THIRTY-EIGHT - Alana

THIRTY-EIGHT

Alana

Iwake up in the hospital, everything hurting, and look up to see my father asleep in a chair, dressed in a golf shirt with tan slacks. His gray suit jacket is hanging over the arm of the chair.

"Dad." My voice cracks.

He bolts awake. "Alana."

I look at a bandage around my left arm. "What happened?"

"You were shot."

"Oh, by Nico." Tears gather my eyes. "He killed Mom."

My dad scrubs a hand down his worn face. "I know. Thorn filled me in."

"Thorn!" I look wildly around. "I'm surprised he's not here."

"He was, but . . ."

My heart stops. "But what?"

"He passed out and the doctors took him to another room."

I blink. Thorn's invincible, right? "He passed out? Was he shot?"

"No. I don't know what happened. It's like ice covered his lips and then he went down. The doctors took him away, and I believe his brother showed up. They're both gone."

I try to scramble out of the bed. "Where is he?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." My dad grabs the covers and pushes me back down.

The panic feels worse than my pounding arm. "He's freezing to death, Dad. I have to help him."

"Freezing to death? What are you talking about?"

I explain the entire situation as I swing my legs over and my bare feet touch the chilly floor. I pitch forward.

My dad grabs my good arm. "Knock it off. You need to get ready for the damn ball."

I jerk. Shocked. "Are you kidding? I've been shot."

His jaw firms. "I know, and the doctor says it was a through-and-through. You're fine, and we need you at the ball to post for Aquarius Social. Just one or two emotes, and then you can leave."

Betrayal and hurt rush through me. "Dad."

"We need you. It's imperative. The event is the biggest event of the year, and our reach has doubled after you've emoted each year. Your highest and strongest posts of the year are during that ball. You know it." He tosses scrubs at me.

He doesn't care about me. Not at all.

My phone buzzes and I fumble for it on the table. "Hello."

"Hey. It's Thorn. Sorry I left but I'll be back in about an hour. We're trying something new with the alexandrite crystals."

My chest aches. "I'm getting dressed right now, heading home, and then going to the ball."

"The fuck you are. Get your ass back in that hospital bed."

I smile but my lips tremble. "I'll post about you at the ball on both Aquarius and Malice Media. The extra energy you get from that, and it'll be substantial, will help." It's true. Perhaps it'll be enough to actually heal him.

"I don't give two fucks about extra energy. Get your butt back into that bed, or I swear on all that's holy, there's not an inch of you I won't spank when you're feeling better." He's not kidding. His tone is low and pissed.

My heart freaking soars. He loves me. Oh, he probably won't define it as that, but that's what it is. My health is more important than his to him. He's the direct opposite of my father. We're two halves of the same whole. Just like that coin he told me about. An idea strikes me. What if I can save him? "Meet me at the ball, Thorn." I end the call.

I hurriedly dress and storm out of the room, my arm feeling like it's on fire. But honestly, only a small white wrap is around my biceps. A through-and-through sounds weak but hurts like hell. "Let's go."

My father waves off a doctor trying to stop us in the hallway. "You are not posting on Malice Media tonight."

"Yes, I am." I jerk my head up, tears streaming down my face. "Either you help me with this or we're done, and I'm not kidding. I'll never charge a crystal for you again."

His face goes ashen. "Alana—" He looks at me. "You care about him that much?"

"Yes." I don't have time to examine my feelings or convince my father of anything. I try to button his jacket over me with my good hand as I charge toward the door and down the hallway.

Another doctor tries to stop us, but I ignore him and keep jogging through the hospital and outside to my father's car, my bare feet burning on the rough pavement. Soon we're speeding away. "Drive to Aquarius headquarters, Dad."

He looks at me from the driver's side. "You've lost your mind. Did you hit your head?"

"I think so," I say. "I hit everything else."

"Alana, this kind of love isn't healthy."

"I don't care. It's what I have." My brain still isn't connecting to reality. All I know is how I feel, and I love Thorn Beathach with everything I am. He's rough and lives by his own rules, rather dark ones, but he loves me. He'll always choose me in every situation, and I need that. I also want to choose him. "How did Thorn find me, anyway?"

My dad grimaces. "He wouldn't admit it, but he must've chipped you when you were kidnapped."

I chuckle, even though everything hurts and the world is disintegrating around me. That asshole.

"You have to see that he's not healthy."

