Her words shocked him; his face, uglier than she’d ever seen it, contorted with rage.
‘Don’t test me, baby girl.’
‘Or what? You’ll kill me? You’re going to kill me anyway. Is that the best you can do, you cowardly motherfucker? Because that’s what you are, Dan, a pathetic coward. You think just because you want something you should have it. I’m not a possession. You repulse me. Even if you weren’t the hateful psychopath you are, I could never love you. I never did..’
She could hear Isaac crashing through the wood, shouting her name. Just keep him talking, she thought, just a few more minutes.
Dan struck her hard across the face. She tasted blood in her mouth. Dan grabbed her face, pinching it hard between his fingers.
‘You little half-breed whore.’ His voice was calm, dispassionate. ‘You think he’s going to save you? Really?’
‘Sarah!’ Isaac’s voice was desperate, panicked.
Dan smirked. ‘Nothing’s gonna save you, baby girl. This is what I do best, Sarah.’
She felt the cold steel muzzle against her belly. Dan smiled. She pulled every last ounce of breath into her lungs and screamed.
‘Isaac!’
Her scream cut off as Dan pulled the trigger.
Isaac burst into the clearing just as Dan shot Sarah again, her body arching with the impact, blood gushing from the horrific wounds in her abdomen.
‘No!’ Isaac threw himself at Dan and knocked him away from Sarah, who moaned in agony. Still alive, keep breathing baby. Dan and Isaac rolled away from her. Dan managed to keep hold of the gun and he jerked it up towards Isaac and pulled the trigger. Isaac punched him out just as a bullet buried itself deep into his bicep. Isaac barely registered the pain. His rage, his love for the dying girl in the snow overcame him and he managed to drive his fist up under Dan’s chin. Blood spurted from the other man’s mouth as he bit through his own tongue and he screamed, gurgling blood in his mouth. Isaac smiled. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Molly with Sarah; she was sobbing, begging her friend to live. He heard Sarah choke, cough. More blood. He turned his head to look at her. God, she so was broken, the sight of her blood on the snow seared itself into his brain. Sarah…Sarah, please breathe…
Then Dan Bailey hit him with the butt of his gun.
Sarah’s eyes opened and she saw his beautiful face fill with horror as he took in her broken body. Isaac. She saw him, the man she loved, fighting for her and she smiled. Hands were there then, pushing against her, keeping the blood in. Rolling her onto her side so she could clear her throat of blood. She choked, coughed and breathed in a blessed lungful of air. Blood on the snow. So much pain. A soothing voice, a familiar voice – Molly?
‘Honey, we’ve got you, just hang on in there please, please, please.’ Molly’s voice broke and Sarah wanted to comfort her, but she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t remember how to talk. The darkness was coming. She tried to breathe and make sense of what was happening at the same time. Her world was shattering onto fragments of consciousness.
Breathe…
Shouting, the sound of skin hitting skin, of struggling, men grunting and cussing. She saw Isaac, his face bloodied, scramble to catch up with Dan.
Breathe…
‘Sarah, please hold on, you can’t die, please please please…’
Breathe…
‘Steve! Help Sarah!’ Isaac’s voice was growing distant now. Steve’s voice. ‘Isaac, take my gun!’ There were more hands on her, Steve’s voice. She’d never noticed before how kind it was and she wanted to tell him…
Breathe…
Gunshots. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Isaac had Steve’s gun – had Dan had time to reload? God, Isaac…
He’s fighting for me.
‘That’s it, that’s it, come on, good girl, just breathe…’
I am. I am. I…
Her entire belly felt like it was on fire from the two bullets tearing through her tender flesh. God, this is it, I’m dying.
Her breath was coming in little gasps now, her own body fighting against her will to live. She swallowed another mouthful of blood and looked away up into the trees above her, the rain had turned to snow now, covering her face, soothing cold. The little light there was left in the day made the sky a beautiful violet. Sarah closed her eyes.
