by Katie Cross
Amber snatched the bag when I heard the grunts of fighting resume. She skittered back the shadows. I fumbled for my phone on the ground nearby and tried to keep my eyes on her, but everything moved too strangely. The fighting darkness as Benjamin and the man grappled together in full fight mode. The long light of the street lamp so far away. My fingers seemed to take forever to dial 9-1-1.
Finally, a voice came over the earpiece.
“9-1-1, what's your emergency?”
“A-attacked,” I cried. “We're being attacked in the parking lot of the Frolicking Moose. There are three—”
A leg connecting with my stomach sent me onto my back with a grunt. Only a second passed before I understood that Amber had kicked me. The blow had barely been enough to overturn me, but I lost my breath again. She stomped on my phone, then kicked it away while I gasped for air. After her well-placed kick, I just wanted to vomit.
With a cry, she held the bat over her head and brought it down. I rolled out of the way a second before it slammed into the pavement where my head had been, ricocheting away with the thunk of metal on pavement. Pain raced back through my arm, but I was too frightened to feel it now.
Amber was going to kill me.
With a growl, she advanced. I shoved back, gained my feet, and saw it coming for me again. My left hand reached up, caught the bat when the next swing headed for my ribs, and stopped her advance out of sheer instinct.
My wrist trembled with the force of the bat slamming into my palm. I didn't hear a crack, but tremor streaked all the way into my shoulder. I ignored the welling pain in my hand. The throb in my hip. Everything faded away as I wrapped my fingers around the bat and yanked.
Amber stumbled into my reach.
I stomped a foot onto her toes. She howled. I ripped the bat from her hands, drove my knee into her stomach, and shoved her to the ground. Then I flipped the bat with my left hand so I held it by the handle and pointed it to her face as she groaned.
“Don't. Move.”
My breaths were desperate pants of pain. Darkness swam before my eyes as the distant whine of a siren came from the far edge of town. Benjamin ducked a flying fist, but his attention was fully on the larger guy.
Amber sputtered from the force of my knee in her stomach. She attempted to crawl, but I shoved her back down with the pressure of the tip of the bat in her ribs. She grimaced, coughing.
“You,” I hissed, “will never ruin another life except your own after this. I hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life for what you've done to me and my brother.”
Red-and-blue lights filled the parking lot as two sheriff's deputies skidded to a stop in the parking lot. Their bright beams shone light on Ben as he slammed his fist into the bigger man's jaw. The giant toppled like a house of cards. A familiar voice approached through the bright haze.
Dazed, I stared into them.
“Serafina! It's Hernandez. Step back.”
Another deputy broke up the bright headlights as he headed for Benjamin. I stumbled as all the blood seemed to leave my head. Someone grabbed my left arm. The bat dropped from my hand. A voice said something, but it sounded like it came through water. Distant. Slow. I fell to my knee. The pain jarred my broken arm. My side. The throbbing in my left hand.
“Ben,” I whispered as utter quiet descended on the world. Ben looked up and met my eyes right then. I comprehended a flash of fear in his gaze.
And then darkness.
31
Benjamin
The anemic lights of the hospital parking lot set my body into a heavy clench hours later. It had been rough coming down after that fight. The twirling lights. The ambulance. The edge of hysteria. Even Maverick appearing and the cool weight of his hand on my shoulder as an anchor didn't do much to extricate myself from the sheer adrenaline coursing through my body.
Even now, I waited for dangers from the shadows. Felt the gut-deep fear for Serafina's safety yet again.
Serafina.
Maverick put a hand on my shoulder as I reached for the door handle and tried to shove out.
“Wait,” he said. “Let me go in with you. The ten-second lead on me won't make a difference, and we don't know what we'll find in there. I want to be with you. Serafina was pretty hurt.”
My nostrils flared as I nodded once. The gravity in his tone centered me after the drive up the canyon to here. The forty-five minutes that separated me from the most frightening thing that had ever happened in my life. From intense questioning from the cops. Watching Amber's glazed eyes glare at me as they pushed her into the back of the patrol car. Serafina's pale face whisked away, her arm broken and body battered.
A shudder slipped through me.
Maverick climbed out of the SUV as I shut my door. The feeling of hot beads running through my blood pushed me to get into that ER as soon as I could physically manage, but Maverick was right. I had to cool it. Wait.
I didn't know what they'd say.
Maverick kept a faster-than-usual clip while we crossed the dark, empty parking lot and made our way inside. The high of a fight still sang through my veins, keeping me on edge. The giant had gotten one hit on my jaw, just glancing my lower lip, which ached. No doubt it was swollen, but I'd had worse from training sessions with newbies. That guy had been nothing but a hopped up druggie looking for an outlet and a quick buck from Amber. Gravel had torn up my back from the ground, but otherwise, I was fine.
Serafina was another matter.
Someone at the front desk straightened up when we approached. Backlights were turned off, giving the ER a dark appearance as we strode up to the desk.
“Serafina Courdray,” I said.
