Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
If he was here to apologize, I didn’t want his apologies. He didn’t control what his wife did, and while he’d cheated on her, it didn’t make shooting me okay. Besides, she was obviously ill and needed real help.
But despite her needing help, I hoped she’d been arrested. I hoped she would suffer for what she’d done to me.
I knew I should’ve listened to the guys when they tried to keep me behind them, but she’d trained that gun on Johnston, her finger on the trigger, and a need—a fucking desperation—to protect him crawled through me, latching onto me like a parasite.
Was this one of the stupid things loving someone made you do? I couldn’t ever imagine taking a bullet for my ex—not ever. But Johnston? As stupid as it was of me, I knew I’d do it all over again.
I tried to move a little to get more comfortable, and a low moan of pain crawled up my throat, pain slicing through me. I gasped, my hands clenching the sheets, the agony momentarily turning my vision white.
Johnston lurched from the chair and gripped my wrists, his eyes steady on mine. “Easy now, Red. Focus on leveling your breathing.”
He was still calling me Red.
I whimpered, trying to breathe normally like he’d instructed all while it felt like someone was slicing my insides open. I wheezed, closing my eyes, trying to find a happy place until the pain dulled again. But I couldn’t. Why did it have to hurt so goddamn bad? I wanted to scream, and I kept my lips tightly pressed together so that bottled scream couldn’t come forth.
The agony slowly eased, and I relaxed a little, blowing out a soft breath. Fuck. I never wanted to go through that again.
“Better?” he quietly asked once I opened my eyes again. He was still leaning over me, his hands still circling my wrists, concern lingering on those dark eyes of his.
Concern for me.
My insides turned all warm and fuzzy.
“Mhm,” I mumbled. “Water?”
He quickly left my side and grabbed a bottle of water, bypassing whatever the hospital had set up for me. All he did was snatch the straw out of the hospital cup and stick it in the bottle of water before placing the straw at my lips. I greedily drank, the cool liquid soothing my dry throat. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I’d been. It was like I’d been in the middle of the desert for days on the verge of dehydration.
“How long have I been out?” I asked him once I’d finished off the water. I hadn’t realized I would drink the entire bottle, and my cheeks warmed. He didn’t pay it any attention, though. He just stuck the straw back in the hospital-provided water and tossed the empty bottle in the trash.
“A little over twenty-four hours,” he informed me. I grimaced. He sighed, pushing his fingers through his dark, curly hair. “You were in surgery for a lot of it.”
I stayed quiet for a moment. He took a seat again, lacing his fingers on his lap, his eyes never leaving my face. Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel his stare boring holes into me. It wasn’t unnerving. It comforted me, made me feel safe, protected.
Which was insane considering the reason I was here was because of his crazy ass wife.
“Why are you here, Johnston?”
He growled. “The fuck kind of question is that, Red? Why the fuck wouldn’t I be here?”
I swung my sharp, angry gaze to him. His eyes were narrowed on me, his jaw clenched, fury and confusion lighting up his eyes. He had no right to be angry. He wasn’t the one lying in a fucking hospital bed with a gunshot wound to the fucking abdomen provided by his little wife he should’ve obviously gotten rid of a long damn time ago.
“Maybe because it was your wife who put me here?” I snapped at him. His jaw tightened so much, his molars ground together, fury coloring his expression. But I didn’t care how pissed he was. “She pulled the trigger on me, Johnston. Or did you forget that?”
“I also fucking remember Geek and Blayke standing in front of you to protect you, but you decided to do what the hell you wanted anyway,” he seethed. Was he fucking serious right now? He was trying to pin this on me?
He jerked up to his feet and scraped his hands over his face before dropping them to his sides. “Fuck,” he swore. He looked over at me. “I’m not trying to argue with you when you’ve barely been awake, Aaliyah.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. Agony washed through his at the sight of them. “Where is she?” I demanded, a lump clogging my throat, making it hard to speak. I forced myself to swallow it down. “You protect her even though she’s a crazy, psychotic bitch?”