Isaac. Isaac. I’m sorry. I love you.
Isaac broke through the trees and sprinted up the hill after Dan. He heard Molly scream ‘Steve! She’s not breathing!’ and his heart faltered but he pushed the thought away as he darted into the clearing near the lighthouse…where Dan was waiting for him. Isaac raised the gun and Dan laughed, bowing extravagantly.
‘Do you think I care if I live or die now, Quinn? Really? I did what I came here to do. I shot her, I killed her. She’s dead, Quinn. Sarah’s dead.’ He held up his blood-stained hands. ‘She bled for me. She bled for me. And God, it was beautiful...’
Isaac shot Daniel Bailey between the eyes. Dan dropped immediately, the grinning rictus still on his face. Isaac shot him another couple of times, dispassionately firing into the dead man’s head. You can’t be too sure, he told himself. Something inside him had died too; he was now a killer.
And Sarah was still dying…
Isaac felt his world shift, and he was aware that the crushing grief he was holding back was starting to encroach. He heard Molly scream.
Sarah.
and he was up, off into the trees, racing to get to her, to his love.
Please, please, don’t let me be too late…
He stumbled into the clearing. When he saw Sarah’s body, he faltered.
‘Oh my God.’
Molly looked up and went into his arms. He tightened his arms around her, not taking his eyes from Steve, still trying desperately to save the woman he loved. Molly sobbed.
‘She’s gone, Isaac. Sarah’s dead.’
Isaac growled. ‘She is not dead.’ He pushed Steve away and took over, stopping compressions to blow a lungful of air into her. He could taste her blood in his mouth. Sarah didn’t respond, blood still spilling from her wounds onto the melting snow. Her eyes were closed, her lips pale.
‘Please, please, please, sweetheart, breathe.’ Isaac kept up compressions. Molly looked at Steve and nodded, tears still streaming down her face. Steve stepped forward and put his hand on Isaac’s shoulder.
‘Isaac…she’s gone. We did everything. She didn’t stand a chance. I’m sorry.’
Isaac shook his hand off and continued his efforts. Molly put her arms around him, he struggled but she held him fast.
‘Isaac.’ She whispered, grief making her voice crack, ‘She’s gone. Sarah’s gone. I’m so sorry, you have to stop. She’s dead, Isaac.’
Isaac let her hold him then, his face disbelieving. He stared at his wife’s best friend, her sister. ‘No. This isn’t the way it ends. I don’t believe this. My darling girl…’ His voice broke as he looked down at his love. So much blood. He gathered Sarah’s broken body into his arms, felt for a pulse at her throat. He bent his mouth to her ear and whispered, more in desperation than hope. ‘Please Sarah, please. Live. For me, please, please.’
***
From the very edge of life, she was sure she heard his voice, could feel his hands holding her face. He was begging her to live, sobbing now.
She felt his kiss and sighed. Oh, my love, she thought and drifted into night.
The helicopter landed on the football field and the medics stretchered Sarah onto it, Isaac and Molly scrambling aboard. Steve would follow them later, he said. Molly grabbed him just before they took off.
‘Thank you.’ She whispered, looking into his eyes. Steve got choked, nodded.
‘Tell Sarah to keep fighting. Tell Isaac.’
She nodded and then they were in the air.
Now in the air ambulance, Isaac and Molly huddled together as the medics fought to keep Sarah alive. She was so still, so pale. The medic at her head suddenly bent his head, list
ening.
‘No breath sounds. Sarah? Sarah, honey? Can you hear me?’
He pressed his fingers to her throat and shook his head. Isaac moaned.
‘Crash.’ The other medic swirled the paddles together while they were charging. ‘Clear.’
He placed the paddles on Sarah’s chest and clicked. One. Nothing. Again. Nothing. The medics looked at each other. The first medic looked at Isaac who shook his head.
‘Please.’ He whispered. The medic nodded.
