“She’s mine.”
I lean closer, just to make sure I heard him right. “She’s yours? When did that happen? When you slept around on her? When you blamed her for shit that was your issue? When you shot her? When? When was she ever yours?”
He yanks hard and rips her out of my grasp. I stumble from the force and fall back, hitting my elbow hard enough to knock the breath out of me. I’m half in the waiting room, half out.
“She was always mine. Mine! No one else’s. Ever.” He’s acting like some creature out of a Tolkien book, claiming her as if she was precious to him, but minutes ago he was okay with letting her be devoured by flames he started.
I watch with shock and a bit of wonder as he cradles her in his lap, covering her stomach with one hand and using the other to brush away the strands of hair on her face. Her eyes are open, staring at him. Judging him for his actions.
“Shhh, baby. I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”
“Babygirl!”
That voice. My name. All of it draws my focus to the other side of the hallway. The one I was going to go to because of the stairs. Not where the voice, which I guess belonged to a cop, was telling me to go with my hands up.
“Karter.” I breathe his name out like I breathe life into my chest. He’s being held back, just before the stairway door. It’s wide open, but so many guns are pointing out from it, I’m not sure if it’s safe to go there.
“Stand down,” a cop in a sea of leather shouts.
He isn’t looking at me. I glance the other way to see more cops flood around the corner.
“What the fuck are you doing, Knight? This is our show. Get the fuck back downstairs,” the random voice from before shouts, and I see he’s one of the closest out of those on the far side of the hallway. Leading the charge, no doubt.
“Look at me, Babygirl. Look at me.” There’s no shouting from Karter. Just a steady voice that drowns out the others yelling around us. “Good girl. Are you hurt?”
I look down at myself and feel pain, but from the amount of blood on me, I bet he thinks it’s mine. I shake my head. Not hurt like he thinks. Not hurt enough not to move.
He nods and licks his lips. “Crawl to me, baby. Come to me.” He hunches just a bit, ignoring everyone else, like I’m doing.
I look back at Barry, holding his wife as if he hadn’t murdered her. Cherishing her like he should have from the start. I look back at Karter, and he gestures for me to come to him. My heart is split between Ashley and him, but I can’t do anything for Ashley. She’s dead. Just like Mom. Holding on doesn’t help me at all. It only weighs me down with the guilt,something I promised I would never do after Mom died. And I need to keep that promise. Ashley was a friend, and she didn’t deserve this. But I don’t deserve to hold myself hostage between her needs and mine.
I nod at my man and see him release a heavy sigh of relief. I roll to my hands and knees and move to him. But something catches my eye. Looking back, I see Barry kiss Ashley’s forehead, and then, slower than I think it actually happens, he raises his gun to his head.
“No!” rips from my throat a second before he shoots himself.
The impact has me sliding onto my ass as I take in the blood and brain matter sprayed around them. The way he slumps over her as if in sleep. A peaceful sleep. Something he doesn’t deserve.
I shake my head at it. I shake all over.
“Diana!” Karter screams, panic all over his face. He’s being pushed away. Farther back. The others are doing the same on both sides. I don’t get it. I don’t understand.
Till the radio on the cop’s shoulder cuts through the fog in my brain and I hear what’s being said.
“This place is going to blow.”
And then it does.
Chapter 28 - Karter
Iignore the knock on the hospital door. They can either take the hint and go away or come in and deal with me. Either way, they ain’t going to walk away happy.
The cops already tried to keep me out of her room. That wasn’t going to happen. Watching the doctor’s office explode in front of Diana and her get thrown into the opposite wall took more than years off my life. I didn’t breathe again till I shoved past everyone and got her in my arms. Her pulse, the first thing I checked, was there. It should have been enough to let me breathe and let them work. It wasn’t.
General got me into every room he could. If I wasn’t in the room, I was in the viewing room. Backstage passes all the way.
“She doing okay?”
I don’t look up at Ruby, but I don’t kick her out either.
