All Chapters of SIR: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Zeke is leaning against the marble pillar near the staircase, his arms crossed over his chest, looking like a gargoyle guarding a tomb. He hasn’t changed his uniform, and there are dark circles under his eyes that tell me he hasn’t slept since the shooting occurred.“Where have you been?” Zeke asks, his voice dropping into that heavy, authoritative tone he uses when he’s trying to be the head of security instead of a person.I stop at the base of the stairs, kicking off my heels with a tired sigh. “Where I go is absolutely none of your business, Zeke. Last time I checked, you weren’t my father, and you certainly don’t own my schedule.”“Your father is currently occupied with a dozen different federal agencies, and since your shiny new bodyguard managed to get himself shot and put in a coma, you are my responsibility,” Zeke says, stepping away from the pillar to close the distance between us. He looks at me with an intensity that makes my defensive walls go right up. “I know you wer

The high school hallway is incredibly boring without Eli lurking near the exit doors. I sit through three consecutive lectures on European history, my real-time thoughts completely consumed by the image of a cardiac monitor and white hospital sheets. By fourth period, my sarcasm has entirely run out, replaced by a restless, twitching need to move. So, I do what any reasonable Reid would do when the world is suffocating her. I climb out of the first-floor bathroom window, navigate the blind spot in the parking lot cameras, and drive straight back to the hospital. I make it to the intensive care wing without being spotted by my father’s guards, but as I reach the door to Eli’s room, I freeze. A woman is standing right beside the hospital bed. Her hair is packed into a tight, neat ponytail, and she is wearing a simple pair of jeans and a dark winter coat. She looks remarkably frail, maybe in her late forties, her shoulders slightly hunched as she looks down at Eli. The air in the r

The white coat of the physician moves back and forth in front of the hospital window, the man’s voice a monotonous hum as he lists the post-discharge instructions. Eli sits on the edge of the bed, already dressed in a clean black t-shirt and jeans that the security staff had brought for him, his chest tightly bound beneath the fabric. “No heavy lifting for at least four weeks, Elias,” the doctor says, checking a box on his digital tablet. “The entry wound has closed nicely, but the muscular tissue beneath the ribs needs time to repair. You should strictly avoid any high-impact movements, keep your diet clean and low in sodium to prevent inflammation, and take the prescribed antibiotics every eight hours without fail. Do you understand everything I’ve just gone over?” “Yes,” Eli says, his voice flat as he stares at his own boots. He hasn’t listened to a single word the man has said for the past ten minutes. His entire brain is occupied by a suffocating mixture of frustration an

The heavy glass entrance doors of the high school haven’t even fully settled behind me before Emma blocks my path. She is standing near the rows of green metal lockers with her arms tightly crossed over her chest. I try to offer a casual wave, but she doesn’t blink.“When are you planning on doing it?” Emma asks as I approach.I stop, adjusting the strap of my bag on my shoulder. “Good morning to you too, Em. I slept wonderfully, thank you for asking.”“Don’t do the sarcasm thing right now,” she says, refusing to smile. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Chloe. When are you going to tell her about you and Eli?”I look past her shoulder, scanning the crowded hallway to ensure a specific blonde head isn’t within earshot. “I really don’t know how to tell her, Em. You saw how she ran out of that hospital room. If I tell her that the guy she is crying over has been sneaking onto my roof for weeks, it won’t just hurt her. She will absolutely hate me forever.”“She’s hurting alre

Eli slides off the mattress, yanking the gun from between my thighs and tucking it securely back into his waistband before I can even drag my breathing back to a normal rhythm. He lifts me off him and places me on the bed, then dashes across the room and slips into the narrow space between the heavy oak wardrobe and the bedroom door just as the handle begins to turn. I barely have enough time to kick my discarded panties under the edge of the bed before the door swings wide open and my mother steps in. “Lucy, sweetheart, everything alright in here?” “Of course, Mom,” I say, forcing my voice into a slightly high, airy register as I sit up on the edge of the mattress, flattening my skirt over my knees. “I’m just, uh, resting. It was a long day at school.” Mom’s brows furrow, her gaze sweeping across the rumpled sheets before landing on my flushed face. “Are you entirely certain? I swear I heard a noise from the hallway that sounded precisely like a squeal.” She stops, her nos