“I really need you to wake up,” I told her. “I’m making all the decisions, and I don’t know if any of them are right. Faerie needs to be healed, and I can’t do this without you.” My voice cracked. “Maybe one day, after we fix everything… we can just sit and talk. Get to know each other.” A tear escaped down my cheek, and I wiped it away, letting her hand fall to her lap. The slow and steady rhythm of her breathing depressed me. I’d hoped for a twitch, something to let me know she was waking, but all I got was disappointment.
With a sigh, I headed for the door. It was time to beg, plead, and grovel for Liam’s help. Something I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to do after calling him a murderer and casting him out to die.
“I’ll wait right here,” Mara told me from the doorway. She’d taken the news well after I’d informed her the cuffs and imprisonment looked like it was going to be permanent. She’d only waved me off and mumbled no biggie, but I saw the disappointment in her eyes. Jasper and Trissa had stayed back to help make a logistics schedule for all of the new projects we had going on and setting up round the clock security. It was just me and my bestie in Vegas.
“Sure we don’t have time for a game of poker?” Elle asked as I careened the large SUV down the Vegas Strip and we passed the famous hotels with twinkling lights and throngs of people holding plastic drink cups. Mara had made a new toy for me. It looked like a cell phone, but once transformed, it was an SUV. An SUV big enough to fit Liam and his brothers… should he want to come back with me.
I frowned, ignoring Elle’s questions. “What if he tells me to fuck off?”
Elle looked out at the passing buildings as we turned into a seedier neighborhood. Why on earth had Mara brought them here to heal? Maybe because his dad would go back to North Carolina, looking for them…
“Then he tells you to fuck off. You’ve both got shit to deal with.”
Yeah… we did.
He killed my mom, and I left him for dead.
Could our relationship ever be the same? Probably not…
“It’s up here on the right,” Elle said.
I winced at the broken-down motel. It was in a sorry state. My heart panged that it was my fault Liam and his family, his men, were homeless.
“I never told them they all had to leave,” I said almost to myself, to assuage my own guilt as I pulled my car into the motel parking lot.
I turned off the car and noticed that Elle was shifting nervously in her seat.
“What’s wrong?” I frowned. Maybe she was nervous for me.
“I kissed Cam!” she blurted out.
My eyes widened. “What? When?”
I mean, I knew they had some sexual chemistry but damn.
“Right after you kicked Liam out… I was helping clean up my mom’s house, and he came to say goodbye.” She touched her lips as if remembering the kiss.
My heart sank further into my chest. “Oh, Elle, and I screwed that up when he left. I’m so sorry.”
Could I be any more of a shitty person?
Elle waved her hand. “Nah, I don’t think he would have had the balls to kiss me if you hadn’t kicked them out.”
I groaned. “I didn’t kick them all out. Just Liam.”
She shrugged. “Whatever, they all hate you. Beware.”
Great. Some freaking pep talk this was. “How bad were his injuries?” My voice shook a little.
Elle ran her fingers through her hair and blew air through her teeth. “Bad. Ruptured spleen, three broken ribs, fluid in the sac around the heart.”
My eyes widened. “But he’s okay?”
She nodded. “Kira is amazing.”
Thank the gods for Kira. What had I been thinking, leaving him there alone like that… I’d let my head get all messed up, and now I didn’t know how to fix it. This was all compounded by the fact that I was still mad at him for killing my mom. Even though it was self-defense, even though my mom had been awful to him… I couldn’t get my head wrapped around it all.
“It will take time for you guys to figure out where you stand.” Elle reached out and squeezed my hand. “For now, let’s focus on the political alliance of the Queen of Faerie and the Prince of Winter.”
Oh yeah. He was a prince. Of Winter. I freaking almost let the Prince of Winter die. Some great politician I was.
I groaned. “Let’s definitely get one of those giant margarita drinks when we are done here.”
Elle grinned. “And poker?”
“Sure.” When else would I have this special time with my bestie?
With a deep breath, I opened the door and stepped out into the warm night air.
Did I want Liam to forgive me? Did I want to forgive him? Or did I really just need to forgive myself?
Chapter 6
“Hello, Satan,” Cam growled through a crack in the door, glaring at me with his descended fangs.
“Calm down,” Elle snapped at him, but I waved her off.
“I probably deserve that,” I told him.
His upper lip curled. “Here to rub salt in his barely healing wounds?” he asked.
“She is the one who ordered his healing,” Elle told Cam, and I placed a hand on my best friend’s shoulder.
“I’ve got this, Elle.” Then, I faced Cam and sighed. “I’m here to talk peace.”
“One second.” Cam shut the door, hard.
Fear churned in my gut when the door to the room next door opened and Cain peeked his head out. His hair was messed up like maybe he’d been sleeping, but despite the hatred from Cam, he gave me a smile and a small wave. “Hi, Lily. Hey, Elle, I miss your pancakes.”
She smiled, giving him a wave back. “I’ll make them again
