Why don’t they just shoot me? I wonder, remembering all the horrible stories that Ash has told us.
Death is too easy for Jonas Kelly; he likes suffering.
I chuck the sword, but the goon I’m aiming at steps nimbly out of the way.
The second guy, the one I throw myself at, he doesn’t see it coming. Since I’m already on my knees, and the ambulance is a few feet off the ground, I use the dead man’s blood like a slip ‘n slide. My body knocks into the goon’s and we both go down.
I’ve got his hair in my hand now, lifting his head up and slamming it back down on a piece of concrete.
More blood. Screaming everywhere. Smoke.
And Scarlett. Scarlett. God, where’s Scarlett?
As if my dumb cuck ass couldn’t be any happier about sharing my lady with a bunch of other guys…
Hah. Knowing Bohnes and Alexei are out there gives me strength and courage and the ability to fight tooth-and-nail for Ash because I know Scarlett will be taken care of.
She doesn’t need to be taken care of, Adrian. She’s just you with a pussy.
The other men wrestle me off the dying guy on the ground. They’ve put their guns away, shoving a needle into my arm instead. A burst of cold fire hits my veins, flooding me with instant dizziness and lethargy. Probably the same drug they gave to Ash.
“He’s dead,” one of the goons says, using his boot to poke at the man whose head I smashed into the concrete. “One kid, three bodies? What the hell do they put in the water around Prescott?”
I’m thrown unceremoniously on the bloody floor next to the gurney with Ash in it. Somebody handcuffs me to the metal leg of the bed, but even though I’m struggling with shards of granite determination, I’m not immune to whatever sedative I’ve just been given.
Fuck.
I collapse fully onto the floor, slamming my head against the metal ground.
The ambulance doors are shut and locked. The vehicle begins to move. Slow at first, then fast. Faster. The highway?
I wish I could at least see Ash’s face, those big dark eyes of his screaming. If I weren’t paralyzed, I might laugh. How did I not see his pain before? It’s so obvious.
At the very least, if we end up in hell, we’ll arrive at those fiery gates together.
And if the devil is waiting for us in the form of Mayor Kelly, Ash won’t have to suffer and die alone.