I scrunched my eyes closed, fear coursing through my body like white water rapids, hammering against my pulse points as though my blood was already trying to escape. Just then, alarms sounded loudly, and my eyes popped open to find Amber looking from left to right. Before she could even speak, there was a loud crash, and the door flew open. Roman stood there, caught in the shadows like an avenging angel.
“Gun,” I screamed, just as Amber fired, and Roman lunged to the side, the bullet barely missing him. I let out a cry of relief.
With Amber distracted, I twisted my arms, realising that the rope on my left wrist was coming loose. I tugged with all my might, sweat rolling down my back as I held my breath andforced my wrist away from the armrest until there was enough space to squeeze my flattened hand through.
Amber stalked around the room as Roman moved as well, circling each other like two wild animals about to attack.
“Amber, put the gun down,” he said, his hands up in the air like he didn’t want to fight with her.
“No,” she spat back. “I don’t want to shoot you, Roman. You’re a good guy. You shouldn’t be here. I made sure you’d not get caught up in all this. Walk away now, and we’ll forget you were ever here.”
With Amber’s attention fixed on Roman, I quickly untied my right arm before starting on the ropes around my ankles. Freedom gave me a rush of relief, but it was short-lived.
Amber obviously saw me stand out of the corner of her eye as she spun quickly, levelling the gun in my direction, and everything that followed played out in slow motion.
Roman’s cry was long, loud, primal as he threw himself between me and the weapon.
There was a deafening crack as the gun fired.
Roman hit the floor with a thud just as a red circle appeared in the centre of Amber’s forehead. Her mouth slackened, and her legs crumpled, causing her to hit the floor first.
My head snapped to the side to find Jarrid standing there, as white as a ghost, his gun still outstretched from where he’d just shot Amber. Then my attention went to Ro, expecting him to get off and throw his arms around me, demanding that I tell him who I belonged to, but he didn’t move.
“Roman,” I yelled, moving as fast as my unsteady legs would carry me. I dropped down beside him, landing in a pool of blood that was spilling from the wound in his neck.
“No, no, no,” I cried, covering it with my hands. They were instantly covered as each beat of his heart seemed to expel more of the sticky red substance. “Please, Ro. No. You can’t leave me.I need you. I love you. You promised to watch out for me. You promised Tony. Don’t go…”
His eyes fluttered open, and his now pale lips parted. For a second, I thought he’d be okay, but I was wrong. He offered me the weakest of smiles and whispered, “You were worth the wait.”
Then he closed his eyes as his body went limp.
65
HANA
“What the hell?”Sean appeared, and everything that happened after was a blur. Paramedics stormed in, although I had no idea who called them, prying me away from Roman as they worked on him.
Sean wrapped his arms around me and escorted me outside, and at some point, we got in his car, and he drove me to the hospital.
I looked for Jarrid a few times, to thank him, but also to check he was okay—shooting your girlfriend, no matter what fucked up stuff she’d done, couldn’t have been easy—but I couldn’t find him anywhere.
Time passed, but it seemed to drag on forever. Thomas brought me clean clothes that he encouraged me to change into, but the blood on my hands was harder to remove. No matter how much I scrubbed, Roman’s suffering seemed to stain my skin, reminding me that this all started with me. If he died, it was my fault. Just like Tony.
We sat in the relatives' room, Sean on one side of me, his eyes fixed to the floor, while Lacy sat on the other side. I didn’t know the woman well—only from when she came into the diner, but she held my hand and squeezed it reassuringly every now andagain, and while it didn’t make things any better, it was nice to know I wasn’t alone.
Wren and Lev sat across from us, also hand in hand, mumbling quietly to each other as they watched on while Thomas paced the room like an expectant father, waiting for news.
Roman had been taken into surgery the moment we arrived, and it was hours before the doctor appeared, dragging his scrub hat off and clenching it in his fist as the door closed silently behind him, filling the room with an ominous feeling.
“Mr Black’s family?”
“Roman doesn’t have a family,” Thomas said. “I’m his next of kin.” I pinned him with a frown. How did I not know this about Roman? How long had he been on his own? I slammed my hand over my mouth. There was so much I didn’t know. Our relationship was built on lies and amazing sex, but our connection was soul deep, and I thought we had the rest of our lives to get to know the minute details about each other, but now… A hiccupping sob ripped from my chest as I braced myself for the news I knew was coming. Roman was dead, and any chance of a future I had with him was obliterated with that bullet.
“Mr?” the doctor asked Thomas.
“Lanton.”
“Mr Lanton, Mr Black is an extremely lucky man. If that bullet had hit even a millimetre further over, this would have been a very different conversation. We’ve repaired the damage and stitched him up. He’s going to be in pain and need to take it easy, but as long as he does as he’s told, he will make a full recovery.”
