Peter blew out a sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose. Once again, control was slipping through his fingers, and he was back to square one. Victoria’s dead eyes stared at him as he turned to look at her.
He strode into the cell, and the others kept silent as he pulled Victoria’s eyelids shut, then scooped her up and laid her down on the bunk. First Elena, now this. He wanted to hate Victoria, to be glad that Elena’s killer was dead. But it was just another unnecessary death, laid out before him.
His phone buzzed in its pocket. He took it out, finding a text from Chad. Even as his eyes scanned the words over and over, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
At last, he slipped the phone back into the pocket and breathed out in relief.
Skull shuffled behind his back. “I’ll take her to the infirmary.”
“No, not the infirmary. Find her relatives, spin up a legend. She should be buried where they see fit. Briefing today at five.” Peter turned to Skull. “Pain’s awake. I have to go.”
“Well, that’s good news. I’ll deal with this, don’t worry.”
Peter grimaced at the bloody mess in the cell, then realized he, too, was a mess, with red smudges all over his gray sweater. He ground his teeth, feeling dirty to the bone.
His fingers closed on the back of the sweater, and he whipped it off and tossed it to the floor. “Screw it,” he muttered, walking out of the cell. “Find her relatives. Clean her up. And make sure no one here sees her.”
Chapter 35
Pain held her breath and counted to five to keep from snapping at her friends as they crowded her bed.
“O-kay… For the tenth time,” she said, looking at Tiffany, “I feel fine. Honestly. Stop poking at my eyeballs.” She turned to her sister and Chad. “I don’t need pain meds. What I need is a hairbrush and a mirror.” Her eyes landed on Marco wearing only ridiculously bright pink shorts and Jordans. “Wha—I don’t even wanna ask. If we’re done here, I’d like to take a shower and eat a big, greasy meal. Doc can take a look at me later.”
She sat up higher and adjusted her top and sweatpants, intending to get off the bed, but Chad blocked her. “I saw Peter at the staircase. Shirtless. He looked pissed.” Chad grimaced. “Did you know he has a ginormous—” He broke off as the infirmary door squeaked open.
Everyone whipped around.
Peter stood in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a black sweater, his face grim. Pain swallowed hard as he locked gazes with her for a second, then turned to close the door.
Chad bent down to her ear, quickly whispering, “…tattoo on his back?”
She waved him off, mouthing, “I know,” and ignored his big eyes.
“How’s she doing?” Peter asked Tiffany as he joined them, tension coming off him in waves.
Shit, he’s gonna yell.
“So far, so good.” Tiffany gave a quick smile, probably feeling it too. “We’ll need to run some tests and keep her in for observation for a couple days.”
Peter gave a tight nod. His frown turned into a scowl as he looked at Pain. She pressed back into the pillow.
“We’ll be outside,” Tiffany said, pushing the others to the exit. Pain caught Jane’s troubled look, but no one said a word as they shuffled out the door.
Silence filled the room when everyone left, and it got heavier by the second. Peter stood gazing out the window, arms crossed.
Ten more seconds, she thought, and this is going to get awkward.
He turned to her, that bottled-up rage simmering in his eyes.
She sighed. “Listen, just—”
“I thought you were dead,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I know. Everyone did.”
“No.” He took a slow, measured step closer. “I thought you were dead. I believed it. I was told they shot you, and I thought you were gone.” He fell silent, his breaths the only sound in the room. “The others were there when Dave took off with you, but I wasn’t. I was here. And all I had was some words passed on from someone to some guy, and they’re all rookies, so they didn’t know what they were doing, saying something like that without confirmation. I was the last to know that Dave had already brought you here when I heard that, and only because Rooney was smart enough to check the cameras and see everyone in the hall, except you. So for five minutes, I thought you were dead.”
One step closer, and he stared her in the eyes in the dim morning light. Pain opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Do you realize what those five minutes have done to me?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered at last. “I guess no one told you because they weren’t sure themselves. Dave took off, and until they caught up to him…” she trailed off, biting her lip.
Peter leaned over the bed next to hers, his long fingers gripping the bed rail. “How could you be so reckless? You nearly died for nothing. I’m not even talking about you going there in the first place, when I specifically told you not to. But getting under fire like that, what the hell were you thinking?”
“It wasn’t reckless.” Her words came out snappy even to her own ears, and she tried to keep her emotions in check as she got up to her feet. “It was an accident. I did what I had to do. We had a shot at following them, and we did and found out how they get away, at least. That’s worth something.”
“Your life?”
Her self-control flew out the window. “No, not my life, but it’s not like I planned for this to happen!”
