Page 52

MILA

Two Weeks Later

Alex pops the car door open and leans down to pick me up.

“You aren’t seriously going to carry me up to the dorm room.” I try to wiggle so he’ll set me down, but he refuses.

“You better fucking believe it.” He kicks the door shut.

I wrap my arms around his neck, burying my face against his chest. “You’re absolutely ridiculous. The doctors said I’ll be fine.”

“You’re still healing.”

You died is what he doesn’t say. I don’t blame him when I avoid those words myself.

“For someone with extremely violent tendencies, you’re a surprisingly gentle caretaker.”

He buries his nose in my hair. “Only when it comes to you.”

Warmth blooms in my chest as I look up at him, tracing my fingers over the scars on the side of his neck.

Alex no longer tenses at my touch. He trusts me because he knows I don’t fear who he is. I see the truth behind every mark. The stories and secrets laced in his scars. From his Sigma Sin tallies to the heart I carved beneath his collarbone.

Alex is strength and endurance.

And not just for what he’s survived, but for how he moves forward. He could have let his trauma drown him. But he found a reason to fight. To move forward.

Alex didn’t just stand up for me when he confronted his father at Sigma House. He stood up for himself. Instead of drowning in vengeance like his father wanted, he chose hope. He chose me.

I have no doubt that if he sees his father again, he’ll make him suffer. But in that moment, he held onto what he has, not what he’s lost, and that’s all that matters.

Gideon Lancaster, on the other hand, is in the wind.

He disappeared after the confrontation at Sigma House, likely running from whatever proof Alex hinted he has that he could use to take his father down.

Ursa has refused to help or indicate where Gideon might have gone.

And while Alex hasn’t said what that means for him or Sigma House, my guess is they’ll continue looking until they find him.

I don’t care if he’s never seen again so long as Alex is at my side.

Which he is, literally .

He refused to leave the hospital while I was there, living in the recliner until I was strong enough for him to lie beside me on the bed. The nurses tried to kick him out every day when visiting hours ended, and he refused.

I would have rolled my eyes at how he used his last name to throw a little weight around when they tried to challenge him, but I wanted him at my side. It was as if Alex accepted the challenge his father set in that kitchen to the farthest extent.

He chose me over everything. Something Declan might not have appreciated as much as I did, since Alex being in the hospital with me meant Maddox was left to run Sigma House.

Declan could only stand a day of reports from that mess before Kole and Violet cut their trip to LA short by a week to come back and help.

Declan and Teal followed a few days after.

Thankfully, we managed to convince Patience to stay in LA as planned for the extra month. The Lancasters are in shambles. It’s better she avoid that for a little while longer.

Without Patience here, Alex and I disappeared into the hospital room.

It reminded me of the times I would visit him at Montgomery. We sat in silence when both our nightmares would wake us in the middle of the night, and we remembered how to connect without the need for words.

Alex had Maddox bring some of his things from the house, including his journal.

We wrote poems and messages to each other.

I shared any remaining truths I could think of, and he did the same.

By the end, Alex looked at me like he expected me to run, but there’s no point.

I love this man no matter what he’s done.

Over the course of those two weeks, I got the impression I wasn’t the only one healing.

“The dorm is getting busy again.” I take notice of how many cars fill the parking lot.

“School starts back up in a few weeks.”

“I feel like I was in the hospital forever.” I sigh, melting against him as he steps into the elevator.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs against my hair.

“I told you to stop apologizing. ”

“It’s my fault.”

“It was your father’s fault.” I rest my hand on his jaw. “You aren’t him.”

“I’m not much better. I can’t promise I’ll ever be a good man.”

“I don’t need good , Alex.” I trace my fingers on his jawline. “Because honestly, I can’t promise I’ll ever really be that either. I need honest, brave, and committed. I need you. You’re mine.”

“And you’re mine, Mila Bianchi.” He leans down to kiss my forehead as the elevator doors peel open. “Now let’s get you to bed.”

“I’ve spent two weeks in bed.”

“And you’ll spend two more weeks in bed if that’s what it takes to get you better.”

“At least if we’re going to be in bed, can’t we have some fun with it?” I brush my hands down his strong chest, giving him a devious smile.

“When you’re better.”

“You have the patience of a god.” I groan.

He grins. “Except I’m anything but that.”

“Don’t I know it.”

Alex unlocks the door to the dorm room, and when he swings it open, I’m met with Violet and Teal standing in the living room, smiling at me.

“Welcome home!” they cheer.

“Thanks.” I smile.

Teal curls against Declan’s side. “I see you had to work really hard to get up here.”

“He refuses to put me down.”

