Chapter 16

The ride to the hospital felt like it lasted forever, though the driver was flying down the road like his life depended on it. Maybe it did. Maybe all our lives did.

I sat in the backseat, cradling Benjamin’s head on my lap. His weight pressed down on me, heavy and terrifyingly still. Two of his men crouched on either side, hands pressed firmly against the wound in his chest. Blood soaked through the bandages they tried to hold together. It soaked his shirt. It soaked my hands. It soaked everything. The coppery scent filled the air, sharp and suffocating.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. My whole body wouldn’t.

“Benjamin, please,” I whispered over and over, my voice breaking, my tears dripping onto his skin. “Stay with me. Please. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t leave me.”

But he didn’t respond. His lips were pale, his eyes only half-open, glassy with pain. Each breath he drew was shallow, weak, like the air was refusing to stay in his body.

Beside us lay m