Keith would do it. Lars could see the crazed look in his eyes. He didn’t doubt him for a second.
“Do you have any sport to offer yourself? Maybe something to keep her alive a while longer?” Keith asked. “Perhaps you’re willing to gouge out one of your eyes to save her some pain?”
“Keith, you’re wrong. I told you he doesn’t care for me,” Faith said, the pain she was feeling leaking into her voice.
Lars couldn’t tell if she believed what she’d just said or if it were for Keith’s sake.
“You’re lying,” Keith said.
“He kicked me out. Didn’t you?” she asked Lars.
Lars nodded slightly, the guilt flooding him as he did. But he couldn't let this be the end. He swallowed back his emotions. He needed to get her out of here.
He visually measured the distances. He could kill Keith where he stood this very instant; but being so close to Faith, she’d die with him. But if he could get Keith even a couple of feet farther away, it might work.
“Do it,” Faith said, looking directly at Lars, as if she had read his mind.
“Shut up. Don’t speak,” Keith said, pressing the knife more firmly to her until a trickle of blood ran down her throat.
“Do it,” she repeated, not caring.
Lars looked at her, bloody and battered but still so strong.
“Cutty? You need to leave,” Lars said.
“Again?” Cutty asked.
“Yes.” He heard Cutty step out of the room while Keith gloated, having no idea what was going to happen.
“Take me, too,” Lars said to Keith as he raised his hands above his head, trying to lure him closer.
He moved a little closer, hands still raised, and acted like he was going to get to his knees. Keith let a few inches of space grow between Faith and himself. For the second time in one day, Lars let death seep into his breath.
Keith took another slight step away from Faith, and it was going to be barely enough clearance, but he could do it. Lars was in range and started blowing a stream of air toward Keith, avoiding Faith as much as possible.
Keith’s hand immediately went to his throat and he fell to the ground under a second later.
“Hold your breath,” Lars quickly said to Faith.
The emotions that had been rushing at Lars surged to the surface. He grabbed the discarded knife and cut through the ties holding her up as he grabbed her, lifting her off her feet. He got her out of the basement as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t take in anymore of the poison he’d released.
Cutty was waiting for him just outside the building, having had the forethought to grab a comforter from one of the hotel beds. He quickly helped Lars wrap it around her unconscious body.
“Is she okay?” Cutty asked as he looked at her limp form in his arms.
“She didn’t get much of it. I think it was the pain of the injuries that knocked her out,” Lars said. “Let’s get her back to your place.”
“My place?” Cutty asked surprised.
“Yes,” he said. “You said it yourself that she didn’t want to speak to me before. How do you think she’ll feel about me now?”
Cutty tried to disagree with him but Lars ignored him as he got in the passenger seat of Cutty’s car. Lars didn’t blame Faith for the disgust she’d feel for him after all of this. He held her close, trying to forget that this was going to be the last time he’d feel her in his arms.
***
“Is she okay?” Lars asked from where he sat on Cutty’s couch.
Cutty poured himself a drink and then joined him in the living room. “She’s roughed up pretty bad but she’ll be fine. I woke her up long enough to get some painkillers in her and she went right out again.” Cutty sighed and leaned back. “It’s not your fault. Not what happened to Faith, or Fate and Karma. Wherever they are, whatever happened, it was their choice.”
Lars rested his forehead in his hands before they raked through his hair. “Any sense on where they are?”
There were a lot of bloodstains in the office downstairs but none of them had actually seen what had gone down. Fate, Karma and Malokin had been in the smaller interior office.
“That I don’t know.” Cutty took a swig of whiskey. “It’s not your fault. And, Lars?” He waited until Lars looked up at him. “It’s not her fault, either.”
“I agree. It isn’t her fault.” But he did have a healthy dose of the blame. If she had been at his place, this never would’ve happened. But at least they were gone now, Keith and Malokin.
Lars stood, feeling that old haunting emptiness fill him again.
“Where you going?” Cutty asked.
“Back to my place.”
Cutty shook his head but let him go.
Chapter 36
She woke up in Cutty’s guest room, not at Lars’ place. She scanned the room quickly, to see if he was there, but all she saw was Cutty hanging out, reading in a chair across the room.
“There you are!” he said with a warm smile. “You had a rough go of it but I’ve got some good news.”
“Malokin’s gone,” she said. “Keith told me. Is everyone else okay?”
“Karma and Fate are missing.” The smile dropped from Cutty’s face.
Faith tried to sit up in bed but then froze as the pain decided it didn’t want her going anywhere. “Shouldn’t we be looking for them?”
“We tried.” Cutty waved his hand. “If they still exist, they aren’t anywhere we can find them. They aren’t in this world anymore.”
“Are you okay?”
“They might be back. Stranger things have happened.”
She could see the sadness in his eyes, although he tried to keep a smile in place for her. She didn’t say anything else, just waited for him to lead the conversation when he was ready.
Cutty leaned forward, resting his forearms on his legs. “The good news is that since this all went down, things are already a lot calmer out there. Everything is going back to normal. The gangs are disbanding.”
“That quick?”
“Not that quick. You’ve been out of it for days,” Cutty said. “But as soon as Malokin was gone, it seemed to die down. Life should go back to normal soon. So, how are you feeling?”
“Better. How long have I been out for?”
“Few days.”
“Where are the guys?” she asked, though she really wanted to know about one in particular.
“Angus and Bic are hanging out downstairs, waiting for you to wake up.” There was an uncomfortable pause and then Cutty cleared his throat. “Lars had to—”
“I don’t care,” she said, cutting him off. He hadn’t even hung around with the other guys, to see how she was, after what had happened. It was really over. “It doesn’t matter,” Faith lied, deciding she’d need to start lying to herself as well.
She rested her head back down on the pillow, feeling worse than when she’d been hanging there from the pipe in the ceiling, bloody and beaten. He’d come and saved her. She’d thought that meant something, but then he’d left without a word.
Cutty let the subject drop and she was glad. Words couldn’t fix this. Time might make the hurt fade but she wasn’t even sure if eternity would be long enough to erase the pain she felt right now.
“Are you hungry?”
“No, I’m actually pretty tired still.” Another lie. She’d been ready to run down the stairs a few minutes ago when she’d thought Lars might be waiting for her.
“Okay, I just wanted to make sure you’re feeling better. I’ll give you some space.”
She pasted on a fake smile as he left the room.
It took her three days to get out of the bed in Cutty’s guest room. The first two days she’d pretended she needed to stay there because she was in too much discomfort. The third was spent coming to terms with the fact that what hurt most wasn’t going to heal anytime soon.
Every rap at the door made her breath catch, as she waited to see if it was going to be him. Every time she heard a phone ring, she thought it might be Lars. It took an entire week before she realized he wasn’t going to show up at Cutty’s, and he wasn’t going to call.