“Okay then, Scarlett it is. I’m sure Ace has something planned for your future, but what do you want to do? Go to college? Have children?”
“I could make her with child,” Blake muttered around a bite of food. I didn’t think saying I planned to die at the dinner table would be the best way to go. Although, it was tempting.
“Didn’t I say to knock it off?” Caesar said, standing and drawing a gun from his side. He cocked it after aiming it straight at Blake. “You do not ever talk about my daughter that way.”
I held my breath, willing my heart to not burst from my chest.
“What?” Blake asked, looking like he hadn’t said a thing.
“Come on,” Zevon said, standing and pulling on my arm gently. I didn’t need to be told twice. I let him lead me away, but the voices didn’t stop.
“You disrespected my daughter. Not once, but twice.” A moment later, a gunshot was shot off and Blake’s pained cry followed us out.
I jerked at the sound as panic struck me.
Dominic was close behind me, ushering me up the stairs as quickly as my legs would take me. Halfway up, another shot and raised voices rang out, I collapsed. Dominic picked me up and carried me the rest of the way to my room.
Tremors wracked my body. I couldn’t stop shaking. My breaths came out in choppy pants. My chest felt like it was caving in.
Oh god, please stop this.
“Shh.” That was Dominic.
“You’re okay,” Zevon said, rubbing a hand up and down my back. I jerked away from his touch, and also Dominic’s. I couldn’t take it.
“M…Make it st…stop,” I breathed out against my knees.
“Can you give her something?” Dominic asked, his voice filled with pain.
“I can…but the baby…”
“Please, Zevon.”
“Fine. Be back in five.”
I clenched my eyes shut as tightly as possible, my body rocking back and forth. I wanted it all to end. It had to.
“It’s okay, honey,” Dominic said. “Can I hold you?”
“P…p…please.”
Slowly, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. I let my head rest against him, breathing in his scent as I fought to catch my breath.
It was too loud. Everything was loud. Thumping. Something breaking. Painful grunts. I peeled my eyes open, sleep still trying to hold me captive. I could only see forms moving, hitting, ditching. I had no idea who was who.
Were Zevon and Dominic fighting again?
“Son of a bitch!” That was not someone I knew.
My arms gave out as I attempted to lift myself off the bed, and my head flopped back against the pillow. Why couldn’t I move? What was wrong with me? I breathed through the panic, willing myself to get any sort of strength to at least sit up and figure out what the hell was going on. My body, on the other hand, was having nothing of it.
Another grunt, then what sounded like someone hitting the floor reached my ears. They wouldn’t kill one another, would they?
“Fucking hell,” the man panted. His voice was low and breathy like he’d just had the fight of his life. I guess he really did if he was the one still standing. “Now, what to do about you?” I jerked my foot out of his touch when he patted it. His rough laughed echoed around the dark room.
Why was it dark? Why couldn’t I get my body to move?
“You have nowhere you can go,” he said, stalking around the bed. “Everyone is out for the count. They’ll never know what hit them. But you, oh dear pretty girl, are my target. They won’t know you’re missing until they wake up from a very long nap.
