Hurts so good

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX|| AMARIS/SAM

Five minutes. Five minutes is all I have. Five minutes is all Sam has. I have to make them count.

The fighting is done now. Aunt Joyce walks over to where Aiden has my father in a chokehold and the two boys come to me. Each handing me a blade, each knowing my intention.

"Why aren't they taking Sam to the hospital?" Milo asks.

I keep my eyes on my target and hold up a hand to Jerome. "He refuses to leave until I'm done. I have five minutes."

The red dot disappears from Laila's forehead when my hand comes back down to my side. I can feel the heat of their gaze on me but I don't look at them. I want to fight her fair. If she has a target on her head, she'll hold back. I want to test the strength of the woman my father chose over me.

For a slit second, my focus wavers, and I look at my father. He's seething. His anger is for her. He cares about her. He, instead of choosing my mother and me, chose the yakuza and her. A smile spreads across my face, content that he's in pain. "Don't worry, Dad. It'll be over in five minutes."

I reach Laila and she grips her sword. "You no longer have a target on your head. If you survive this fight, you live. No rules. No tricks."

All at once, I hear objections. Multiple, maybe all at the same time but I keep my eyes on my opponent. "They will not defy me in death so fight like your life depends on it. No matter what, they will honor my wish and let you go."

In all honesty, they will probably kill her if she kills me but It doesn't matter. "Okay," Laila says and lifts her sword. "My freedom for your life."

Laila's smart. She's brilliant with a sword and she's a strategist. In the report we found on her, she has never lost a fight. She's won 207 of them and she's never been badly injured. I'm sure that if her opponent was anyone other than me, she would win this one too.

She steps back to allow enough space to swing her sword but she waits for me to make the first move- a habit of hers and her first mistake. I swiftly lift my sword and bring it down on her right side. She blocks it as I expected and counters. I block her again and pivot, bringing my sword to her right side yet again. Like I said, she's skilled. She blocks my attack again and slices my left arm.

She's doubling down on her strategy but I have one of my own. She's been studying me and right about now she's probably thinking that I favor striking on the right side. After doing it for the second time she sliced my left arm proving me right. She's trying to keep me from straying too far from a pattern I pretended to develop. She'll wait for me to strike on her right side again and then make her move. A brilliant plan, really. Except I don't favor the right side. I'm leaving breadcrumbs so that she'll feel comfortable enough to deliver the final blow. That's when I'll go in for the kill.

She overwhelms me with strikes that I block and gives me an opening like I knew she would. I do what she expects and strike her right side again. I should have about thirty seconds left. I wonder her Sam is doing.

She blocks my strike and smiles. And just like that, she falls into the palm of my hand. She counters and strikes, making the last move she'll ever make. This? Really? He chose this?

I drop to my knees when she slices and bring my blades down across her chest, one after the other, marking an X. I look up into her eyes and watch as reality sets in. When she falls, I stand and give her one last look before looking up at my father. "Mediocre at best. Couldn't you have done any better?"

I'm not sure why but I didn't wait for his reaction. I just walked toward the ambulance. It's not until someone grabs my waist that I realize I was in some kind of trance. "Are you okay, love?" Milo asks, pulling me to him.

"Yes, I'm fine," I say absentmindedly.

"Tell me the truth, how do you feel right now, princess?" Aiden asks, coming up to my side. I look back to where my father was and I see him being carried away by my aunt and her men. That's for the best. I'll never say it out loud but I don't want to be the one to do it. I can't. I can't. I can't.

"You can't what, bug?" Cas asks from the other side of me, lightly brushing my cheek.

His touch is warm. I didn't realize I was cold until he touched me. I look at all three of them. They're so worried for me. Why does that make me happy? Their whole lives revolve around me. Me, only me. They love me. They'd never leave me. I love them too.

I look down at my bloodstained hands, away from their gaze. "I love you. I love all of you. I'm sorry it took me so long. I'm sorry for causing so much trouble. I'm sorry for hurting you. I love you so much." This time I don't cry without reason. This time I cry because loving them feels a lot like breathing for the first time.

A hand wipes my tears and lifts my head. Smiles. All smiles. Then hugs. They are so warm.

***

It's warm. Something is holding me tight.

I groan and slowly open my eyes to a dark room. My room? Why does my stomach hurt? Oh, right. I was stabbed. Amaris was fighting and I passed out. Oh shit, Amaris! I sit up a little too fast and my head starts to spin. Maybe I hit my head. That would explain why I'm seeing three figures surrounding me.

Something tightens around my waist and I look down to see unruly curly hair. Amaris. She's sleeping. With me?

I wince as another pulse is sent through my brain and one of the figures speaks. "There are pills and water on the bedside table. Take them." It's dark so I can't see who's talking but it sounds like Milo. I reach over to grab the pills and water but Amaris groans in protest so I decide to leave it.

I look down at her and move her hair to see her face. "Why is she in here?" I ask quietly and someone sighs. Definitely Cassius.

"She was worried about you," he says and I can tell he's gritting his teeth.

"Ah. and why are you three in here?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"Amaris cares about you and the only way you spend the night with her unsupervised is if you leave this room in a body bag." The threat was almost a whisper. Quiet and sharp. Only loud enough for me to barely hear it. That's Aiden.

She holds so much power over them that it's almost comical. Though, I completely understand. She isn't even mine and I'd still rip someone's throat out for touching her.

I look down at her again when she turns her head to the other side and the moonlight that shines through my windows provides enough light for me to see her puffy eyes. "Was she crying again?" I ask, sliding my thumb over her eyes.

No one replies but I know the answer. Apparently, Amaris didn't use to cry very much. The doctor that experimented on her when she was little says it's a good sign. That it's better for her to cry when her emotions get to be too much instead of giving up control to her darker half. Still, I don't like it when she cries. She shouldn't cry for me.

I pull her up from my stomach and bury my face in her neck. "I'm going back to sleep. You guys should probably sit on that couch next to the bed. If she wakes up to see you guys standing there like ghosts, she'll probably kill you with the knife I have under my pillow."

Milo takes that as an invitation to jump on the foot of my bed and lay down. "Don't put your face so close to hers!" he whisper-yells and I chuckle.

"Would you like her head to be lower? It was awfully close to my waistline just now."

"You know, we could always kill him and tell her he succumbed to his injuries," Cassius says and his tone is a little too serious for comfort.

I choose not to play with death and stay silent. When I tighten my grip around Amaris she holds me tighter and I suppose her comfort is all it takes to lull me back to sleep because my mind clears and my vision goes dark.