Chapter Fifty-Eight
“Grief - keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss;
sharp sorrow; painful regret.”
Piper
I stared down at the body lying at my feet. He was nothing now but a heap of skin and bones. What was once animated was now lifeless. What used to be so full was now empty.
I dashed away the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing and looked up at the man who caused all of this.
“What have you done to him?”
The man looked at me with pleasure on his face. “I have merely held him up to his end of the bargain. He didn’t do what he agreed to do so he paid. With his life.”
“You’re sick and cold!” I yelled.
“No. I’m a business man.” He glanced at the door where the security guards were gathering and then he stepped toward me.
I took a step back as the door opened and Frankie pushed her way through the guards, shutting them out.
“Leave her alone!” she yelled at the Grim Reaper.
“Frankie, don’t touch him,” I warned, the vision of her death still haunting me. I couldn’t bear to lose her too.
The old man smiled. “For the first time ever, my claim on a human life has been broken. Dex might not have been able to save himself, but he saved you.”
He reached down and grabbed the body, lifting it like it was a doll, and then the doorway that we came through earlier opened and he stepped through without looking back.
Just as it closed, the door to my room opened and the security guards entered. All I could do was stand there. I stood there in a room full of people and I felt entirely lost and alone. Dex was gone. He sacrificed his life for me… again.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I blinked, looking up. It was Frankie. Somehow she’d managed to clear the room of people and it was just she and I standing there.
“I thought I told you not to come,” I said, my voice watery.
“You didn’t actually say that. Besides, I thought you might need me. I was right.”
I leaned into her side. She was right. I did need her.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” she said.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I whispered, staring at the space where Dex’s body had been.
“At the beginning, but not until you’re ready.”
She ushered me toward the door and I felt a moment of panic. I wasn’t ready to leave. I dug my feet into the floor and turned back to where Dex had been.
But he wasn’t there.
I would never see him again.
Being in this room wouldn’t make me any closer to him. It wouldn’t bring him back. As more tears spilled over my cheeks I looked back at Frankie.
“I’m ready now,” I whispered.
We walked out of the room, past the prying eyes and whispering mouths, but I scarcely paid attention to them. I was too busy wondering how I was going to say good-bye to a man that had impossibly found his way into my heart.