28
Mercy
My heart was still poundingdouble-time. Xavier was dead. My worst enemy was dead. I felt laughter bubble in my chest, but no sound came out of my throat.
“You’re bleeding,” Wylder said, pushing closer, and it was only then that I registered the stinging on my arm. I’d scraped the skin raw on my elbow when I’d hurled myself under the car to escape Xavier.
“I’ll be okay,” I said, taking one deep breath and then another. A smile started to curve my lips. “I’ll be just fine.” And it felt like I was stating a fact this time, not just a hope that the words would be true.
Gideon finished fiddling with the wires to cut off the electrical current in the store and hurried over. He brushed the loose strands of hair back from my cheek and looked me over. “I knew you could handle him, but I was pretty worried for a few minutes there.”
The laugh finally tumbled out. “So was I,” I admitted.
I glanced down at the broken body lying near my feet. Kaige had battered Xavier’s head so badly that his skull had literally split open. The gore made my stomach churn, but a sense of victory gripped me at the same time.
This was the only fate that monster had deserved after the way he’d terrorized our city.
Wylder slipped his arm around me. “Come on. Let’s get you home. Or to my home first. You played a huge role in taking down Xavier—you should be with us when we tell my dad the good news.”
I nodded, exhaustion trickling through me. I’d been so keyed up for the entire week, and now it was over. The sun was only just sinking below the level of the buildings, streaks of pink and purple touching the sky.
We’d met the deadline. The Storm’s presence in Paradise Bend was at an end. The whole future stretched out ahead of us, and it had to be better than what we’d just gone through.
I walked a little slowly, the wound on my thigh still closed but aching from the strain I’d put on my body. As we headed back to the car, I noticed a few people who were peeking out of the buildings giving us curious looks. None of them would know exactly what had happened on the streets today or who had saved them, and maybe that was for the best.
After I congratulated the Claws and thanked them for their help, I returned to find Wylder talking to Gideon. I didn’t catch what he’d said, but Gideon tapped away at his phone texting while Wylder drove. I picked up the little purse that Anthea had lent me off the floor by my feet where it’d spent so much time in the past few days and tucked it onto my lap instead. The gun in the back of my jeans felt uncomfortably heavy, but I didn’t want to set that aside until we were safe within four walls again.
Kaige noticed the purse and grinned. “Are you going to get all ladylike on us now?”
I snorted. “Not likely. It’s Anthea’s. I should probably give it back to her at some point.”
“Can you even fit anything in there?”
I thought of the tiny gun tucked inside next to the lipstick tube and packet of tissues. “You bet.”
I understood what Wylder had instructed Gideon to do when we walked into the Noble mansion and found Frank waiting for us in the foyer. “I’m fine,” I protested again as he dabbed an antiseptic wipe against the scrape on my elbow and taped a bandage there. Then he gave Kaige’s blood-splattered shirt a nervous look.
Kaige’s grin widened. “Don’t worry, this isn’t my blood.”
“Is my dad around?” Wylder asked Frank.
The older man shrugged. “I haven’t spoken with him lately, but I didn’t see him leave either.”
There was no sign of Anthea either. I shot her a quick text, and she replied that she was tying up some loose ends as far as cleaning up the various bodies we’d left behind, but she’d be back at the mansion within the hour. She finished the message with a Congrats! surrounded by celebratory emojis that had me smothering an unexpected giggle.
Wylder motioned to us, and the four of us climbed the stairs and strode down the hall to Ezra’s study. But the doorknob jarred when he tried to turn it, and no one answered his knock. Frowning, he led us to a few other spots he seemed to think his father might have been hanging out—one of the sitting rooms, the dining room, the living room—but we didn’t find him anywhere.
“I guess he’ll turn up eventually,” Wylder said when we came to a stop near the bottom of the staircase, but his brow stayed knit.
Kaige stretched his arms over his head. “Oh well, I need a shower anyway. This dude really stinks.”
“I should check up on a few things in my office,” Gideon said. He already had his tablet out and was scrolling through some document on it.
I glanced toward the lounge room that held the big mahogany bar. “Why don’t I mix up one of my custom drinks for us all to celebrate? I think I’ve got plenty of inspiration. You guys can meet us there when you’re done.”
Kaige’s eyes brightened. “Yeah, we should totally celebrate! We deserve it after everything.” His expression sobered momentarily, and I suspected he was rewinding the brutal events of today. I couldn’t believe that in less than twenty-four hours we’d managed to both convince the Storm to back off and take down Xavier.
I was ready to nap for a thousand years.