Page 41 of Yours Suddenly

“I-I'm fine. I don't think I'm hit.”

A heavy breath of relief comes out of him. “Good. Fuck.”

He quickly moves to the black cars that now have bullet holes in them, holding me tightly to his side, scanning the area, pointing his gun at the darkness around us.

He approaches one of the gunmen. One of them is sputtering blood from his mouth. Roman bends down and fishes something out of the man's jacket, his phone. He checks something on it and swears under his breath.

“Roman,” I say.

“Come here,” he says. He holds me tightly to his side as we walk to the Maserati. He opens the door for me and I slip inside as he gets on the phone, rounding the car to the driver’s side.

“Yeah. Definitely related to Gareth, we’re going tofuck him up. In Lanier Street,” he says. “Make ‘em get here quick to clean up. And meet me in Saler Way in five tops.” He sways a little as he gets in and starts the car.

“Roman, are you — are you shot?”

I watch as he places a hand on his side and when he brings it away, it's stained red.

“Roman!” I cry.

“Baby, don't panic, it's okay,” he says as he speeds us out of there.

“Roman!” I gasp, panicking, tears streaming down my face. “You're shot, you're shot —”

“I'm okay, don't panic.”

When we're about two minutes away from the crime scene, he parks in an abandoned alley and grunts a little. He keeps one eye on our surroundings and the other on me.

“Let me drive us to a hospital!” I offer as dizziness and nausea take over my body.

“No, we're not going to the hospital. I have some things I need to explain to you. I feel like I owe it to you right now since I can't keep hiding these things from you” He sighs. “I'm a fucking criminal.”

“Don't talk,” I sob. “There's nothing to explain.”

“I didn't want you exposed to this life, so I kept it from you. I didn't want you to know you married into a life of violence. I wanted to protect you because… you are good.Pure. And you’ve already been through a lot, baby. Too much. But I was fucking selfish. I married you and I exposed this life to you anyway, and now you almost got killed because I was afraid to come clean to you.”

His dark eyes aren’t as focused as they usually are. I can't accept that. I press my hand on top of his and his wound.

“This is my fault,” I cry. “This is all my fault!”

“It's not,” he says firmly. “It'smyfault.Ibrought danger to you. When we got married, so many people wanted to get back at me through you, they wanted to hurt you because I've killed so many of them, so I had Blake around you while I went to work with Tristan and my men. I killed so many of them to protect you. I had to…” His eyes close and my heart stops but he opens them again. “I kept away from you, pushed you away because you didn’tknow. You didn’t know the man who came to sleep next to you at night was a monster. I felt like you wouldn’t want to once you knew who I really was. And, fuck, I had to act like you didn't matter to me, so they wouldn't target you. I was moving around with different women at my side, to throw my enemies off, I was telling them I didn't love you, so I could protect you, but all I did was hurt you in the process. I should have just told you because there was no way I was always going to keep this life from you.” Fury enters his eyes. “Every single fucking person who even dared to threaten your life, I killed them. Snuffed out their lives. They threatened you and wanted to take you away from me. There's no way I was letting that happen.” Some of the anger dissipates. “I can’t let you go, Alexandra. I just – I just can’t. Please. Please don't leave me.”

“I'm not leaving you,” I whisper. “Never.”

“I love you,” he says. His voice is becoming fainter and fainter. “I love you so much. You're the light in my darkness…”

Chapter 20

Roman

“I love you too,” she says.

I could die a happy man, if those turn out to be the last words I ever hear.

“Roman, please don't leave me. Please...”

A car pulls up in front of ours and she jumps.

“Don't worry, it's Tristan, Logan, and Ryan,” I tell her.

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