She opened her mouth, eyed my lip, then nodded and stood up. “They're expecting you. Follow me.”
Relieved, we trailed behind her as she navigated back to a circular ER with a big desk in the middle. She caught a nurse's attention, motioned to us in silent question, and the nurse nodded.
“Here.” The girl pointed to a glass sliding door in front of a closed curtain. A bright red 4 was painted on the front. Most of the lights were off inside. “You can go in.”
When I hesitated, the girl paused.
“She okay?” I asked.
She drew in a deep breath. “She'll be okay, yeah.”
No further details came, but I didn't need them right then anyway. Maverick jerked his head toward the room as the girl disappeared back to the front desk. “I'll wait here. Go see her.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, then slipped inside. Monitors beeped quietly when I slid through the curtains. Serafina lay on a bed, her eyes closed. The pain had mostly cleared from her expression. Her right arm was bandaged from elbow to wrist in what appeared to be padded gauze and a wrap. A precursor to a cast. No other visible bruises, but Hernandez had relayed her other, less-obvious injuries from the bat. Blow to the side. Kicks to the stomach. Possible broken hand.
I stopped to take her in, then let out a long, pained breath. We were lucky to come out of that alive.
Moments from the parking lot passed back through my mind in snatches. The sound of her bone cracking under the bat. The advance of the men the moment Amber attacked. The helpless feeling of not being able to protect Serafina washed back through me until I forced it to slow. They'd rushed me the moment Amber had her revenge. Coordinated attack. The first had fallen quickly, but the second had been brutish and heavy enough to keep me busy.
Didn't matter now. Sera was alive.
She made it.
Somehow.
Or as far as I could tell.
I advanced another step so I could put my hands on her. In the aftermath, I felt shaky. Exhausted. Now that I saw her breathing, I wanted to collapse, even though I was still ready to beat the—
“Ben?”
Those familiar eyes blinked at me, groggy from pain meds, I hoped. I lowered into the bed next to her.
“Hey.”
Tears filled her eyes when I put a gentle hand on her face. She
leaned into my touch with wide eyes.
“You're okay?” she whispered.
“Fine. Nothing but a training match. You?”
She swallowed. “Broken arm. They want to keep me tonight to watch for internal bleeding. Amber got me on my side with the bat.” She tilted her head to the right, then grimaced. My nostrils flared from a poor attempt to control my emotions as I peeled back the flimsy gown they'd wrapped her in. Dark blue mottling had started to form along the creamy skin of her stomach, not far below her ribs.
She watched me carefully when I tucked it back down.
“Where else?” I croaked.
“My thigh, but it's just a bruise. There's a hairline crack in one of the bones of my hand, but it'll heal on its own. She got me in the stomach with a kick, but no lasting issues there. That's it.”
I snorted. That's it. As if I didn't want to murder someone over it.
As if she sensed the stirring darkness in me, her hand reached up to touch my face. Tubes and tape and monitors strapped all over her arm didn't deter her. “Please,” she murmured as her thumb gently touched the swollen lower edge of my lip. “Say something.”
“I hate this for you,” I whispered.
A tear dropped down her cheek. “Me too,” she murmured.
I covered her hand with mine.
“They would have killed me if you weren't there,” she whispered. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“She almost did kill you.”
“Almost,” she repeated quietly, “isn't accomplished. You saved my life.” She glanced beyond me, then back. “Can you stay with me? Please don't . . . don't leave me?”
“Never,” I murmured.
Relief turned her expression to something more relaxed.
Carefully, I lay next to her on the bed. She grimaced as she repositioned, then settled back against me. Her head rested in the crook of my neck when she turned onto her left side, cuddled in my arms, and sighed. Her eyes fluttered closed. Her heart rate slowed on the monitor behind us.
I stared at the ceiling while the hospital moved around our little room, and let the relief follow. Feeling her body pressed against mine was the reassurance that I needed. All the rest of the tension fled for now.
Sera was mine.
That's all that mattered.
Epilogue
Serafina
Collective whispers came from behind a closed door when I slipped out of Benjamin’s SUV the next day. Walking felt good, but my head was still a little groggy from the pain meds. The quiet drive from the hospital back to Pineville had given me a moment to collect my thoughts. Benjamin hadn’t let go of me, or left my side, since he arrived in the ER.
Now, he opened my door and helped me out. I gave him a little smile, and he pulled me into his side with a soft kiss to my forehead.
“Let’s get you home,” he murmured.
Home.
That was exactly where he’d brought me.
Hernandez had texted Benjamin updates early this morning. Amber has pending charges and is awaiting trial on several counts, he said. Won’t be getting out for a long, long time. The smallest of the two thugs at her side had gone missing when the copes arrived, and Benjamin insisted I stay at his place until he was found.
I didn’t dispute that.
Benjamin’s hand paused on the doorknob seconds before it would open. He glanced down at me with a little amusement.
“You like surprises, right?”
I grinned. “Definitely.”
“Good.”
