Page 131 of Outcast’s Return

My best friend walks out of the room with a smile.

When he shuts the door, Jolie turns back to me. Love beams from her like rays from the sun.

“If this is what almost dying gets me,” I say, “then maybe I should do it more often.”

“Don’t you dare,” Jolie says. “Try this shit again, and I will stab you myself.”

“I think you would have to get in line behind your brother.”

Jolie shakes her head, now serious again.

“I would never have believed he would say something like that,” she murmurs. “Forgiving us. Believing in us.”

“Oh, I always knew he would come round.”

Jolie doesn’t even have the energy to laugh. She sighs and takes my hand.

“You told me at the gallery that night last week that you feel like you don’t have a family. Well, now you do. Me. Clement. Baptiste. Sylvie. Elise. Us. I’m yours, Fabien. Forever.”

“And I’m yours, Angel. Forever.”

“It seems your final Castaways task is over, Mr. Cote. What happens now?”

I shrug.

“We survived a week together. How about we do another one?”

Jolie scratches her chin, theatrically pondering.

“Yes,” she says. “I could do that.”

“And another week after that?”

She laughs and leans toward me for a long and tender kiss. And it’s like this horrible little hospital room fades away, and there’s only her.

53

FABIEN

Back to the penthouse.

Back to life.

Back to packing our bags and leaving the place we called home for the wildest week of our lives.

“You’re tough,” Jolie told me in the car back to the penthouse. “You shouldn’t even be out of the hospital bed right now.”

I’ve been given clearance from the doctors, and I’ve finally been set free.

“I’m lucky,” I replied.

Sure, I’ve felt some pain due to the knife that was in my stomach, but I’ve had enough pain in my life to know I will survive this. Hey, at least it’s only physical, and the doctors did a good job. Despite their warnings to avoid any kind of strenuous activity, I’ve recovered better than even they expected.

Well, of course I did. I’m Fabien fucking Cote.

There isn’t much for us to pack at the penthouse, so I take the time to have a final look around. This was our home, the place where our love was somehow rekindled. It was also a battlefield, with our hearts as combatants.

“Is it weird I’m gonna miss it here?” Jolie asks me as we look out over the city from the balcony.