Grayson released me from his protective hold, apparently satisfied that if I was talking, I was fine. “What happened is you and I have a lot to talk about regarding gun safety. I think you need a few more lessons, baby girl.”
Damn, I couldn’t be thinking about his lessons when I had to figure out what I’d done. Drying the tears on my cheeks, I forced myself to look Tom’s way, only to find him groaning and crying out, and there was a fucking bullet hole in his leg. Blood slowly seeped from his pants, and I swallowed hard, wondering if I was about to vomit.
“Great work, babe,” Vee said, shaking her head as she pranced a little closer. “You decided to throw in some extra torture first. Want a position of power in my cartel? We’re pussy heavy here, and I love it.”
Her words echoed in my head as my heart squeezed tight in my chest, and everything went a little hazy as I struggled to breath.I’d shot him.I fucking shot someone. In. The. Leg.
If Tom hadn’t been half dead anyway, he’d be screaming, and it was all because of me.
A new round of sobs burst from me in the next second, and I was immediately surrounded by men. Lethal, deadly, talented men who could make music and kill assholes in the same day.
Meanwhile, here I was unable to carry a fucking tune while accidentally shooting someone in the leg.What the fuck?
“Billie, sweetheart,” Rhett crooned, wrapping his arms around me. “Don’t cry. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I c-couldn’t sh-shoot him p-p-properly. I’m the w-w-weakesttt.” More sobs escaped me, and the rest of my words were drowned out in a jumbled mess offeeling sorry for myself.Yeah, I was doing that, and I couldn’t stop it.
Rhett held me tighter as Jace, who pushed closer to my right side, said, “Baby, you have it all wrong.”
For some reason, his gently spoken sentence slowed some of my hysterical sobs as I turned my head to find him wearing a serious expression. “What d-do I have wrong?”
He brushed his thumb across my cheek, chasing tears. “You are our heart and our soul, and neither of those are weak. In fact, they’re the strongest parts of us. Not shooting him even though you thought it was expected of you is strong. Your moral compass is strong. Without you, the rest of us would just be fucking savages. You make us better. You are our strength.”
It was Grayson’s and Angelo’s turn then, the two who were the most bloodthirsty of this group, and I felt shame all over again when I stared at them. Rhett held me around the waist, Jace still cupped my face, and those two reached out to place a firm hold on other parts of my body, as if all four wanted to have a place to hold. “We love you, Bella,” Angelo said seriously. “All four of us. If you were weak or not worthy, that would not be the case. And I promise that you will never have to kill scum like Tom, because you have me to take care of that for you.”
“And me,” Grayson added gruffly. “I don’t even like you being in the same room as that piece of shit. He shouldn’t get to breathe the same air as you, Prickles.”
There was a muffled shot then, and we all turned to see Vee standing with her gun in hand and a smile on her face. “What?” she said with a shrug. “I was just making sure he doesn’t breathe the same air as our Bella.”
Giana looked like she was desperately trying not to laugh as well.
It was official, my friends were insane. And… Tom was finally dead.
As he slumped forward, I waited for panic and disgust to rise up again. Vee had been able to do what I couldn’t, and that would have broken me a moment ago, but now, as I stood in a circle of love, respect, and warmth, there was no room for anything but happiness.
The fact that these four men, exceptional in every way, loved me… meant everything to me. I’d been strong on my own before, when I’d had to scrape through life and fight for survival, but this was a different sort of strength. One built on love. Fuck, as sappy as it was to say, we were stronger together.
No need to stand alone and kill someone to prove anything, because I already had everything I needed.
Thank fuck.
It didn’t seem that the boys were planning on moving away from me any time soon, and despite my revelations aboutmystrength being different than what I’d expected, I wasn’t quite ready for them to step away either.
Tonight had been a lot, from Vee scaring the shit out of all of us by dropping a literal bomb on her family to Tom’s torture and death, and now we were here.
“I’m just going to clean this mess up,” Vee chirped happily, nodding for Giana to follow as they approached Tom, “and then we need to get out there and see what’s happened with the bombing. Such a tragedy. We’ll chat tomorrow, okay?”
By the end of her speech, she had Tom unchained and was dragging him across the floor.
“Be careful,” Angelo warned her. “Taking out your family in such a manner is a recipe for street violence; keep your guard up.”
Vee’s smile was scary and dark as she continued to haul the dead body out of here. “Oh, I’m counting on it, husband. Have fun, friends.”
Then they were gone, a trail of blood the only indication that they’d even been in the room.
Our lives were fucking weird.
“You okay, Thorn?” Rhett asked, his focus all on me as he stared down, eyebrows bunched and concern on his face.