He pushed the door open and tears filled my eyes. Mom, Dad, Dagny, and Ava stood there around a monstrous bouquet of balloons that would have been obnoxious if they didn’t spell out WE LOVE YOU. Shiny red heart balloons surrounded the letters, and a dozen pictures that Ava had clearly colored lay scattered across the table. Macarons of various colors scattered a plate topped by a chocolate cake.
Mom had been stress baking again.
Mom stood next to Dad, tears in her eyes that she smiled through when she saw me. Dad let out a relieved breath.
“Welcome home, Sera!” Ava cried with a happy squeal, then threw a fistful of confetti. “We wanted to throw you a party! And we bought lots of things for you!” She darted forward, grabbing the arm that wasn’t broken, and tugged me into the room. “Come on! First, Dad called a lady and now we gotta go talk to her about our problems. He said that would help us get you back, and we both really wanted you back. Then he wanted us to buy these, but your Mom and Dad had to help us out while you were getting better in the hospital.”
I staggered behind her quick steps and faster chatter until we skidded to a stop at the empty spare bedroom. This time, it wasn’t empty. A new queen-sized bed stood in the middle of the room, fresh sheets stretched across the top. The far wall had a map of the world splayed across it, plastered there recently, if the hammer and nails on the top of the bed meant anything.
While Ava skipped around the room, chattering about how they put the bed together and a bad word that my Dad said when the mattress fell on top of his hand, another warm body moved up behind me. I leaned back to feel Benjamin back there. He put an arm around me and pulled me close.
“The bedroom is so you know you always have a place with us,” he murmured against my ear, his breath warm. “But I don’t intend for you to sleep here long.”
“No?”
He brushed a few tendrils of hair away from my neck, the tips of his fingers gentle on the hollow between my shoulders and neck.
“No. Once I can take you on a proper date or two, talk to your Dad, officially meet your brother, and convince Ava to help me, I’ll pop a ring onto your hand and we’ll move you into the room you really belong in. Mine.”
My heart soared at the definitive tone in his words. The intensity of the passion that clouded his tone. He meant every word. They’d given me a place to stay. He’d given me his home.
And I’d never wanted anything more.
My mom bustled in the background, chatting with Dagny. “I heard at the grocery store that the Frolicking Moose hired you?” Mom said. “Does that mean you’re quitting the Diner?”
Dagny laughed. “G-g-good news travels f-fast around here. Y-yes. I’m s-s-starting next month, when E-e-ellie leaves for s-state university. I-I hate waitressing. The c-c-offee shop will be much easier.”
Dad shuffled around, eyeballing each nook and cranny of the house, a screwdriver in hand, as he sought some way to be helpful and productive. Warmth and love and light permeated the house as Ava skipped past us, headed for Dad. Benjamin gave me a deliciously warm smile, planted a gentle kiss on my lips, then braided our fingers together and gently tugged me back toward my family.
Together.
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Wild Child
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WILD CHILD
Prologue
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The smell of alcohol already stained the air.
Grimacing, I hovered around the edges of a crowd of sweaty high school bodies clad in strappy dresses and tuxedos. A skirt of deep blue rustled around my legs with no design except a layer of sheer, shimmery fabric over the top. The bodice was a little tight, but my chest felt tight anyway.
Anyone would, wearing a dress. Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t been asked to this prom, my best friend was here with the sweetest, most popular girl in the school, and I hated crowds with an intro
vert’s fiery passion.
Still, I pressed on.
The high school gym hadn’t truly transformed despite the sparkle lights, food table, and crepe banners clogging the air. You can’t hide run down with cheap decorations, not even for the last dance of the year.
The sudden absence of pulsing music left only shuffles and whispers in the air. The principal, Mrs. Comstock, tapped across a stage on the far side of the gym. She wore a pair of bright pink high heels and a pencil skirt of sheer black. Teenage couples pulled apart, turning their attention to a spotlight that illuminated her salt-and-pepper hair, pulled back into a bun, as she stopped at a microphone in the middle of the stage. She held an envelope in her left hand.
“Boys and girls,” she said, voice fuzzy from the speakers. “Hope you’re having a good time, and thank you for behaving yourself. The time has come to announce the King and Queen of this year’s prom.”
A round of applause and whoops rippled through the room, followed by a drumroll from the DJ, who worked in the corner. My stomach clenched. As if any of them needed Mrs. Comstock to tell them who would be King and Queen. I crossed my arm in front of me, tucking my icy fingers away. At least I wasn’t late.
Where was the perfect couple anyway?
My heart thumped as a familiar set of broad shoulders came into view on the other side of the room, near a punch guarded by the towering football couch Mr. Bell. He glowered right behind it, as if daring anyone to try to get past him with alcohol. Not far from him, Devin had his hand around a girl named Cassidy’s. He tugged her closer to the middle of the room, where a few of his football buddies had congregated. When Devin leaned down to whisper in her ear, and she grinned broadly, I clenched my fingers together and resisted the urge to dart away.
