38. Artemis
38 ARTEMIS
“Talk to us,” Saint demands.
We’re in the waiting room at the hospital.
Saint, Kade, me. I open my mouth to explain when my brother bursts inside.
He grabs me up in his arms, hugging me tightly.
I hug him back and slowly relax into his chest. I hadn’t realized how much I needed Apollo until he’s here.
He rubs my back and stays silent, and I can only imagine the look he’s giving Saint and Kade.
Wolfe follows close behind, and he hugs me next.
It’s not the same as my brother, but it’s damn similar.
“Thanks for coming.” My voice is hoarse.
“I, um, I didn’t mean to make you come here in the middle of the night?—”
“It’s mid-morning,” Apollo says.
He ruffles my hair. “And it was no trouble.”
His dark hair is wet and spiky, the collar of his soft white t-shirt a little damp.
It gives away how fast they left the house.
Wolfe stops in front of Kade.
Kade is taller, bulkier, but I have no doubt that Wolfe could take him in a fight.
If it came to it.
Which it won’t .
“Kade Laurent, you know my brother, Apollo. This is Wolfe.”
Saint snickers.
“Good luck, asshole.”
I hold my breath.
Apollo already hates the guy, which is easy to tell in the way he holds me back.
He’s ready to chuck me aside to save myself, which is kind of rude but also endearing.
Saint has done the same thing.
Do not think that about Saint Hart .
They appraise each other.
Wolfe and Kade.
And finally, Wolfe narrows his eyes and sticks his hand out.
Which Kade takes.
I glance up at my brother.
His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t do anything beyond that slight motion.
He releases me and steps back, his gaze taking in my appearance.
“You look like hell,” he informs me.
I roll my eyes. I don’t need to tell him that I’ve only caught a few hours of sleep in the past week, that everything seems to be tumbling ass over head around me, and Reese being poisoned is par for the course.
The paramedics questioned us incessantly about what he was poisoned with, but none of us knew.
And beyond the bruises, we couldn’t find any puncture marks.
So they fast-tracked him to the hospital and immediately began running tests, and we’ve been here ever since.
I cross to the row of chairs and drop into one.
“Can you tell us what this is about?” Wolfe asks me.
I bury my face in my hands.
I feel them drifting closer, sitting beside and around me.
It isn’t until the silence burns that I lift my head and woodenly tell them the story.
The same one I told Kade and Saint…
“I met Reese in Terror,” I confess to my brother and Wolfe.
This time, it gets a much different reaction.
Apollo springs to his feet, and Wolfe immediately grabs my hand.
Both Kade and Saint seem confused.
Hurrying on, I continue, “Hypnos is Gabriel.”
“Fuck,” Apollo grunts.
The crack of his fist through the drywall follows.
Wolfe’s hold on my fingers tightens.
“I’m missing something,” Kade murmurs.
Saint nods in agreement, but we ignore them.
“Gabriel…” Apollo comes back to me.
“That name sounds familiar.”
“It should.” I sigh.
“He was one of the first that we managed to get out. Him and…” My throat closes.
“Antonio,” I finish.
“Remember?”
Wolfe nods gravely.
Antonio has been with us, in our circle, for far longer than anyone else.
He’s as much family as Wolfe and Jace.
“Drugging Reese would make sense, then,” Wolfe murmurs.
“Because of the history.”
“So this has nothing to do with the Cyclopes?” Saint interrupts.
“And can someone fill us in on why someone who used to go to a club is now a raging psychopath?”
Wolfe and Apollo exchange a look.
They’re doing their mind-reading thing again, having a conversation without words.
They’re probably saying something like, Wow, Artemis didn’t tell them about Terror.
Must be for some good reason.
We should keep it a secret, too ?—
“Terror’s nightclub was a cover for a sex trafficking ring,” Apollo says.
So much for that.
Someone chokes.
Sputters.
They’ll connect it to me in a moment.
I shove out of my chair and leave them to piece it together.
I can’t wait for the realization that my own fucking parents sold me into Terror when I was fifteen to hit them.
How I was moved around so my brother couldn’t find me.
When he did…
“Miss?”
I cringe.
The nurse who called out eyes me with concern.
I wave her off and continue to the stairwell.
In it, the placard on the wall catches my attention.
Roof access .
Good.
Yes.
I hurry up the steps, bursting free and taking in a big gulp of air.
The wind snatches at my hair, most of which has come loose from my braid.
I take it out and comb my fingers through it, simultaneously walking to the edge of the roof.
The sun is up.
Sometime between us getting Reese here and now, we missed the sunrise.
I raise my hand to block the sun and squint out across Sterling Falls.
It’s gorgeous.
Gorgeous and terrifying, once you know the threads that run under the city and the monsters that pull the strings.
Saint demanded that I talk to him, but he doesn’t really know what he’s asking.
