Page 77 of Taming Achilles

“Where’s your new bride? How does she feel about you seeing your ex?”

Geo jolted, as if a bungee had been attached to him, and it had snapped, pulling him backwards. He fell onto his back with a sickening thud. His shirt had a hole, blackened and charred, the blue armour underneath peaked through for all to see.

My eyes snapped forward to Jason Rhodes, standing in the crowd, a 9mm Beretta pointed right at Geo.

That son of a bitch.

Chapter 37

Geordie

I knew three things were happening all at once. One, Jason Rhodes was here. Two, he put a bullet in my chest. Three, Victor Fox was standing by a white van.

A hundred different threads unspooled from those simple facts, and what came of it were more terrifying possibilities, weaving into a net that pulled Pippa out of my arms.

But I wouldn’t let them. Last night, I had made a home for myself inside her. I had planted a flag, and claimed her as mine. No one was going to take her away.

Not Rhodes, or her cunt father. Not the Circus or any God that might fall for her beauty and try to spirit her away.

Philippa Briseis Fox was mine, and mine alone.

Rhodes’ Barretta pointed right at my armour, and I vowed that if I died, I would crawl from the very pits of hell to get back to my woman.

I braced myself for the killing shot, knowing it would come. I might be on the ground, but I wouldn’t flinch. When the shot rang out, I was ready for the jolt.

But it didn’t come. Instead, Pippa fell on top of me, her anguished cry of pain made my soul bleed. She had blocked the bullet for me.

“Damnit, Pips!” I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, trying to turn her so she’d end up behind me. I had to cover her with my body.

Rhodes’ face contorted in rage and he fired another shot, aiming for my chest. I was ready to meet my maker. More than ready. After having paradise on earth last night, there was nothing I couldn’t face.

Rhodes squeezed the trigger. I closed my eyes. They say that your life flashes in front of your eyes before you die. Mine didn’t. It only flashed to a single moment when we were seventeen, her dark brown school blazer and little plaid skirt. She had a crown of daisies and marigolds around her hair, intricately woven by a childish Chloe.

I opened my eyes and watched the bullet twist in the air, time slowing down to an agonising rhythm.

A movement caught my eye. Slow, but fast at the same time. I reached out to change the course of fate, but it was too late.

Pippa threw herself across my lap, the bullet breaking into her damaged armour plate and piercing into her chest. Blood shot from her body, a trail of it spluttering from her mouth. Her eyes went wide, her body fell, and I caught her in my arms.

A scream. A yell. Paparazzi still clicked cameras even as they took cover. Another shot. Rhodes fell to the ground as a sniper bullet came from a rooftop and went through his chest.

The world was fast again, and I put pressure on her wound. Blood. It was spurting out of her, colouring the boardwalk. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I roared as Callum’s wife, Lea appeared from the chaos, a bag on her shoulder.

“Wake up, Princess. Wake up!” I screamed, putting her onto the floor and pushing down on her wound with all of my weight. “Stay with me, darling. Stay with me!”

Blood. All over her white shirt and creamy skin. God, she was getting paler by the second.

“Save her, Lea,” I screamed, my feeble hands doing nothing but holding her bloody face in my hands. I brought my forehead down to hers, and muttered a pathetic plea. “Please, stay alive. Stay alive.”

“Get out of my way.” Lea pushed me over, and I moved at her touch. She was spreading a powder onto the wound, then stuffing a cloth into the hole.

“Fuck!” I screamed as Pippa’s wound consumed the strip of cloth. The hole was never ending, just eating. And soaking through the strips.

Cal tried to pull me off of her, but I shrugged him off.

“For fuck’s sake, man, pull security!” Cal wasn’t speaking as a friend. He was speaking as a commander and I tried to obey. But my hands wouldn’t leave her skin. I had to keep her warm. I had to touch her. I needed to feel those signs of life.

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