Page 53 of By the Time You Read This (Raisa Susanto #3)

Chapter Forty-One

Raisa

Day Eight

The heart monitor beeped steadily, greeting Raisa when she finally woke.

It felt like she’d slept sixteen days instead of sixteen hours. But either way, Kilkenny still hadn’t stirred.

“Is it time to start worrying?” Raisa had asked the doctor like she hadn’t spent every minute Kilkenny had been in that bed worrying.

“No, I think we’ll see progress in the next day or two. The swelling in his brain has decreased dramatically,” the doctor had reassured her. “I’m hopeful it won’t be much longer.”

Raisa knew doctors. He wouldn’t have said hopeful if he hadn’t meant it. They always wanted you braced for the worst-case scenario.

But hopefulness wasn’t a guarantee.

“No change, huh?” St. Ivany asked from the doorway.

“Nope,” Raisa said, not bothering to stand up. Everything in her body ached. She was getting too old to sleep in chairs, but she would have done far worse if it meant she could be here when Kilkenny came to.

“The DA listened to Gabriela’s confession from Delaney’s recorder,” St. Ivany said, moving around to the end of the bed. “We’re also searching her place now. We’ve already found some souvenirs.”

“Isabel never kept souvenirs,” Raisa murmured.

“Yeah, well, Isabel got away with it for twenty-five years and Gabriela Cruz got away with it for six months,” St. Ivany pointed out. “With the help of Isabel.”

“I hate that she was so good at it,” Raisa said, thinking of Delaney, too.

No one would have ever suspected that Isabel had been killed, if the ME hadn’t been briefed on the fact that it was a possibility. And that had been Delaney’s first try.

Raisa shook off the unease that came with the thought.

She had spent the past two years worrying that Isabel would break one of them, that their Parker blood would come through and destroy the world.

Yet Isabel had thrown her very best at them, and all it had taken was a visitor logbook for Raisa to drop her gun.

Isabel had been obsessed with them, she had studied them, she had tried to understand them.

But she was a psychopath unable to actually do so.

Where her mind had drawn blanks for predicting their behaviors, she had assumed they would do what she did—the most harmful, terrible action possible.

It was in Delaney’s and Raisa’s humanity that they had finally beaten her.

That knowledge felt comforting.

“Obviously it doesn’t matter much, practically speaking,” St. Ivany said. “But it’s good to have everything on the record.”

“Yeah,” Raisa agreed. Especially since she had been right there when Gabriela had died.

“We’ll keep you updated,” St. Ivany said. “I would add to stay in touch, but, well, I didn’t like you that much.”

Raisa laughed so hard she finally looked at the woman, who was smiling along.

“Yeah, you were terrible to work with, lose my number,” Raisa shot back.

St. Ivany saluted her before patting Kilkenny’s feet once. Then she turned and left the room.

Raisa’s phone buzzed and she almost ignored it. But she glanced down to find an unknown number had texted her.

In case you ever need me.

Raisa stared down at it.

In the past, had she gotten this message from Delaney, she would have deleted it out of spite.

But something had happened on the boat, and then on the cliff with Gabriela. Raisa had realized that not only did she trust the woman Delaney had become—despite the fact that she’d killed Isabel—but she also could more clearly see the girl she’d been.

There was no way her heart could ache for Gabriela and the way she’d been manipulated by Isabel and not acknowledge that Delaney had been molded in that same crucible.

She could have held on, let Gabriela pull her down into the waves with her, just like she’d been letting her resentment toward a young Delaney ruin any chance she had at having family now. Or she could let go of her own hang-ups and live.

Raisa tapped on the screen until the option came up to create a new contact.

This didn’t mean she had to contact Delaney. They were never going to be the type to call on holidays and birthdays just to chat.

But it felt nice to know that, if she needed it, the number was there.

She toggled back to the text thread, and typed:

Who dis?

Delaney didn’t respond, but she liked to think her sister laughed.

Raisa put her phone away and watched the sky outside for a long time as it darkened into evening.

She almost didn’t notice when the beeping changed.

Almost absently, her eyes slid toward the bed, only to find Kilkenny staring back at her.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, her pulse racing as adrenaline shot through her bloodstream. She blinked against the rush of tears, but they fell anyway while she scrambled for his hand.

She needed to call for someone, right now. But she couldn’t.

It was only in this moment, as he squinted up at her, everything probably too bright from so many days in darkness, that she realized she hadn’t thought he’d wake up.

Raisa had clutched at the hope offered to her, but she hadn’t actually believed it.

A sob caught in the back of her throat, and she brought her shaking free hand to press up against her mouth.

Kilkenny whispered something she couldn’t hear.

She took a deep breath, gathering in her silly emotions. “What was that?”

This time it was stronger. His eyes were focused as he forced the words out through cracked lips. “You got your guy.”

Warmth flooded Raisa, and she laughed while tears ran down her face. She could hear the commotion in the hall. The staff would be rushing in within seconds. But this moment, right here? It was just for them.

“I got my guy.”