“Let her go, and I’ll let you leave.” Calloway stepped forward with the gun still pointed at Hank. “This offer will expire in five seconds.”
Hank stared him down, his hand still tight on my neck. Most of his body was blocked by mine, so there was no way Calloway could get a good shot without risking my safety. “I suggest you—”
Calloway pulled the trigger and hit Hank on the side of the skull. Blood sprayed across the bedding and my skin, his skin and tissues sticking to everything.
Hank immediately went limp and fell back, his body collapsing onto the bed. His arm fell forward, releasing me from my hold.
That was when I started to sob. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I scooted out of the way to get as far away from Hank as I could. When he was alive, he was repulsive. But when he was dead, he was even more grotesque. “Oh my god…”
“Sweetheart, it’s okay.” Calloway came to the foot of the bed and pulled me into his arms, leaving the gun on the corner of the mattress. “I’m here. He can’t hurt you anymore.” He wrapped his arms around me, but he didn’t hug me nearly as tightly as he should.
That’s when I felt the blood from his shirt.
“Calloway…?”
I looked down and saw the bloodstains all over his clothes. He’d had those before he even walked through the door, long before he caught up to Hank and me. “Is this yours…?”
He nodded weakly, his jaw tense. “Isabella…she shot me.” He suddenly breathed deeply, like he was slipping away.
“Oh god. Why didn’t you go to a hospital?”
His eyes started to become lidded and heavy. “Because…I had to save you.” He fell back and closed his eyes, his body growing limp.
“Calloway!” I shook him.
No response.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
I stuck my hand in his pockets and pulled out his phone, but I dropped it on the ground because I was shaking so much. I finally got it in my hands again and called the first number that came to mind, 9-1-1.
My hand went to Calloway’s neck as I stayed on the line, feeling a distant pulse grow weaker and weaker. “Calloway, stay with me. Please stay with me.” Through my tears, I managed to talk to the operator and have them pinpoint my address.
And they were there in three minutes.
“Rome.” Christopher found me in the waiting room and took the seat beside me. His hand automatically went to mine. “Rome?”
I was in shock, my heart beating so fast and so slow at the same time. I was caked in blood, Calloway’s and Hank’s. I’d put my dress back on but felt disgusting wearing it since Hank had removed it in the first place. I’d cried so much that my body couldn’t handle it anymore. Now I’d hit rock bottom, feeling absolutely nothing but pure despair.
“Where’s Calloway?” Christopher had never held my hand once in our lifetime. It was a rare occasion to get a hug from him. I wasn’t sure why he was even down here. I hadn’t called him.
“He’s in surgery.” I got here four hours ago. I rode in the ambulance while the medics did everything they could to keep him alive. I had no other transportation since I’d been taken out there like a captive. Once we were in the hospital, I was pushed off to the side and told I would be given an update when they had one.
So far, I hadn’t heard anything.
“What…?” Christopher’s eyes narrowed as he squeezed my hand. “What happened? I got a call from Jackson that Hank had taken you… I didn’t realize Calloway had been hurt.”
That meant Jackson didn’t know. I should probably tell him. “I don’t really know what happened. He said Isabella shot him…then he passed out. I have no idea why he was with her or what they were doing…then he came to save me.” He could have taken himself to the hospital and told the cops where I’d been taken hostage, but he didn’t do that.
He risked his life to save mine.
Christopher squeezed my hand again. “I’m sure he’ll pull through. This is a great hospital, and he’s a strong guy. He can handle it.”
I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. I’d already shed all my tears over the past few hours. “If he doesn’t make it…”
“He will,” he said firmly. “That guy loves you too much to die. Just remember that.”
“I hope you’re right, Christopher…” I pulled my hand away and set it on my lap. My fingers interlocked together, and the despair crept further into my veins. When it reached my heart, I sighed and felt my eyes water. “I should call Jackson. It slipped my mind…”
“I’ll call him. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay…”
Christopher patted my thigh before he pulled out his phone and walked away.
I closed my eyes and rested my face in my lap, wanting the darkness my own body provided. Calloway had a deadly wound that was complicated even to a skilled surgeon. Not even the strongest man could combat that. He lost a lot of blood on the drive from New York to Connecticut. I wasn’t even sure how he’d lasted that long.
Another four hours passed until I finally got some news. Calloway had pulled through the surgery without any complications. Now he was resting in ICU. As soon as the doctor said those words, I fell to my knees and sobbed.
Christopher thanked the doctor then kneeled beside me. “I told you he was gonna be okay.”
As relieved as I was, I was still terrified. I was terrified this happened at all, that I nearly lost the love of my life. My fingertips became pruned with my own tears because I’d been crying so much over the last four hours.
Christopher was patient with me, but after five minutes, he helped me to my feet. “Let’s go see him, huh?”
I nodded and wiped my tears away.
“Any news?” Jackson came from the opposite side of the room where he’d been sitting alone. His mood was dark, just the way Calloway’s was from time to time. His jaw was clenched so tightly I could hear his teeth ground together.
