Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Leonardo’s men were outside, but no shots were fired, probably because they were aimless without their boss. This was his fight, not theirs. Someone could take his place now—and that was probably more important.
They got me into the back seat with Laura, and Bleu drove us to the hospital.
“Stay with me, okay?” Laura kept slapping my cheek to keep me awake.
“Sweetheart…I’m not going to make it.”
“Yes, you are.” She stripped off pieces of her own shirt and tied them around my body, stanching a wound that had already bled too much. “Stay with me.”
“Look at me.”
She continued to apply pressure, but her eyes locked on to mine.
“I love you.”
Her eyes started to water.
I wanted to say more, but then the world went black.
The first thing I noticed was the heat on my face.
Warmth of sunshine.
I moved my fingers and felt the softness of sheets.
Then I felt fingers that weren’t mine.
“Bartholomew?” Quiet. Desperate. Gentle.
My eyelids were heavy. It took two attempts to get them open. Then the world was blurry. It took several blinks to focus on the woman holding a vigil at my bedside. Once my eyes found hers, she squeezed my fingertips. “Sweetheart?” My voice was hoarse, like my vocal cords had been cut then regrown.
“Yes, I’m here.”
We sat like that for a while, and all the events that had led up to this moment slowly came back to me. “I survived.”
“Of course you did. You had internal bleeding from a few organs, but they were able to fix everything and give you a blood transfusion. You were in critical condition for a while, but then you eventually stabilized.”
I replayed the moment Leonardo went down. A bullet through the head. His brains all over my apartment floor. “I’m sorry about your father.”
Her expression didn’t change, and she didn’t say anything. It was silent, a complexity of emotions on her face. “I made the right choice.”
“It’s a choice you shouldn’t have had to make.”
She focused her gaze on our locked fingers.
“When can I leave?”
“Not for a few days.”
I let out an annoyed sigh when I shouldn’t, not when I should just be grateful to be alive.
“There’s someone else who wants to see you.” She released my hand and walked out of the room.
A moment later, Benton walked inside, his eyes devoid of the concern Laura possessed. He stopped at the bedside, hands in his pockets, looking at me with those crystal-blue eyes. Laura shut the door to give us privacy.
Nothing was said.
We just stared at each other.
Benton eventually took a seat.
“Bleu told you?”
He gave a nod.
“He made the right decision.” I would have preferred to die than let anything come near Benton, Constance, and their children.
“How did Leonardo know about us?”
“I don’t know. I’m guessing Silas had something to do with all this before he died.”
Benton focused his gaze out the window.
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t accept the apology. “Maybe it’s time to move on.”
I stared at the side of his face, thinking about our partnership before Claire had taken him away from me. It was fun—in its own way. The streets were stained with our dominion, and men feared us the moment we stepped into a room. He’d been the only man I’d wanted to share my power with. “Yeah…maybe it is.”
After a few days, I was finally discharged from the hospital.
Bleu and Laura took me home. They tried to get me into a wheelchair, and when they didn’t stop pestering me about it, I broke that piece of garbage. After that, they didn’t ask me again.
I made it into my apartment, which had been cleaned so thoroughly I didn’t notice any evidence of bloodshed. The rug in the entryway had been replaced with a brand-new identical one, and the table had been returned to its rightful place. My butler was there to greet me, looking me over like I’d aged a decade.
I walked into my home straight and tall, but every move I made hurt like a bitch. I was sick of that goddamn hospital bed and the way it made me look weak, so I was done with that bullshit.
Laura came to my side. “Do you have a bedroom downstairs?”
I gave her the coldest look.
“You don’t want to walk up and down the stairs every day—”
“I’m fine.” I moved to the stairs and walked up normally, making my way to the upper floors.
Down below, I heard Bleu speak. “He’s a bit stubborn.”
“A bit?” Laura snapped.
I made it into my bedroom. The curtains were already closed like my butler had assumed I would head straight to bed. The wet bar called my name, but with all the shit I was on, I knew that would be a recipe for suicide.
Laura stepped into my room a moment later.
I headed into the bathroom and started the shower. It’d been days since I’d been allowed a proper shower. My beard was scruffy and uncomfortable, and my skin was oily. The second I stepped under the warm water and felt everything wash away, I felt better.