‘Try again.’ They shocked her again and Sarah drew in an enormous breath, hyperventilating, suddenly conscious. She collapsed back onto the stretcher. Isaac leaned forward and kissed her.
‘Hey, darling. Hold on, please, we’re nearly there. They’re gonna fix you right up…’ His voice cracked. ‘God, Sarah, I love you, please don’t leave me.’
Sarah gazed at him then her eyes closed again. The medic checked her and grimaced.
‘Charge up again. She’s not responding.’ They shocked her again and again. Finally, he leaned over her, listening. Isaac and Molly couldn’t breathe.
The medic looked up at them and smiled. ‘She’s back. She’s a fighter, this one. A warrior.’
Isaac nodded, tears falling down his face. ‘Yes, she is.’
She understood now that pain wasn’t a symptom but a way of being. Every nerve in her body screeched with the agony and Sarah Quinn begged whatever higher power there was to release her from it. Only the thought of him was keeping her from letting go. The bullets ripping through her; the bloodlust in Dan’s eyes as he shot her; they were nothing to the brief glimpse she got of the unimaginable grief on Isaac’s face before she passed out. She drifted between consciousness, little snapshots coming back to her. Hands pushing on her body, trying to stem the blood. Molly’s sobs. Then his voice, broken but devastatingly beautiful, saying her name over and over. Isaac, I love you, she thought, I love you. She had let the darkness take her.
Isaac sat by her bed, his fingers laced with hers as he watched her breathing in and out, the tube down her throat helping her to live.
‘Please don’t go. I know that’s monumentally selfish of me, I can’t imagine the pain you must be in. But, Sarah….please. You are my love. For all time. All time. You are in every beat of my heart, every moment with you I realize why I’m here on Earth. Don’t go. Stay with me and I promise I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again. Please don’t leave me.’ His voice, so steady and sure, cracked at the last and he choked back his emotion, tears dropping down his pale face. Her hand in his felt tiny, so still, too still. He squeezed her fingers gently, willing her to return the gesture, his senses heightened, waiting, waiting. Nothing.
Isaac let out a long, shaky breath and laid his head down on the bed. Silence broken just by the beep of the machinery. Eventually, the steady rhythm invaded his exhausted mind and he slept and when he slept he dreamed of Dan pumping bullets into Sarah over and over and over, vicious, merciless and Sarah falling, bloodied and broken, drifting further away from him. He reached for her but she slipped further and further away…
There was a strange feeling on his head, a pressure. Fingers stroking his hair tenderly. He knew that touch, would know it anywhere. He opened his eyes and raised his head.
Sarah smiled down at him, her face pale, dark shadows under her eyes but still…alive and smiling and so, so, so fucking beautiful…
‘Oh god, thank you, thank you…’ he choked out as he took her face in his hands and kissed her.
A year later…
Sarah Quinn swept her hair up into a loose ponytail and went out of the back door to find her husband. She soon found him in the large garden of their new home, running around and playing like a teenager with Scooter and Biggs – their two large and very silly rescue dogs. Sarah joined in with their game, passing a drool-soaked tennis ball back and forth to Isaac as the dogs barked and snapped at it. She started giggling as the dogs tackled Isaac to the ground and went crazy both trying to get the ball and licking their new master.
‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘you look like…what was it…America’s Hottest Billionaire…right now.’
Isaac grinned up at her and she pulled him up. He locked his arms around her and kissed her, nibbled on her ear to make her squirm. ‘Tickles,’ she protested, chuckling. ‘Anyway, I came out to find you. Molly and the kids will be here soon.’
Molly, who had always been a Seattle girl, had politely turned down Isaac’s offer to buy her and Mike a new home in Portland. Now that Isaac and Sarah had moved down there permanently, they didn’t see her as much and Sarah missed her.
‘You’ve already been so generous,’ Molly had said, the night Isaac had asked her and Mike the question. Sarah had still been in hospital but well on the way to recovery and she and Isaac had decided very quickly to leave the city, leave the state.