Christopher did the talking. “He pulled through. He’s in ICU.”
“Thank fucking god.” Jackson stepped back with his hands on his hips, his head bowed. He released a loud sigh before he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was gonna kill him if he died.”
“Let’s go.” Christopher led the way through the hospital until we arrived in ICU. Their visitor rules said only one person could be with Calloway at a time, to reduce the risk of infection. I washed my hands then stepped inside the room. Jackson didn’t try to fight me on it. He could have played the family card and won, but he didn’t.
When I walked inside, Calloway was lying on his back in the small bed. His feet reached the very end, and he looked too big for the average-size bed. A large tube was down his throat, and a machine breathed for him. An IV was in his arm, along with other tubes and wires.
I hated seeing him like this.
I took the seat at his bedside and refrained from touching him. His gown covered the wound in his stomach. I imagined it stitched up, with a bandage wrapped around his body. He didn’t seem as big as he usually was, like he’d lost too much blood. His face was paler than usual too.
He looked so different.
“I’m here…” My hand slid across the bed until I touched his fingers. “If you can hear me…I’m here.”
21
Calloway
The first thing I heard was the sound of the monitor.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It sounded like a heart rate monitor.
A second later, I felt the blood pressure cuff tighten on my arm until it was uncomfortable.
That’s when everything came back to me. I had been barely holding on to consciousness when I pulled the trigger and killed Hank. The only thing that kept me moving was the adrenaline that gave my body the final push to finish my mission.
Save my girl.
I knew when I chose to go after her instead of going to the hospital, I was seriously risking my life. There was a good chance I would have bled out and died before I even got there. B
ut if I went to the hospital and survived, and she didn’t…I would have died anyway.
I must be in a hospital.
That must mean Rome got me here. And my gut feeling told me she would be sitting right beside me when I opened my eyes.
I was right. Her face was the very first thing I looked at. With an exhausted expression and the same clothes I’d last seen her in, she was sitting in the chair at my bedside. Her eyes were sunken in, and she looked just as weak as I felt. Her eyes were glued to my hand, where her fingers were interlocked with mine. She didn’t notice my stare.
“Sweetheart…”
Her eyes immediately darted to my face, and right on cue, the tears started. “Calloway…” She rushed to stand up and moved to wrap her arms around me, but she suddenly jerked back, taking her affection away. “I shouldn’t touch you…” She eyed my abdomen.
“No, I need you to touch me.” I wrapped one arm around her waist and brought her against my chest. I didn’t hug her the way I wanted because of the IV in my other arm. But I could still feel her warmth, smell her hair, and savor the feeling of my woman in my arms.
She cried into my shoulder, her tears soaking through the gown and to my bare skin. “Calloway…I was so scared.”
“I’m okay. We’re okay.”
“You could have died, Calloway.”
“So be it.” When I saw Hank on top of her, about to take something that didn’t belong to him, I knew I’d made the right decision. If I’d gotten there just a minute later, he would have raped her.
Raped my woman.
I’d die before I let that happen.
She pulled away, looking at me with reflective tears. “I can’t believe you did that…”
“You’re the most important thing in my life, sweetheart. You know that.”
“I know…you always show it.”
I moved my hand to her cheek and touched her smooth skin. She felt warm to my touch, and I wiped away a fallen tear with the pad of my thumb.
“What happened? I still don’t understand.”
I told her Isabella’s role in the kidnapping.
“I can’t believe her—and she shot you!”
“She said it was an accident.”
“Bullshit,” she hissed. “We’re putting her away for life, Calloway.”
I wasn’t eager to turn her over to the police. “If she hadn’t shot me, she wouldn’t have told me where to find you.”
“How so?”
“She felt so guilty for what she did that she told me everything…it was necessary.”
She ran her hands up my arm, feeling my skin like she hadn’t touched me in years. “I can’t believe all of this happened. I went to work that morning like it was a normal day.”
“I know. But at least it’s over. Hank is dead.”
“Yeah…he’s dead.” She nodded before a small smile stretched on her lips. “He’s gone.”
I loved seeing that relief on her face. Now she could live her life without looking over her shoulder anymore. She deserved that freedom. “I just hope you continue to live with me even though you don’t need my protection anymore.”
“I’ll always need your protection, Calloway. You’re the only man I’ll allow to protect me.”
Those words meant the world to me. She’d submitted to me in more ways than one, and now she was officially mine. I possessed her in every way possible. She’d given herself to me in every capacity. “I’ll protect you with my life—for the rest of my life.”
I was stuck at the hospital for five days before they finally discharged me.
For five days, I couldn’t get naked with my woman. I couldn’t fuck my woman. I had to lie in a bed while she sat in a chair.
Couldn’t handle that shit much longer.
I wouldn’t allow myself to be pushed in a wheelchair, and I walked myself out in new clothes Jackson picked up for me. My hand was held tightly in Rome’s as we made it to the car, and Tom drove us home.
