Page 33 of The Comeback Road (Leaving #2)

Lexie

I couldn’t help but spend the next two and a half hours as we were driving not only trying to stay awake, but cursing out Luke for bringing me back to Rockland like that, to force my best friend’s hand.

“Be mad at me all you want, Lex. I weighed the pros and cons of it all, and this is our best option,” he grumbled at me during one of my fits.

“I’d rather risk it at the hospital than put anybody in that town at risk, get me?” I tried to keep the tears at bay, but what was the point of all the secrecy if I ended up doing exactly what I feared the most? Pulling in the people I loved.

I couldn’t stop myself from obsessively thinking about Jace as well. I’d all but shoved him out of my mind those past few months. But I had yet to fully eradicate him from my heart, and I almost stopped breathing at the thought of something happening to him.

“Take me to the hospital,” I ground out again.

“No.” Luke shot me a brief look of pity before he locked his features into an impenetrable gaze, and I knew I’d lost that fight.

The rest of the ride was eerily silent, the blood from my side a slower trickle now.

And while I wasn’t as concerned I was going to bleed out, I was really tired, so I shut my eyes and focused on breathing.

Time faded into nothing but seconds ticking on a clock as the rhythmic sound of tires on the pavement lulled me into a sense of nothingness as time continued to pass.

My body remembered the turn of the driveway, and my eyes fluttered open. I hated how I felt peace for the first time in weeks at the view of the old house that sat at the end of the gravel drive. Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes. Home.

I might be hurt, but I was home, and as much as I didn’t want to be there, my body moved on its own accord, opening the door. I stumbled hard, just wanting to reach the front door. Safety.

A wave of sadness washed over me, mingling with an unspoken pain and failure at knowing I was about to be dragging Magnolia into it, into danger.

Even more violence was possible, but there I was, doing it anyway.

I wanted to scream out at the injustice and turn around.

The thought of putting anyone else at risk, especially my best friend, and upending her life into chaos that surrounded me felt like a betrayal.

It felt like all the hours and days of distance were for absolutely nothing.

“Are you ready?” Luke’s voice broke through my thoughts, but it still felt distant, like a faint echo in my mind, rooting me to the spot where I stood.

With a slow, labored breath, I nodded, the weight of what I was doing almost felt like I was suffocating as I put my key into the lock and turned, grimacing as it gave way.

“Take it slow,” Luke advised at my back. A glance back had me confirming that his expression was still filled with concern. Together, we made our way inside. My heart gave out a lurch when even in the dark it was the same, felt the same, smelled the same. Home.

I put two feet in front of the other and almost had a heart attack as Peaches came barreling down the stairs from what I would only assume was Magnolia’s room, teeth clashing, hackles raised.

“Peaches, it’s me.” I held out my hand, which was covered in blood, and Peaches’ snarls went from menacing to whimpering almost like she knew what she was smelling.

“Is someone there? I should warn you, I do have a gun, and I will use it!” Magnolia’s voice carried from somewhere upstairs. While I wanted to sigh in relief, I knew she was probably serious. I did my best to choke back a laugh.

“Mags, it’s me,” I called out.

“Lexie?” I heard something like desperation in her voice as the lights flicked on from upstairs as she came flying down. Momentarily, Magnolia was stunned before she reached the bottom as she took in my bloodstained skin and wardrobe.

“What the fuck happened? Oh my god, what the fuck? Who the hell are you?” She finally realized Luke standing next to me, and with zero hesitation, put herself in between us. Peaches, sensing Magnolia’s distress, also focused her attention on him, baring her teeth.

“Why don’t we all just calm down,” Luke suggested, holding his hands out in front of him placatingly. “Lex…now would be a good time to start explaining so I don’t have to detain your friend or her dog.”

Magnolia hissed from in front of me, but told Peaches to go to her kennel. Like the good girl she was, she listened, even though she growled her displeasure toward Luke the entire time she spent following her command.

“I didn’t want to involve you. In fact, I begged him not to.”

Tears welled in Magnolia’s eyes as her focus was back on me, and her eyes were taking me in, cataloguing everything, “You’re hurt. Oh my god, you’re bleeding. We can go to the hospital…”

“No!” Luke and I all but shouted at the same time. I could hear the panic in mine that had Magnolia raising her eyebrows at me, “I can’t.” I heard the desperation in my tone, and it hung around us.

My knees buckled at that moment, as if everything was starting to catch up with me. “Jesus, we have to go to the hospital, Lex…” She rushed toward me and caught me before I fell, and started bringing me to the front door.

“No.” Luke’s booming tone came out. “You’ll help her, you’ll fix her. Here.” He blocked the door.

Magnolia, half his size, was ready to square up in a fight she knew she wouldn’t win. “I’m not a doctor.”

“You’re close enough.”

“I could lose my license,” she whispered.

“No, you won’t. You’re helping two agents, and I’m ordering you to do it, so do it.”

She shook her head back and forth while trying to process what he was saying. “Agents?”

“Couldn’t have done that more delicately, huh?” I ground out at him. He only offered me a half shrug while still glaring in our general direction.

“You’ll fix her,” he said, his voice deathly low. “You understand?”

The simmering hatred in her eyes was on full display. “You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Fix her now .” Luke’s voice was so still, so…

unlike him that I couldn’t help but stare at the exchange, forgetting my words.

The sounds of the front door had all of Magnolia jumping halfway into the air.

I somehow found the strength to stand and shove her behind me to shield her.

Luke pulled out his gun in such a fast succession, it had Magnolia gasping from behind me.

Gentle humming filled my ears as I saw Sloan in all his glory, and realized he must be coming home from work. Before I could start talking, I realized what he was seeing—me, standing in front of Magnolia, covered in blood, with a man holding a weapon.

“Slo…” I started to say, but I was apparently too slow. He seemed to transform into a Sloan-shaped bull in front of my eyes and ran at him like a linebacker.

“Oh my god,” I heard Magnolia mutter from behind me and in an unfortunately embarrassing display for Sloan, Luke had used his momentum against him and flipped him over on his back.

“Who’s the Ken?” Luke asked while Sloan raged below him.

“That would be Sloan, Magnolia’s boyfriend. You can let him up.”

Once on his back, Sloan must have realized we weren’t a threat.

His entire being was focused on Magnolia, and I couldn’t help but swoon briefly at the look he was giving her, touching every part of her.

“I’ve seen you in danger enough to last me a lifetime.

I’m selling the restaurant, and we’re buying an island off the coast of nowhere so no one can get to you.

You got it?” He pulled her into him and turned to glare at us.

“I’d say it’s nice to see you, Lexie, but I think you have some serious explaining to do,” he spat in my general direction, and I couldn’t help but flinch and stagger backward, the stress and the weight of everything starting to catch up with me.

I just needed to sit…to sleep, just for a minute. Then, I’d explain.

Just a quick nap was the last thing I remember thinking before the cloudiness took over, my vision fading into spots of black. Then, blissfully, I felt nothing.