“Fuck, I thought I lost you.” I wrap my arms around her tighter, ignoring the people running past who are trying to get out of the rain. “Don’t you ever do that again.” I’m meant to sound stern, maybe scold her a bit. But all I sound is desperate.
She can’t leave me.
She’s never allowed to run away from me.
“Get off of me!” the princess hisses, pushing against my chest.
I don’t listen, squeezing her against me. “I was so worried.” I should be angry at her for sneaking out when I was asleep, but I can’t bring myself to care beyond the fact that I have her back. “I almost lost you twice this week. I won’t let there be a third time.”
She shakes her head against my chest. “Let go of me, Roman!”
Bile lurches in my stomach from the sight of her red-rimmed eyes and the fading bruises when I let her pull away.
“I’m not going back with you,” she says, choking back a sob as a tear falls down her cheek.
“Either I follow you, or you follow me. There’s no version of this where we go our separate ways.”
Bella tries to squirm out of my hold, while also gripping onto my shirt like it might kill her if she lets go.
“Miss, are you alright?” We both snap our attention to the cop standing a couple of feet away, who has his hand conveniently close to the weapons at his hips.
It kills me to step away from her, but I do it, keeping one hand on the small of her back. I’m not going back to jail, but I can’t tell him that she’s fine when she very clearly looks like she’s not fine. In fact, my ruined knuckles probably make it look like I’m the one who caused her bruises.
“Sir, I’m going to ask you to step away from her,” the cop says slowly, wrapping his fingers around the taser.
I grit my teeth, but do as I’m told, staring at Bella, pleading with her not to send me away like this when we haven’t talked about what happened. The only thing I can imagine that’s worse than being put in a box, is if Bella is the one who sends me there.
“Miss, I ask again, are you okay?” The cop slowly inches forward, muscles tense like he’s gearing up for a fight.
“I…” A shiver rips through her and she hugs herself tighter, glancing from me to the police officer as her bottom lip trembles.
Please don’t do this,I think, even though she can’t hear me.
The silence stretches for a long moment. She can tell them that I kidnapped her and held her against her will, that she had nothing to do with any of the murders. They’ll send me away for a long time, but I’ll still do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad happens to her. Then once I’m out, I’ll come crawling back to her, because since the day I met her, the only thing I’ve known for certain is that I’d die for her.
Her throat bobs with her swallow. “It’s fine,” she breathes out, staring straight at me. My shoulders sag in relief. “He’s… a friend.”
I curl my fingers into fists, but keep my mouth shut.
“Are you sure?” the cops asks.
She nods and gives him a forced, reassuring smile.
“Okay.” He narrows his eyes at me and gives Bella a comforting smile that she doesn’t need as he backs away to the other side of the street, out of earshot, but perfectly in his line of sight.
“I won’t come with you,” Bella whispers.
“Princess—”
“I was so scared, Roman,” she cries. “I was scared all my life, and you were there to protect me, but what if you’re the one I’m scared of?”
I reach for her, and she steps away. “I would rather kill myself than intentionally hurt you.”
“You got me out of the life I know, and however shit it was, I still had Jeremy. Now? What do I have? A life where I’m constantly at risk of getting killed? Where I don’t have Jeremy? All I have is the unknown, and you don’t know what we’re doing. Hell, you don’t even know what you’re doing.”
I shake my head. “Neither of us has known what we are doing ever since we were kids. When have we ever had a solid plan on anything? Everything we did was spontaneous, but we didn’t give a shit because we had each other.”
Tears fall down her face and I want so badly to hold her again. “I don’t want to go back to hiding and being scared. What if something happens to you while you’re fighting or going around killing people? What if you’re dead? What am I going to do then?”
