My lungs burn like I’ve been the one shot, and I spin around, jogging out of Fabian’s dining room. “Where are you right now?”
“On the road. Heading south. We’re going home.”
Home. Almost an hour’s drive away. Too far. Way too fucking far.
“No. If she was shot in the side, she’s probably bleeding out as we speak. Look up the nearest hospital and take her there. I’ll meet you through the tracker I have on her.”
“No, that’s too risky. I’ll be asked questions I can’t answer and the cops will probably be called and?—”
“Just fucking do it, Dhimitër!” I roar into the phone as I shove my way through the front door. “She doesn’t die or it’s your life on the line. She dies, you die—do you hear me?” I hang up before he can respond and turn back to face the men who followed me outside. I should wait and help sort out this situation with Gjon and the others, but fuck that. Gjon can handle it alone. “Wrap this up with them. I’m leaving.”
As my men nod their understanding, Gjon steps out of the mansion and meets my gaze. “That sounded urgent. Go. Go with your men. I’ll handle everything here. You have nothing to worry about on this end.”
I trust Gjon as much as I can trust anyone right now. But I still signal to four of my men to stay behind and ensure things are properly sorted with him. Just in case. Then I give him aquick nod of appreciation and jog down the front steps, the rest of my men close behind me.
I move faster than I mean to. Faster than makes sense. Like my body instinctively knows what I’ve already admitted to myself—Katie isn’t just anyone to me.
And I’m terrified of losing her.
I can’t lose anyone else. I can’t loseher.
She snuck her way into my life, my head, my fucking heart until I couldn’t stop thinking about her even when I tried. And now the only image burning in my mind is the way she looked at me after overhearing how I spoke about her to Dhimitër—like I’d broken something precious we hadn’t even had time to name.
Worse, I might not get another chance to make her see the truth. To tell her what she actually means to me.
I get into the driver’s seat and slam the door, fingers locking around the wheel. I barely wait for my men to get in before I’m turning the ignition and peeling out of the driveway with a screaming protest of tires.
I toss my phone at Phineas in the passenger seat. “Open the locator app. I need their position.Now.”
I should have fucking insisted she stay back home where I knew she’d be safe. I shouldn’t have let her go to that abbey at all.
But even as that thought simmers, I know it wouldn’t have worked. Katie isn’t a damsel in distress who needs anyone to save her. She’s a fighter. A survivor.
All her life, she’s done everything for her sister, and I have no doubt she gladly, willingly took that bullet for Kayla. That’s who she is.
And who am I? A man who spent years telling himself he didn’t need anyone. A man who let her believe he doesn’t care about her.
But I do. God help me, I care so much it physically hurts. She’s the fucking air I breathe.
And if she dies without knowing that, I’ll never forgive myself.
If she dies at all, I’ll never forgive myself—or anyone else involved.
I press the gas harder, and the car surges forward, devouring the road.
Hold on, baby. Just hold on. I’m coming.
35
KATIE
I gasp awake, the air sharp and cold in my throat as my eyes flutter open for barely a heartbeat before everything slips back into darkness.
My head lolls uselessly to the side, and my hand feels soaked, the limb heavy, numb. I try to lift it, but I can’t even twitch a finger. Pain tears through me in waves, surging and retreating like tides I have no control over, and every time it crashes, it drags me under again.
Losing consciousness.
Regaining it.
