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I glance over my shoulder. He looks as exhausted as I feel, his clothes rumpled and his expression drawn tight from everything we’ve been through since last night.
“Everyone clear out?”
He nods. “The ambulance left about ten minutes ago. They took Slade in for observation. Whatever Amber dosed him with kicked his ass.”
After Amber was contained, Arianette told us Slade had been drugged and was passed out in the back hallway. She must have given him a higher dosage because it wore off slower than the injection she gave Ari. That thought alone makes my stomach turn. She had planned everything down to the smallest detail, including how much drug it would take to keep each person sedated and out of her way.
“I saw the firemen leave, too,” I say, picking up the hose and washing the last of the shampoo from Ares’ coat. He doesn’t mind a bath, mostly because he knows it means he gets an unreasonable amount of attention afterward.
DK props himself against the wall, looking toward the house. “Yeah, there was no major damage, although there could’ve been if the guys hadn’t been out there to get it under control.”
Everyone agreed to call the authorities. Amber’s crimes had been so publicized that it was important to keep everything above board, no matter how much I would have preferred to handle things ourselves. There would be questions, investigations, reports, and people crawling through Baron's property that had been kept hidden for generations. For once, I didn’t care. Let them see what she had done.
I took Ares around back before anyone could get any ideas about him being a danger. The last thing I needed was some cop deciding the dog who saved Arianette was a liability.
“Knight finally showed up, looking absolutely wrecked. He said that although Auggy is fine, she’ll be staying overnight at the hospital, too.”
Ares chose that exact moment to shake himself, sending a spray of water over me, DK, and everything within a ten-foot radius.
“Jesus, dog,” I mutter, using my shirt to wipe water from my face.
DK laughs under his breath. I’m pretty sure the dog could piss on his leg, and Damon wouldn’t give a shit. Not today.
“Any update on Stella?”
“Not really.” He reaches behind him and grabs the towel hanging over the wall before tossing it toward me. I catch it in one hand and start rubbing Ares down while the dog wiggles impatiently beneath my hands. “She’s alive, but in bad shape. She’d been kept down there for so long, it’s going to be a while before anyone can comprehend how bad it is.”
Alive is a fucking miracle, but it doesn’t mean she’s okay. Not by a long shot. Add in the fact that people are now going to know that she and her sister have legacy ties to the Counts, and life is about to get very complicated for her.
“And Ari?” I ask.
“The EMTs cleared her, and she gave a report to Knight, but Timothy cut it short, saying she needed to clean up and get some rest.” He jerks his chin toward the house. “Come on, let’s go see her.”
I’m anxious to get to her, but also nervous. There’s no way she’s coming out of the fight tonight with Amber unscathed, but I am prepared to help every step of the way.
We go inside, and I follow DK down the hallway that leads toward our wing in the house. So much has happened over the past few days that it feels like ages since we’ve been in here together. Timothy sits in the armchair and looks up when we come in. The exhaustion in his face tells me he hasn’t rested for a second. Ares walks straight past him, making one circle and curling directly in front of the closed bathroom door, as if he has appointed himself her personal security detail.
“How is she?” I ask, stripping off my wet shirt and pants before tossing them in the hamper.
“She’s got some bruises, and she brushed her teeth three times,” Timothy says quietly. “But overall she’s okay. I think the amount of drugs Amber gave her compared to Slade and Auggy was pretty minimal. She wanted her awake for the ritual.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe I missed that it was Amber. All these months running in circles, and she was under my fucking nose the entire time.”
“None of us got it right,” I say, feeling my own guilt washing over me again. “Including the police and the FBI.”
“I’m not some random, street-level bureaucrat. I was her husband. I knew what she was capable of.” He shakes his head, staring at the floor. “What’s even worse is that I accused my best friend of working with her, and he had nothing to do with it.”
Amber made it clear on the way to the ambulance that she had spent the last part of her campaign of terror working alone, once Billy and Liam were dead and Regina never came back. She used drugs and manipulation to lure Auggy to her and her knowledge of the tunnels and the House of Night to get the upper hand on Arianette.
“That’s not true.”
Ari’s voice comes from the bathroom doorway.
I look up, and everything inside me goes still for a second. She’s wrapped in a soft gray robe, the fabric belted securely around her waist, and her fiery curls are tucked away beneath her satin bonnet. She looks exhausted, but she also looks clean and warm and unmistakably herself. The scent of soap and lotion reaches me even from across the room, along with the faint oil she uses on her fingernails. It’s a combination of scents that is uniquely hers, and after the night we’ve had, the familiarity of it hits me harder than I expect.
She walks toward Timothy.
“If you’re guilty, then so am I for losing my memory for so long. And everyone else who couldn’t connect the mental dots of a woman caught in her own homicidal delusions. You kept Forsyth safe for over twenty years, Timothy, that’s more than most men would do.”
She reaches him and eases herself into his lap, and his arms immediately wrap around her. She rests her head against his shoulder, and for a moment, we watch them.