No, but he's mine. He came to rescue me while he was freezing from the inside out. I can rescue him after a mere bullet wound. I've been scouring his books on crystals every chance I get, and I know the answer is in there. If somebody created a new virus, I can create a cure. Or is it a curse? It feels like it. If so, I'm the woman to banish it. "How bad is my shoulder?" I probably should've asked before rushing out of the hospital.

"Not bad, really. The bullet didn't hit anything important."

Now that my brain is returning to reality, I have so many questions. "What happened to Nico?" I believe I know, but I need confirmation.

"He's in the custody of the police right now."

My jaw drops, and I swing to face my father, pain plummeting down my arm. Good tip. Don't move suddenly. "Thorn didn't kill him?"

"No," my dad sighs. "I have no doubt Thorn plans to kill him in the future—Thorn told me so directly—but Justice convinced him to wait so the families of the women he killed have some closure. Also so they can trace any other murders to Nico once he starts confessing."

I think about how proud Nico was to have killed and have no doubt he'll spill all the details when he gets the chance. He wants to be famous and this will do it. We're going to have a mountain of bad press to deal with, but considering he kidnapped me, I'll be able to protect Aquarius Social. "I had no clue of the killer lurking in my cousin," I whisper.

"Me either. It's unthinkable, really." Pain laces my dad's words. "He killed Greg. My legacy. My son." A tear gathers at Dad's eye and he wipes it angrily away.

That's all my father cares about. Someday that might not hurt. "Have you talked to Scarlett and Quinlan?"

"Yes. They're at the company now beginning a crisis campaign. They're both shocked and angry." He grips the steering wheel until his knuckles turn white. "I've ordered them to attend the ball, so we can show a united front. We're walking in together."

I don't care. Not even a little bit.

My father clears his throat. "You can't save Thorn, from what you've said. Please don't make a fool of yourself tonight. Post about the great ball, show that you're a survivor and that Nico is the bad guy, and then leave. Make them want more of you. Forget Thorn Beathach right now."

Not in a million years. I know Thorn loves me. But if he nearly passed out, then he's close to death. Thorn is too damn stubborn to let anybody see him in a weakened state, and my entire body floods with adrenaline. He can't die. The idea is unthinkable. "Just hurry up. I have to get to him." My brain is running through all of the information I gleaned about the crystals. The key is in the stones, not the computer malware. I just know it.

Father mutters to himself but drives to Aquarius and parks underground. I'm out of the car in a flash, trying not to fall on my face. My feet hurt, but I don't care. I run to the elevator and he barely catches up to me.

"Where are we going?" he snaps.

"To the servers," I say. He presses the button and we plunge into the earth to the main hub, where I run to the center of the servers, feeling so cold that the skin on my legs prickles.

"You want to charge the crystals now?" he asks as we blast past three guards who look at me like my hair is on fire. Maybe it is. It's a snarled mess and I don't care. I have to look ridiculous in the hospital scrubs with my dad's jacket. The bruise on my face pounds as if I hit it again when I was shot. Did I land on my face?

I open the glass box holding the basketball-size aquamarine. "I can charge them later. Right now, I need help."

He looks at me as if I've lost my mind. "Help doing what?"

"Lift this for me. I need to take it." The stone glows the way it does every time I come near it.

He holds his hands up. "You're not taking that anywhere."

Scarlett and Quinlan burst through the door.

"We saw you arrive in the security feeds. Why the hell aren't you in the hospital?" Quinlan snaps, looking as if he hasn't slept in weeks.

"I need help," I say to him. "Please pick this up. I only have one good arm and the stone is too heavy."

Quinlan looks from my father to me. "What is going on?"

I frantically turn to Scarlett. "Scarlett, I have to help Thorn. I need this stone."

Scarlett shrugs and reaches for the crystal.

My father grabs her arm. "No, you're not taking this away. We'll be helpless."

My feet are freezing. "Either we take that stone, or I never charge it again. I mean never. I'll let the whole place go under."

My dad steps back. "You're bluffing."

"No, I'm not." I meet his stare directly.

He shakes his head. "The servers will cease to function."

"No, they won't," Scarlett says, running over to the supply cabinet. "We don't have anything that size in here, but we have enough crystals to put in the center for, what, a couple of hours?"

Quinlan lifts a shoulder. "Maybe. I wouldn't let it go any longer than that. We need the solid core in that one stone."

"I have to do this." I try to lift the stone out.

Quinlan swears and lifts it out for me. "Where are we going?"

"My apartment."

"So you can get dressed for the ball?" Scarlett says helpfully.

I gulp. "Yes. Also, I have one more stone to get."