“Move! Let me out!” I hiss between clenched teeth.
Emmanuel looks me over before he steps out of the way. But he catches me before I can storm off. “Walk behind me. Paz will walk behind you.”
“Why? Scared I’ll run?”
“Run and I’ll chase you, mi alma.” He lifts a challenging brow at me before adding, “I don’t know who took a shot at Louie, and if they’re stupid enough to try to hit him on his home turf, who knows what else they’re capable of. I don’t want you taking any stray bullets.”
It takes a minute for his words to sink in. “Is Charlotte still in danger?”
“No. Neither are you, if you stay behind me,” Emmanuel says. “Don’t ever do what your friend did. Move away from bullets, not towards them.”
“Pfft, please, I’d be the one waving a red flag over your head so they knew where to aim,” I huff.
Emmanuel laughs. “Also, this deal of ours… it stays between us. I’d hate to have to kill our best friends because they tried to take you from me,” he says.
Then he just turns and walks into the hospital. And sure enough, as I follow him, Paz follows me.
I turn and look at the guy over a shoulder. “You, I might save.” I wink and Paz shakes his head.
The moment Emmanuel pushes through a set of double doors, I hear Louie’s loud voice. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“Where is she?” My hands ball into fists and slam against his chest. “What the hell did you do?”
Emmanuel grabs me around the waist and pulls me away from Louie. “Whoa, it wasn’t him,” he says.
Struggling against his hold is pointless. The man has a firm freaking grip. “If it weren’tfor him, nothing would have happened to her. Where is…” I stop moving when I look through the window behind Louie and spot Charlotte on the bed—wires attached to her body. “No!”
“She’s going to be okay,” Louie says. “She’s going to wake up.”
Giving him my bestfuck youglare, I shake out of Emmanuel’s hold (or let’s be real… he lets me go) and I walk into the hospital room.
“Oh my god, Charlotte, I’m so sorry. I never should have talked you into staying here. I’m so sorry.” I kneel down next to her bed. Close my eyesand hold her hand as I pray. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how to help her.
Rachel!I need to call Rachel. She will know what to do. I stand and realize I don’t have my phone.Where did I leave it?
Louie storms into the room. He sits on the opposite side of the bed and starts scrolling through his phone. “Fuck!” he hisses out.
“Are you okay?” I ask him, not because I care. He could literally burn in hell. But I, for one, do not want to explain to my best friend why her husband was burned alive when she wakes up. Because she will wake up. There is no other option.
“My wife was shot. So, no, I’m not fucking okay,” he grunts.
“What happened?” I’ve heard Emmanuel’s version of the story, but I’m not sure I can trust him.
“She jumped in front of a bullet that was meant for me,” Louie says,sounding defeated.
“She loves you. You would have done the same thing… if you were the one who saw it coming. Right?” I ask him.
“Of course I would have. I don’t know what music she likes. I need to play her music and I don’t know what kind she likes.” He looks across the bed to me.
I smile. “Charlotte, if you don’t wake up, I’mgoing to tell him you love Tay-Tay and that’s all you’re going to hear until you wake up.” She doesn’t budge. I thought for sure that would do it. “Why isn’t she waking up?”
“They said she will, in her own time.”
“Well, that time could be now.” I look to Charlotte. Still nothing. “She likes country. Just put on any country mix and she will love it,” I say, sitting down.
“You think she can hear us?” Louie asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
