Just a hint of light glinted in the darkness.
Off a knife.
Her hair spilled across the ground in dark blond strands and the light caught on a blue shirt. The blue shirt Sarah was wearing.
I processed all of this in two seconds, leaving me just enough time to run like my world depended on it.
Toward him.
Toward Gray.
And the knife he was about to bring down on my fucking reason to exist.
I roared with rage at the thought of what he’d done to Sarah before I’d gotten here and I tackled him off her.
Pain sliced into my side as I wrestled Gray to the ground. The knife in his hand was now covered in blood, and the agony scoring up my side told me it was mine. Fighting through the burn, I grabbed his wrist and slammed it down on the ground over and over until he released the knife. We grappled and wrestled as sirens filled the air. And then I pounded my fist into his face over and over.
Blue and red lights flashed around us, and I glanced up in time to see the police cars blocking the end of the alley. No. I wanted to kill him first.
But suddenly, we were surrounded and I was being pulled off the murdering psycho.
Police pulled Gray to his feet, cuffing him as he wobbled unsteadily in their hold. Blood dripped down his nose and over his mouth, staining his teeth as he grinned maniacally at me. “You know this isn’t how it ends. We’ll see each other again.”
“I see you again, you sick fuck, and I’ll kill you.”
He choked on a laugh as the police dragged him off.
Suddenly, the pain in my side registered and I felt something warm and wet drip down my torso. Black spots crowded in on the edge of my vision as my knees began to give out.
“Sarah!” I yelled hoarsely as an unfamiliar voice asked if I was hurt.
Then she was in front of me, her beautiful face tear streaked, bruised, and bleeding as she grasped at mine. “Theo, Theo,” Sarah whispered. And then her eyes filled with horror as she looked down. “Theo, you’re hurt.”
“I … Sarah.”
She looked up at me, panic in her eyes.
“I … I love you,” I choked out just before everything switched off.
Thirty-Seven
SARAH
There were monitors and tubes attached to Theo, all of it scary, except for the one that beeped in time with his heartbeat.
I focused on that and that his hand felt warm in mine as I hunched over his bedside in a private room in the intensive care ward. When I’d used the restroom earlier, I’d seen inside the room opposite his and the woman was hooked up to so many machines, including a ventilator.
Theo didn’t need a ventilator.
He was incredibly lucky after throwing himself at a knife-wielding murderer. And by lucky, I mean he hadn’t died of the stab wound, even though Quinn Gray had hit a major artery.
“No vital organs,” the surgeon assured me. “And we’ve repaired the damaged artery.We’ll need to monitor your husband. Only time will tell whether the hemorrhaging caused damage to the muscles and nerves.”
After the police left us at the hospital, I’d lied and told the nurse I was Theo’s wife so they would keep me updated. They wanted ID. But then a man I didn’t recognize was there and said he was Theo’s brother.
Sebastian.
For some reason, he corroborated my lie.
