Page 54 of Love’s Strongest Soldier

She nodded.

“We’re going to take care of Ghost, but you have to let us work.”

I looked down at him. His eyes were barely open. His skin had lost its color. His lips looked funny. Everything was off.

“Babe?” His gaze shifted toward me. I squeezed his hand. “They’re gonna help you, okay?”

His fingers barely moved. I kissed his knuckles.

“I love you.”

His eyes remained on mine.

“I love you so fucking much.”

The paramedic gently separated our hands. I felt the exact moment his fingers slipped away. Like somebody had reached inside my chest and ripped out my heart.

They moved me backward. I stumbled. My security guard caught me before I hit the ground. I watched them cut Ghost’s shirt open. Watched them expose the wounds and press bandages against his chest.

One paramedic looked at the other. Their mouths moved, but I had tuned everything out. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears. Ghost’s body jerked. His eyes widened and mouth parted, then he stopped moving. I pushed forward.

“Ghost!”

My security guard grabbed me around the waist. I fought him as best as I could.

“Let me go!”

The paramedic leaned over Ghost. Her fingers pressed against his neck. Her expression changed. She placed both hands against the center of his chest. I stopped fighting, and my knees buckled.

“No.”

She kept pushing.

“No! No! No!”

The other paramedic pulled equipment from a bag. I couldn’t see Ghost’s face anymore. I screamed until my throat burned. They lifted him onto a stretcher. One of them was still working on him. They rushed him toward the ambulance, and I ran after them.

“Wait!” The woman turned. I grabbed the side of the stretcher. “I’m coming with him.”

She nodded, and I climbed up into the ambulance.

I woke to the sound of a monitor beeping. My entire body was sore as shit. My eyes drifted around the room to find Luxe sitting in a chair next to my bed with her head laying on the edge. Her fingers were intertwined with mine. On the opposite side of the room was Ma. She was stretched out on the couch with a throw blanket covering her. It was dark as shit outside. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out.

I wiggled my finger, and Luxe’s head jumped up. Her eyes expanded as she stared at me. “You’re awake!”

The sound of her voice woke Ma. She rushed over to the side of the bed and stroked my forehead.

“We thought we were gon’ lose you,” Luxe made known. When I looked at her, I noticed she was wearing a hospital gown.

“You got hurt?”

She shook her head. “I told you I didn’t.” Sensing my confusion, she said, “My clothes were bloody when I got here, so they gave me a gown to put on. Savion has men covering the entire hospital.”

After I got shot like that, I figured he was gon’ take over the operation. Work wasn’t safe for Luxe anymore. I shouldn’t have been letting her go to that building in the first place, knowing the threat that was over her life. I was looking at it as my fault at this point.

“We’re just happy that you’re okay. You lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion,” Ma said and then leaned down and pecked me on the forehead.

“Did they catch who did it?”