Page 154 of Hostile Saint

Dagger smirked. “I’m likin’ the one day too late, shit.”

Lynx faced the building. “Kid. Stay by my side.”

There was only one car in the parking lot as we ran toward the entrance—the one we saw almost every night we had been there.

Keeping a lookout for anyone, I glanced over to see Vice tinkering with the lock on the door, then heard a pop. Bodies moved behind me, so I turned around and followed the men inside. Vice pointed to the old sweeping staircase, then pointed up.

We all kept scanning our surroundings, but the hallways were empty. In the clear,

as I headed up the staircase, I wondered how many times Lacey had walked them. I also thought about how her doctor would never do so again.

In the lead, Vice suddenly ducked down on the stairs. Not asking questions, we all did the same, not moving, but peering up. I gulped, watching a big man in all white walk past us.

Lynx laid a hand on my back, telling me not to move before Vice quickly rose and finished the last step, only to disappear around the corner.

Thump! The vibration told me the orderly was no longer an issue.

Lynx’s hand came off my back and we were on the move again.

By the time we turned the corner, stepping over the unconscious orderly’s body, Vice was already halfway down the hallway. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion, even though I knew we were now jogging to catch up. Maybe the sensation was because I anticipated we were about to see a sight that none of us expected.

Vice stopped in front of a door and pointed, informing us he was at Lacey’s room. Then, as if having seen something so horrific he was instantly rocked to the core, he was fumbling with the orderly’s set of keys. By the time we got to him, he had swung open the door to the darkened bedroom.

Dagger and Lynx came to a stop.

I think I pushed them out of my way to get inside the room, where I had been many times. Throughout all the secretive late-night visits, with the beautiful moon shining the way, I’d never seen my girl on the floor, unmoving, with blood pooled around her body.

Massacre of the heart…

Instantly, my hearing and ability to think properly vanished.

Shock slammed into me like a violent wave that no one could see but my soul could feel.

No! Running past the end of her bed, I dropped to my knees and slid the rest of the way to her side, believing someone from SAIL had gotten past all of our lines of defense. That is until my VP suddenly appeared on the floor next to me, putting pressure on Lacey’s wrist.

Still in disbelief, I was confronted with the possibility that this wasn’t SAIL’s doing at all.

Above Lacey’s right scarred palm was a slice…

Throughout the last two months, I had shed so many well-deserved tears. It was so challenging to learn what my life had been. It was so difficult to try and survive it all. None of those tears compared to these. “Lace,” I whispered through a sob that was so pitiful I swore her sliced wrist was connected to the growing cut in my heart.

The room spun as I realized my Pretty Girl had taken her own life. Why she would do this was not even important. Whether or not the doctor fucking with her head forced her to do this, I didn’t care anymore. All that mattered was that it had happened. My life no longer had purpose.

All that had ever given me strength? It was gone.

In between silently howling to the ceiling and my body rocking as life-ending pain seared it and my spirit, I touched her angelic face. Her soft skin, which would soon lose heat, had my silent howls turning into moans I didn’t know a man could make. But no man had ever lost a Lacey. There was simply no coming back.

I couldn’t even try.

I would only follow.

My hand, slipping in her warm blood, told me how. In her other hand, there was a broken piece of glass. I reached for it…

A grip on my shoulder stopped me.

In a deep whisper, Lynx warned me, “Not happenin’.”

Tears drowning my eyes, I peered up at the man who had offered me so much, yet was now witnessing my failure. “Lynx, I’m too late.” My words were labored, a sign my heart was already shutting down, refusing to beat without her.