He doesn’t realize that the pain I show the world is only a fraction of what I’ve buried deep down in my bones.
Terror doesn’t define me.
Being forced into a sex trafficking ring doesn’t define me.
My brother saved me from dying there, and I vowed to do the same.
It’s why I recruited Antonio.
Why I rescued Gabriel—although I have spent so many sleepless nights wishing I could change the circumstances.
Why almost everyone at Bow & Arrow has been a victim of human trafficking in one way or another.
They find shelter with me.
And Gabriel, like a hurricane, is coming to wreck the town I hold most dear.
He doesn’t want to root out the evil.
He’s not coming to do good.
He’s coming to destroy everything—including the innocent.
Nothing is working.
When the doctors tried to bring Reese out of what they described as a medically induced coma, he started seizing.
They quickly reversed the drugs, and now we’re back to square one.
He was transferred out of the ICU early this evening because he’s stable.
As far as they can tell anyway.
There are little stickers with wires on his head and chest that go to two monitors.
One for brain activity, another for his heart.
They’re saying that, with time, he’ll wake up.
He has an IV of fluids keeping him hydrated, with the goal of flushing out whatever was given to him.
Besides being in a coma, he also has a cracked rib and severe, deep-tissue bruising.
We’re in a private room.
My brother splurged on that, I think.
It’s on the top floor of the hospital.
It’s actually kind of nice, all things considered.
We stayed for hours in the waiting room, and when he seized—well, more like when they told us they needed to run more tests but were backing off for now…
My heart stopped working, and I’ve been cold ever since.
I slide my hand into Reese’s.
He doesn’t squeeze. Doesn’t do anything to tell me if he’s actually here.
Mentally, I mean. The doctors did a test for brain activity, which he does have.
That means he’s not a vegetable.
He’s not on any sort of breathing equipment either.
I ache.
Gabriel did this because of me.
Because I ruined his life—this has to be retribution, doesn’t it?
Kade arrives. He makes some noise of disapproval, probably because I’ve kicked off my shoes and fully plan on spending the night here.
“Do you think it was too easy?” I run my finger down Reese’s forearm, looking for some sort of response.
Not even a twitch. I glance sideways at Kade.
He frowns. “What?”
“You got in and out without a hitch.”
“I had to kill someone, Artemis.” His expression is incredulous.
Yeah. Kade gave us a brief rundown of what happened, and it hasn’t sat well with me.
There’s a niggling idea that it was too simple—that one soldier sacrificed to lay the trap might be worth it in the end.
“I think you were meant to find him.” I face Kade.
“You got in and out?—”
He’s already shaking his head.
“No. There was patrol?—”
“And no one in the building? No one who heard a gunshot, suppressed or not? There was only one guard between you and Reese?” I scoff.
“Don’t delude yourself. You were meant to find him.”
He pauses and considers his friend.
Former friend? I don’t know.
“I’m going to stay here with him,” I say.
“Maybe you should make sure Saint doesn’t pitch himself off the roof of my building.”
Kade stops.
“Is that a likely scenario?”
“Maybe.” I lift one shoulder.
“I don’t know what goes through that man’s head.”
He considers it, then finally nods.
“My phone is on. Call me if you need me.”
“I will.” I force a smile.
“Now go away. The least we can do is take shifts…”
Something flashes in his expression, but it’s gone before I can decipher it.
He raps his knuckles on the end of the bed in farewell, and then he’s gone.
I release a breath.
The urge I have to climb up into the bed with Reese is nearly unmatched.
Yet somehow, I remain in my seat.
My phone is charging across the room, a bag that someone delivered this afternoon with a change of clothes, snacks, and my toiletries.
A toothbrush, especially.
My kingdom for a toothbrush.
I crack a smile at that insane line of thought.
The quote from Shakespeare, no less, although subverted a bit to fit the context.
But my smile quickly wanes when the silence continues.
When the monitors don’t change in the slightest.
“You’re going to wake up, right?” I ask Reese.
I wait for him to squeeze my hand, but there’s nothing.
It’s kind of funny—one kiss and a dangerous moment changed my perspective on him.
He gave me panic attacks, I hated his guts, I just wanted him out of Sterling Falls…
and now I’m worried about him.
Now, I won’t leave his side.
Why?
Because I… I’m getting to know him?
Because it’s taken me until now to realize that he was as stuck in that position as I was?
I close my eyes.
Reese’s parents put us in the room together.
They paid whatever price Terror set on my head—or rather, my body—not once.
Not even twice.
And here we are.
My skin doesn’t crawl when he touches me.
In fact, he’s not even reciprocating and I haven’t taken my hand away from his.
“It’s okay,” I say to him.
Or myself, I guess. I don’t know if he can hear me.
“We’re going to figure this out.”
We have to. I have to .