Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Recall - to cancel, take back, or revoke.”
Dex
The nurses tried to talk to me when I burst through the second-floor doors. I ignored them and rushed past the desk and the slowly moving patients to Piper’s room. I slammed through the door, the handle banging against the wall when I flung it open wide…
Then I stopped, cold.
The bed was made.
The room was empty.
Not wanting to accept what I saw, I hurried into the bathroom only to find it vacant too. The nurse came in behind me and shifted nervously.
“Where is she?” I demanded, breathing hard.
“We thought you might know. She was all set to be released and then when we brought her papers to sign, she was gone.”
“Damn it!” I yelled. The nurse flinched.
I held out my hands and tried to steady my voice. “I’m sorry. Could I have a minute?” I dug my phone out of my pocket and held it up. “I’ll try to call her and let you know if I get ahold of her.”
The nurse nodded and quickly left the room, shutting the door behind her. I think she just wanted away from me. I figured I had about four minutes until security showed up.
I paced the room, gripping the phone, trying to think about what my next move would be. G.R. had her. He was going to kill her. Then I stopped mid-pace. He wouldn’t kill her until I was there to watch.
I pivoted around and looked at the table beside the bed. Empty. I looked at the traveling tray. Empty. I looked at the chair I sat in all night long. Empty.
Then I looked at the bed.
Bingo.
It would be easy to overlook because the pale color of the stone blended with the white of the sheets, but I saw it. That crack called to me like a kindred spirit.
I dropped my phone, ignoring when it broke into pieces at my feet, and hastily scooped up the stone. It was ice cold, smooth, and heavier than one might think. But the weight made sense because it was carrying someone’s life.
With all the force I had, I threw the stone at the white tile of the floor. It made a sharp cracking sound and I looked down, expecting to see it in pieces.
It was still whole. But the tiles in the floor were busted. I picked it up and threw it at the wall. It bounced off, landing on the bed, still frustratingly unbroken.
I knocked it onto the floor where it skidded to a stop in the middle of the room. I looked around for something, anything that would have the strength to break the stone—to break the claim that the Grim Reaper had on Piper’s life.
Nothing seemed strong enough.
I let out a frustrated wail.
You alone possess far more strength than even you realize.
Hobbs’s words whispered in the back of my head, and I understood their meaning.
At the time I thought he meant I had the strength to turn away from the deal I’d made.
And in a way, that’s what he meant, but this—this—was the only true way to get out of that deal.
I went around the bed and toward the stone. I stood over it, looking down at how it landed: cracked side up.
I smiled and lifted my foot.
On the other side of the room, movement caught my eye. Piper stumbled into the room through some open doorway and she was closely followed by G.R.
“Dex,” she called, tears on her face.
“It’s going to be all right, Piper,” I said and looked back at the stone.
“No!” G.R. roared and rushed past Piper, but it was already too late. I brought my heel down as hard and fast as I could to land on the stone. Then I ground it into the surface of the floor for good measure.
G.R. had stopped in front of me and was staring down at my shoe and what could possibly lie beneath it. I could see the doubt creep into his features, and I knew then if this stone really was broken, then his claim on Piper’s life would be too.
I looked at her and then looked down at my foot and slowly… slowly… lifted it away.
G.R. and I stood staring down.
The stone was broken. Cracked into four pieces and lying amongst some fine white dust.
I gave a shout of joy and rushed across the room to scoop Piper up into my arms. I don’t know if she completely understood what that broken stone meant, but she laughed anyway and wrapped her arms around my neck.
I spun her around in circles. The knowledge that she was free made me want to dance. Then I stopped and she pulled back, just slightly, to stare into my eyes.
“You’re safe now,” I told her, reaching up to touch her cheek.
“I love you,” she whispered.
If I thought I knew happiness moments before, it was nothing compared to this. If my heart had been deflated before, it was overfull now—to the point it was about to burst with joy.
I dipped her backward, holding her tight, and leaned close.
“I love you.”
Then I kissed her.
My lips brushed over hers, meeting what was the most satisfying taste I’d ever known.
She kissed me back, her lips claiming what was left of my heart and tucking it safely within her.
I would’ve kissed her for hours. I would’ve kissed her for a lifetime…
but as my lips covered hers, something reminded me that this single moment would have to do.
That our first kiss would also be our last.
As my lips melted with hers, the very dark voice of the Grim Reaper filled the room.
“I release you, Piper McCall, from the claim I made on your life. You are free. You will no longer have to fear death by the hand of the Grim Reaper. But you, Dexter Allen Roth, my claim to you holds strong,”
Beneath my kiss, Piper’s lips trembled. “Dex?” she asked against me.
I kissed her harder. I kissed her for the first time, the last time, and all the times in between. I devoured her lips and tightened my arms around her until there was no space between us, knowing if I had to die, this would be the way to go.
I felt that familiar tug inside me and I knew G.R. was making his claim right now. Down the hall I heard the nurses exclaiming and security coming toward the room, but I pushed it all away.
I held on to Piper while I could, and I kissed her with a passion that would have to last the rest of her life. She kissed me back just as fiercely, gripping my face like she knew it was going to be gone in a matter of seconds, and mingling with our desperation was the taste of her tears.
When there was almost nothing left inside my body, I had to pull back. I looked in her eyes for the final time, blocking out the purple mist that curtained us from the rest of the room, and I whispered two words.
“Be happy.”
She squeezed her eyes shut as more tears fell over her cheeks and shook her head quickly.
And then I was a ghost. I no longer had a body and the purple mist that made up my essence was being pulled away—toward G.R. and wherever he would take me.
I held on to the sight of her as long as I could, and my final words seemed to drift around us like they, too, had become mist.
Be happy.
And then there was nothing.