I bite down on my tongue to stop from yelling out in pain. The taste of metallic coats my tongue as I try to breathe through the burning sensation traveling throughout my body. I told Victoria I’d walk through fire for her. It appears it’s coursing throughout me. Blackness fills the edges of my vision, and my breathing comes in raggedy, shallow gasps.
I’m dying. My head swims with the sweet sound of Victoria, saying my name. All I see is her spreading those wings and telling me she loves me. That because of me, she won’t live her life in fear. That she’ll never love anyone the way, she’s always loved me.
“Victoria,” I sputter out, choking on the blood filling my mouth. My heartbeat is slowing.
“Revenge is such a sweet thing.” I hear Maxim say.
“It sure the fuck is,” Dray yells.
What happens next comes about so damn fast I blink and blink to stay alert. Maxim lets out a string of curses, his gun dropping from his hands as he tries dislodging the knife in his neck. Dray dives for his gun, shoots, and a couple of bodies go down.
The hint of a smile tugs at my mouth as Maxim drops down next to me, and Dray yanks the knife out, flips him onto his side, and uses him for a human shield as he pumps out four rounds and the other men drop lies flies.
“I should save you for my father, but I won’t.”
Maxim’s eyes go wide in fear when Dray flips them over, wraps his hands around his neck, and starts to squeeze. Maxim bucks, hands clawing at Dray’s face to try and push him off his chest. I can feel his throat constrict under my fingers even though they aren’t mine.
“You killed part of my family.” Dray spits, the muscles in his arms flexing. I hear wheezing. I hear more words I can’t make out. I hear Dray say Maxim is dead and he needs help.
“Tell Victoria I tried to make it home to her. Tell her, I love her. Tell my family the same. Take care of her for me, Dray,” I whisper, trying to suck in air to stay alive.
“No, goddamn it. You stay alive and tell them yourself. Don’t you fucking die on me! My sister needs you, damn it!” he shouts so loud it hurts my aching head.
“It’s okay. Vengeance is served,” I stammer, blood bubbling in my throat.
“It’s not worth it if you die. Help is coming. Just hold on, my friend. Hold the hell on. You did good, man. So good. Don’t you fucking let go!”
I don’t want to, but I can’t breathe.
I’m fading.
My heart stops, my mind giving me one more flash of Gabe, teaching me how to be a man. One more moment of hearing Lexi’s sweet voice. One tick of the laughter, the brotherly hugs from Lane and Logan. A view of my nephew Luca playing football. One of Braxton’s learning and discovering new things. One spark of Victoria’s stunning face.
I heave a sigh. Then I feel nothing at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Victoria
Heartbreak.
Mine whips around the room, crashing into the walls. It’s a different kind than when my family died. One that’s so hard to explain I don’t know if I could, and I’ve tried. At least to myself, I have.
It’s agonizing like someone carved another part of me out of my chest. Every breath I take, I feel a crack in the core of my being—the depth of my soul. My heart had just started to heal, and now it’s shattering all over again.
Where I’d hope for peace is now chaotic and short-circuiting the strings to my heart. And so, my world has become blacker than ever before. Darker because Seth won’t open his eyes and talk to me.
A bit selfish that I want it to be me, but I’m now to the point where I honestly don’t care who he talks to first. I’ll settle for him just waking up.
His brothers have talked to him, Sienna, Gabe, Rocco. My father. Everyone that cares about Seth has been in and out of his room.
They’ve all tried getting me to leave. To go home and get a good night’s sleep instead of sleeping in a bed next to his.
I can’t leave. I won’t until he opens his eyes and speaks.
My chest stretches tight when I glance down at Seth. His color is so much better than when he came out of surgery nine days ago to repair his chest, abdomen, and shoulder damage. He lost so much blood he had to have a transfusion. The bullet to his stomach struck his spleen. The one to his shoulder just missed his Subclavian Artery, which feeds to the large bundle of nerves controlling the arm’s function.
The shot to his chest pierced through his lung. It collapsed, and he coded once on the operating table. I fell to my knees when the doctor told us that.
Any gunshot wound to the body is lethal, and Seth is lucky Maxim didn’t shoot him in the head, or my soul would have been lost forever.
Before Dray called Dad, telling him to get me to the hospital, I’d thought I cried a river full of worry over him and Seth. Pacing the floor, yanking on my hair. Alina holding me when I’d drop to my knees and wail like a baby.
Those tears were nothing compared to seeing Seth’s pallid skin, blood soaking his clothes, lifeless body when he was lifted out of the back of Aaron’s SUV and placed on a stretcher and taken out of my sight. If it weren’t for Aaron contacting the doctor and having him get to where Seth and my brother were so he could treat him right away, he would have died.
I broke into a sobbing fit. Desolate and inconsolable.
It was Dray that dried my tears, asking me to sit in the
