“Rev!” I cried, as I started to scramble to my feet.
But then I felt the familiar bite of a belt slamming across my back. I couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from my lips. Grabbing me by the hair, Mendoza jerked me to my feet.
With a cold glare, he asked, “You didn’t think you could just waltz in here without being punished, did you?”
Another crack of the belt had me shrieking. “You wanna beat someone, you beat me, you cocksucker!” Rev shouted his voice weak with pain.
“You don’t get to call the shots.” He licked his lips as he drew me closer to him. “Right now I think I’ll make her scream for another reason.”
Mendoza grabbed one of my breasts, kneading it harshly. At my whimper of pain, a cruel smirk curved on his lips. “That’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you, Roja.”
At that moment the barn door burst open and four agents came crashing through it. “Freeze! Drop your weapon. Now!” an agent shouted. After recognizing his voice, I knew it was Agent Hollis.
“You lying cunt!” Mendoza spat before lunging at me so hard he knocked us both to the ground. He started punching and kicking me until he was wrestled off of me by one of the agents.
“Are you okay?” Agent Hollis asked.
My sides and stomach screamed in agony where Mendoza had kicked me. When I tried to sit up, I couldn’t. I seemed to be working overtime to catch my breath. But the sound of Rev screaming my name had me struggling to my feet with some help from Agent Hollis.
After I wiped the blood off my busted lip, I nodded. At that point, I didn’t care about the pain. All I could think about was Rev. As I limped over to him, I met his haunted gaze. “
Oh Rev,” I murmured. Turning back to Agent Hollis, I said, “Get him down. Now!”
As he worked to cut down the rope that held Rev in place, I brought my hands to Rev’s face. “I’m so, so sorry, my love,” I murmured.
“Not your fault,” he gasped.
He tried to lean closer to me, but he couldn’t reach. I leaned in and brought my lips to his. “Thank God you’re okay.”
With a smile, I said, “I feel the same way about you.”
Agent Hollis eased the rope down to where Rev’s arms slowly came to his side. I started working at getting his hands free of the rope. Suddenly, one of the agents shouted in alarm. When I glanced over my shoulder, Mendoza pushed out of one of the agent’s reach and then grab the agent’s extra gun from his chest holster.
Mendoza then whirled around towards me and Rev and pointed the gun. As the blast went off, Rev shoved me out of the way. After I fell to the ground, I glanced back to see Rev’s body contort in pain as blood spewed out of a wound in his stomach. “No, no, NO!” I screamed.
Rev collapsed onto the ground at the same moment the agents tackled Mendoza. I crawled over to Rev, cradling his head in my lap. He stared up at me, his eyes glassy.
“Been gut shot,” he gasped. “Not good.”
“Don’t say that!”
“I love you, Annabel.”
I shook my head. “Don’t you dare act like you’re saying goodbye. You’re going to marry me, remember? We’re a team—you and me against the world.” Tears streamed down my cheeks and fell onto his face.
One of the agents dropped down beside us and started working on compressing Rev’s wound. “Ambulance is on the way,” he said to me.
“You hear that, Rev? The ambulance is coming, so you have to hold on until it gets here.”
With a weak smile, he reached up to cup my cheek. “My beautiful Annabel Lee.” Then he closed his eyes.
“Rev, stay with me. Please…please stay with me.” I buried my face against his, unable to stop the sobs that overtook me.
When someone tried pulling me off of Rev, I kicked and punched to stay with him. “Ma’am, we’ve got to get him to the ambulance.”
Tearing my head off Rev’s chest, I stared up into the face of a paramedic. He gave me a gentle smile. “We’re here to help, I promise.”
Nodding, I eased away from Rev, allowing the paramedics to load him onto the stretcher. It felt like I was underwater, or the world was moving at a glacial pace.
