My finger slides up her hand, finding her bare wrist beneath her dress, and I weakly tug her forward, gritting my teeth with the movement. Ella sniffles and shuffles forward, her eyes wet with tears as she takes me in.
Fuck. It really is bad, isn’t it?
Her soft hands squeeze my cheeks as she frantically searches my body for injury. I try to say it’s my heart that hurts, but nothing comes out.
Ella cries out, her head whipping back and forth. The pain is red-hot as she shoves her hands down onto my shoulder, pressing it into the gravel.
“Stop,” I grunt, but the sound is weak and empty, like my body’s too busy spending all its waning energy on loving her.
With every beat of my burning heart, I love her, and every twist of my stained soul, I need her.
Does she need me, too?
God, I hope so.
Will she love me even when I’m gone?
Elle,” I try again. “I’m so tired.”
She presses down harder, her hands trembling.
“You idiot,” she cries.
Her hands slip, and her eyes go wide, even as her light skin pales. Bad sign. That’s a really bad sign. I don’t say that, though;instead, I smile as she rambles. My pretty girl. My perfect, sweet girl. Too good for this world.
“You jumped in front of a bullet for me. Why, Hunter? Why?”
How could I not?
I’d jump in front of anything for her. A bus, a train, a plane, a car…
Fuck. I’m losing it.
I have to touch her. Just this one more time. I have to promise her things I should have promised her a long time ago.
No, don’t hurt her.
Internally, I scoff. I would never hurt her on purpose.
She’s my life.
I reach a shaky hand up and cup her cheek, my pathetic smile never dropping. Ella sucks in a breath and leans forward when my lips part, and a raspy sound escapes.
“It’s the least I could do,” I whisper. I think my brows dip. I meant to say that louder, more sure, more confident. “He took so much from you. We both did.”
A ragged sob pours from my baby’s lips, and I try to silence it, but nothing comes out.
“No,” she chokes out, her head shaking frantically. “No. That’s not—you didn’t—I—”
“Shh,” I breathe. I don’t want to see her so upset. Not now. Not ever. “I’m okay. Calm down.” My eyes drift closed as everything goes hazy, goes dark. “I’m just tired. I just need to rest for a minute.”
In the darkness, the world slowly starts to trickle in, and I finally hear something other than her. There’s screaming and shouting, bullets ricocheting off metal, and guns being fired. It’s a war, and in the morning, I’ll be nothing more than its first casualty.
She won’t be, though. Never her. Not while I still breathe.
“You need to hide, Elle.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she shouts, pressing harder to staunch the wound. “Never.”
