I pulled her tighter as the first officers fired, her entire body flinching as the sound ricocheted in the empty parking lot, and turned my head away from the grisly scene.
Several more shots were fired, and with each one, Remi’s cries grew louder. It was, without a doubt, one of the most horrifying sounds I had ever heard, Mark’s body hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
For several beats, the silence was deafening. My ears rang and my heart was painfully still.
My whole body startled when an officer yelled, “Put your hands up!” The whole group began barking orders all over again.
My head snapped up, relief tearing through me as I caught sight of Aaron’s horrified face. He stood frozen, his hands in the air, staring at Mark, who was lifeless on the ground.
The devastation was beyond compare.
But just like the woman in my arms, he was alive. We could figure out the rest later.
“Shhh. It’s Aaron,” I whispered into Remi’s hair. “He’s okay. We’re all okay.”
We weren’t though. Mark was gone, and each and every one of us would struggle with the aftershocks of his death for years to come. Yet, in that moment, with Remi safe in my arms, the only feeling that coursed through my body was a sense of finality and peace.
Bowen
“I can’t wrap my mind around this,” Jack said, his face white as a sheet. “I’d known him half his life. How could he have done this?”
I clamped my jaw shut so hard my teeth rattled. Mark had not only done it, he’d fucking done it again. This time, he’d tried to take her from me forever. Fuck him. He was dead, and that still wasn’t enough to quell the hate swelling inside me.
But now was not the time for me to spew my outrage.
Remi hadn’t stopped shaking since we’d gotten to the hospital. She’d assured me he hadn’t given her anything, but because that sick son of a bitch was responsible for her almost dying of a heroin overdose the first time he’d taken her, my racing heart needed concrete proof. Though we were still waiting on the toxicology report, the doctors kept telling me her erratic vitals were just the adrenaline leaving her system.
Reaching out, I took her hand and settled beside her on the hospital bed. I’d been alternating between holding her, hugging her, pacing the room, and losing my Goddamn mind in general.
“He did it,” Aaron said from a chair in the corner. He’d been alarmingly silent since the police left after getting a statement from all of us. “He almost fucking killed her, and now he’s dead.” Sobs tore from his throat as he hunched over and buried his face in his trembling hands.
Remi threw the covers back, ready to sprint to him, but Jack beat her to it. He marched over, rubbing Aaron’s back as the emotions of the day ravaged him.
I smoothed down the top of her hair, careful to avoid the stitches above her eye. I’d wanted to drag that bastard out from the depths of hell only so I could have the pleasure of ending his life with my own hands after I’d seen the countless bruises all over Remi’s body as I’d helped her into a hospital gown.
There were no positives to be found in this situation, but I tried to focus on the things that could have been worse.
Remi was alive and, despite everything, she seemed okay. Or at least she would be. The doctors said she most likely had a concussion, but the CT scan showed that her fall in the driveway hadn’t caused any major damage or added to the trauma she’d already sustained in the plane crash—something I had been rabid about after hearing her explain the chain of events to the police officers. After her brain injury, a fall like that could have been catastrophic. But she was a fighter and the strongest person I had ever met—myself included.
The emotional toll on her was what I was most worried about. She had not only survived yet another nightmare. Her journey through tragedy was just getting started. As much as it killed me, Mark had been her friend. Call me callous, but in my eyes, he’d gotten exactly what he deserved after what he’d done to her.
Remi wasn’t going to feel the same. She was too good, too kind. She saw the best in everyone. This could break her, and I was terrified of what that might look like. She’d been through enough. For fuck’s sake, at some point the universe had to cut all of us a break.
Like all the times before, I would be there for her. To support her in any and every way she needed. She’d once told me loving someone through, despite, and after the impossible was the definition of success in a relationship. Here we were again, smack-dab in the middle of the unimaginable, being forced to claw our way out.
