Page 20 of Saint’s Revenge

"Hey." His voice is hoarse. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got kicked repeatedly by someone who wanted me dead."

He doesn't smile. Just looks at me with so much pain in his expression that it physically hurts to see. "That's accurate."

"How long was I out?"

"Four hours. It's almost dawn." He leans forward, checking me over with eyes that are too clinical, too distant. "Your vitals are stable. No signs of internal bleeding so far. But we need to keep monitoring."

"Okay."

Silence. He just stares at me like he's memorizing my face. Like he's afraid I'll disappear if he looks away.

"Did everyone make it back?" I ask.

"Yeah. All of us. No serious injuries." He pauses. Swallows hard. "The Vipers are gone, Riley. All of them. The warehouse is ash."

The tears come before I can stop them. Not because I loved what Daniel became. But because I loved what he was. The boy who protected us. The boy who made sure we ate when there was barely enough food. The boy who was the only family either of us had.

Lucas stands immediately. He sits on the edge of the bed and pulls me against his chest. Mindful of my ribs. Mindful of every injury. Just holds me while I cry.

"I loved him," I sob into his shirt. "Before. When we were kids. The three of us. I loved him like a brother."

"I know. I loved him too." His voice is wrecked. "And I still killed him. I looked him in the eyes and I pulled the trigger and watched him die."

"Did he say anything?"

Lucas is quiet for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is barely audible. "He apologized. At the end. Said he was sorry for what he did to you. For everything. Said he was scared and asked me not to let him die alone."

I'm crying harder now, and I can't stop. Can't control it. Five years of holding everything together and it's all coming apart at once.

"I held him," Lucas continues. His own voice is breaking. "I held my brother while he died and told him I forgave him. And Riley, I… I don't even know if that was true. I don't know if I forgave him or if I just said it because he was dying and he needed to hear it."

"It was true." I pull back enough to look at him. His face is wet with tears. "You loved him. That never stopped. You just couldn't love what he became."

"I put a bullet in his chest."

"Because he left you no choice." I cup his face with shaking hands. "Because he was going to keep hurting people. Keep destroying everything around him. You freed him from that, Lucas. You gave him an ending before he could do worse."

He closes his eyes. More tears fall. "It doesn't feel like I freed him. It feels like I murdered my own brother."

"I know." My voice cracks. "But you didn't. You ended a war. You stopped him from hurting anyone else. And you let him die knowing someone loved him. That's more than most people get."

"It's not enough."

"No. But it's all you had to offer."

Chapter 5 - Saint

We sit like that for a while. Just holding each other. Both crying. Both grieving for the boy who used to be Daniel and the man he became instead.

My chest is tight. Not from injury, from something deeper. Something that's been locked away for five years breaking open all at once. Finally, I pull back. Wipe my face. Look at her with eyes I know are red and exhausted.

"I thought I'd lost you too," I confess. The words come out rough. Broken. "When I came through that door and saw you lying there, saw what he'd done to you... I thought I was too late. Thought I'd come back just in time to watch you die too."

"You weren't too late."

"But I almost was." My thumb brushes across her bruised jaw so gently I can barely feel the contact. Terrified of hurting her more. "Another few hours and you might have been gone, and it would have been my fault for leaving you alone with him for five years."