‘I love this city,’ Sarah had told him, ‘but too much has happened here. I need to move on.’
Within the week, QuinnCorp’s had opened a new office in Portland and Sarah was looking at properties. Isaac had told her to choose whatever she wanted and now they had this beautiful European-style home, all exposed brickwork, and massive fireplaces. So different from her old home. That had been her only other condition. She wanted to start again – completely. She even let Isaac have free-reign about how much money he spent on her. Everything was different. New.
Sarah had enrolled at the University of Oregon to finish her architectural degree, much to Isaac’s delight. ‘When you graduate,’ he said, ‘I have the perfect project for you.’
She had looked at him curiously but he wouldn’t tell her what it was.
Now, she tugged him into the house. ‘Come on, wash up. You’re a bad influence on those kids.’
Molly arrived and they were soon surrounded by hugs and love and kisses and the kids, hopped up on sugary drinks from their journey. Mike had come too, deciding at the last minute to join the gathering.
When they were settled in the garden, Isaac fired up the barbecue and began cooking while Sarah excused herself.
Molly watched Mike and the kids playing with the dogs for a moment then went to see if Isaac needed any help.
‘How’s she settling in?’ She asked after some easy chatter. Isaac grinned widely.
‘Wonderfully. She’s doing so good, Molly, you should see her.’
Molly smiled and hugged him. ‘I’m so glad .’
Isaac looked up to see Sarah coming out of the house, a loving smile on her beautiful face – and a small child in her arms. Her dark skin looked like her mother’s – despite the fact they shared not one drop of DNA. Sarah brought her and Isaac’s newly adopted daughter over to see her aunt and uncle, handing her to Molly, who cooed and trilled at the little girl, Sophie.
Isaac wrapped his arms around his wife then, as they watched their daughter being fussed over, and kissed her temple. ‘Mrs. Quinn,’ he murmured, ‘God damn but I think we made it.’
Sarah turned in his arms and kissed him. ‘We sure did. We made it through hell. Now we get the good stuff.’
Isaac smiled down at his beautiful wife, who had survived the darkest hell of what humans could do to each other and still had a heart full of love to give and knew, without a doubt, that they would only see the sunshine from now on
The End.
Shattered
(An Alpha Billionaire Romance)
Parts 1 and 2
By: Michelle Love
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Shattered
(An alpha Billionaire Romance)
Part 1
By Michelle Love
Shattered #1
Two days before her lavish Upper East Side wedding, artist Lila Tierney is stabbed and left for dead by an unknown assailan
t. Waking up in the hospital she is devastated to discover her fiancé Richard has been arrested for arranging her murder.
Eighteen months later, after a long and painful rehabilitation, Lila has returned to her native Seattle to rebuild her life. With the help of her oldest friend, police detective Charlie Sherman, she soon realizes that life she thought she had been living was a lie and that she is back where she belongs. Learning to trust again, she begins a tentative relationship with handsome doctor Noah Applebaum after he helps her with her ongoing recovery and she is amazed by the new world of erotic pleasure he opens up for her.
Soon, she is falling in love with him but her happiness is shattered when Richard is acquitted of her attempted murder and someone begins to stalk her in Seattle, making it clear to Lila that he wants her dead.
A terrified Lila begins to question every relationship around her as her life falls apart and the killer closes in…
Shattered #1
Richard
Two days before her lavish Upper East Side wedding, artist Lila Tierney is stabbed and left for dead by an unknown assailant. Waking up in the hospital she is devastated to discover her fiancé Richard has been arrested for arranging her murder. Looking back over their sensual and tumultuous relationship, Lila search for clues as to why Richard might want her dead but cannot reconcile their love with what has happened. While Richard languishes in jail awaiting trial, Lila tries to recover from her devastating injuries, but growing every more paranoid and when secrets are revealed, she must try to keep her sanity as well as her life…
The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance Page 98