It was nice to be back at the house. It smelled like Rome and me combined together. My shoes were by the door exactly where I left them, and my hoodie was on the coatrack from the last time I went for a jog.
It felt so good to be back.
“Wanna take a seat?” Rome asked, the concern in her voice.
“I’m okay.” Actually, I did feel weak. This bullet wound would take some time to get better; that was obvious. I shouldn’t put up a front when I didn’t need to prove anything, but remaining strong for my woman was important.
Jackson walked in behind us and examined the house like he’d never been here before. “Looks the same as the last time I was here.”
“Yeah, I didn’t change much.”
Rome guided me to the couch and gently pushed on my shoulders so I would sit down. “I’m gonna cook some dinner. You must be sick of hospital food.”
“Yeah, I miss your cooking.”
She smiled before she turned to Jackson. “Make him realize, okay?”
“I’m on it.” He gave her a thumbs-up before she walked into the kitchen. “Got any scotch?”
“No drinking,” Rome called from the kitchen.
“What?” Jackson asked as he sat beside me. “What’s the point of being a hero and taking a bullet if you can’t drink?”
“It’s temporary.” I sat back and cringed slightly as my core felt strained.
Jackson watched me. “Need anything? A pillow or something?”
“I’m fine,” I answered.
Jackson grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. He found a basketball game and let it play in the background. My brother and I hadn’t talked much since I’d been shot. He’d visited me at the hospital, but we didn’t get much time together because Rome wanted to be at my side nearly all the time. “Glad you’re alright, man.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry about Isabella. Never should have mentioned Hank.”
It was a stupid thing to do, and I had every right to be pissed at him. “You weren’t being malicious, so don’t worry about it.”
“I had no idea she would get that psycho.”
“Sometimes you never know…”
“I can handle Ruin while you recover.”
“You mean, run it into the ground?” I teased.
“No,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll do good this time.”
Rome came into the living room and handed us both glasses of water.
Jackson eyed the glass like he didn’t know what it was. “Please tell me this is vodka.”
She tapped him on the nose then walked back into the kitchen.
“She’s something, huh?” he asked before he took a drink of his water.
“Yeah…she’s pretty great.”
“What are you going to do about Hank?”
Hank was dead, and I’d confessed to the police that I was the one who shot him. They interviewed me at the hospital and conducted an investigation at my office. Rome had lots of evidence to prove that he’d been stalking her for some time, and Christopher corroborated her story. I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen with that, but I wasn’t worried about it. “I don’t know. He’s dead, and that’s all I care about.”
“Yeah, that guy is rotting in hell now.”
“I hope so.” I’d never forget what I saw when I walked through that door. His cock was pressed against her, and she was on the verge of tears. He should be grateful I gave him a quick death. If I’d had more time, I would have tortured him.
Jackson moved his hand to my shoulder and gave me a gentle pat. The affection was awkward since Jackson didn’t have a heart. “I love you, man. I know that’s a pussy thing to say, but I never say it. And…I was pretty scared I was gonna lose you. You’re my big brother…all I have left.”
I patted him on the shoulder in return. “I love you too, man. I’m gonna be around for a long time, so expect to be picked on for a few more decades.”
He chuckled. “I look forward to it.”
I turned back t
o the TV, feeling a new connection to Jackson that wasn’t there before. We spent a lot of time together because of Ruin, but we didn’t have serious conversations too often. We pretended to hardly even like each other. It was just one bullshit talk after the next. But now it seemed real.
“Have you seen Mom lately?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. Not since that day we were all there together.”
Jackson sighed. “Too difficult?”
Rome and I were both disheartened when my mother showed no improvement. We both started to believe that there was no hope, that it was all just depressive torture. But I knew I couldn’t abandon my mother like that. “We’ll go back. We just needed a break. What about you?”
He shrugged then drank his water.
I couldn’t tell Jackson what to do in this matter. He should be there for our mother, but I also understood how difficult it was. To have the same conversation with your mother and see the emptiness in her eyes was heartbreaking. If she knew who I was, I knew she would wrap her arms around me and never let go. I remembered the way our mother loved both of us. She was a great mom, always doing her best to give us what we needed. What happened to her wasn’t fair—at all.
I didn’t go to work for the next two weeks. The doctor said I needed ample time to recover. I had a serious wound, and while it was healing properly with no signs of infection, it was best to take it easy.
Rome didn’t go to in to work either, working from home instead and sticking to my side like a sexy nurse who gave me sponge baths. She did a good job of taking care of me, but sometimes the sadness would creep into her features. She did her best to hide it, but when her lips pressed tightly together and her eyes crinkled, I knew exactly what she was thinking about.
By the end of the first week, I was finally able to take a shower. After being deprived of such a regular luxury, I realized how much I took it for granted. I stepped under the water and closed my eyes as the comfort washed over me.
Rome joined me, constantly terrified I would slip and fall or I would be too weak to hold myself up.
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