“Clearly.” Violet shakes her head, standing in Kole’s arms. “At least come over here and tell us how you’re doing. ”

“She needs to rest,” Alex says.

“Damn, brother.” Declan grins. “Don’t use up all the air in the room with the chitchat. Leave some for the rest of us.”

Kole chuckles, but Alex is unamused.

Since Declan and Kole have returned to town, he’s used his voice around them and a few other people. But it’s still rare. He keeps his conversations short unless it’s just the two of us.

Declan, being his usual asshole self, likes to make jokes about it. But even if Alex frowns, I sense he doesn’t mind. If anything, I think he appreciates that they treat him like a friend, and not just someone who spent a couple of years in a psychiatric ward.

“Let me at least catch up with my friends.” I look up at Alex when he starts to walk us to the bedroom. “Just for a little bit. Then I’ll nap. I promise.”

He narrows his eyes, considering it. “A few minutes.”

Alex walks me over to the couch, dropping down onto it with me in his lap.

“You’re seriously not going to let me go?”

He shakes his head.

“Well, this should be fun when Patience gets back in a couple of weeks.” Teal laughs. “You two are gross enough to take her attention off me and Declan.”

“That’s if she cares about any of you at all,” Violet says. “I barely saw Patience all summer, and we shared an apartment and an internship. She’s got her own distractions.”

Alex, Declan, and Kole all share a look. But before I can ask what that was about, Teal steps forward, facing Violet.

“Speaking of LA, I want to see it,” Teal says .

“See what?” My eyebrows pinch.

“Kole and Violet got tattoos.”

“What?” My head spins to Violet. “I want to see them.”

“No you don’t.” Declan chuckles.

“Why—” I start, but Violet’s cheeks turn bright red. “Oh god, where did you get the tattoo?”

“Mine is on my hip, here.” She steps forward. “But Kole’s is… somewhere else.”

“Gross.” Declan grimaces.

“Don’t pretend you wouldn’t do it for Teal.” Kole shrugs.

“Fuck yes, I would. But we’re talking about you and my sister.”

Kole grins like Declan’s disgust makes him prouder.

“Here.” Violet lifts the corner of her shirt to show off a small tattoo. It’s the word Saint in calligraphy with rose petals dripping down from it.

“Saint?”

Her face twists as she thinks about it. “It’s just a thing between us.”

Declan has made jokes about Kole and Violet’s unusual games, and I wonder if this is one of them, so I don’t ask.

“We went to this new tattoo parlor called Twisted something or other.”

“Twisted Roses,” Kole says.

“Right, Twisted Roses. Apparently, they’ve been in LA forever but just moved to a new location. The girl up front read my fortune.”

“You got your fortune read at a tattoo parlor?”

“It’s an interesting place.”

“Clearly.” I laugh. “So what did she say about your future? ”

“That I’d found my soulmate.” Violet gazes up at Kole with a smile on her face.

I roll my eyes, looking at Alex, who seems as amused as I am about the obvious. “Do you believe in fortunes?”

He tucks my hair behind my ear. “So long as they tell me you’re in it.”

“You’re easy to please.”

He grins, leaning to whisper in my ear. “Only if I’m being pleased by you.”

“I hate you for saying that when you aren’t going to let me do anything about it.”

“So impatient.” He lifts me in his arms and starts walking to the bedroom.

“Hey, where are you two going?” Teal asks.

“To be alone,” Alex says, kicking my bedroom door behind us, muffling the laughs coming from the other side. “That’s better.”

“You’re extraordinarily antisocial. And possessive. And territorial.”

“Good thing you make up for it then.” He kisses my nose. “My social butterfly.”

Alex sets me down on the bed gently, and I stretch. It feels good to be on my own mattress. In my own room. I’ve missed this. And having him here with me is even better.

Alex reaches for the band on my sweats. “Lift.”

I do, and he pulls them down over my hips, stripping my underwear with them.

“What are you doing?” My heart races as he spreads my knees and kneels between them. “You said you wouldn’t fuck me until I’m healed.”

“I’m not going to fuck you.” He drags his hands down the inside of my legs, and I’m already on fire. “I’m going to give my girlfriend a kiss to help make her feel better. ”

“If this was your plan all along, I could have caught up with Violet and Teal later.”

“Next time, maybe you’ll listen. Now, lie back and relax.”

Alex lowers his mouth and unwinds me to my very core. He kisses me over and over. Until there’s no more pain. There’s nothing but him.

In my lungs.

In my heart.

In my bones.

Alex is all I need to feel whole—to feel special. To feel at home.

Catch up with Alex and Mila two years later in this exclusive bonus epilogue!

Are you ready for Patience and the Professor? Continue the series with REVERE .