Page 75 of Taken By Sin

So instead, I squeeze his hand, holding on like it’s the onlything keeping me grounded. “Sin...” I start, my voice shaky but full of everything I can’t quite say yet. “I love?—”

I hear the shot before I can process what’s happening. A whiz of a bullet as it flies through the air between us.

Sin stands up slowly, too slowly for my liking, his hand tightening around his glass. The world, my world is in slow motion now.

“Sin?” I ask, my voice trembling slightly. “What’s going on?”

A sharp crack that splits the air, and then Sin stumbles, his hand shooting to his side as blood begins to bloom from his shirt. His face twists in pain, but his eyes never leave mine, locking on me with a ferocity that makes my heart stop. “Stay down!” he screams at me. Maxwell is on me in an instant; he must have followed us, quiet security lurking in the shadows.

“Sin!” I scream, rising to my feet as panic floods my chest. “Sin, oh my God, are you?—?”

He doesn’t fall. He catches himself on the edge of the table, one hand gripping it as he breathes heavily. He tries to smile, but it’s strained, his breathing ragged as he looks at me, his voice barely a whisper.

“I’m fine,” he says, though the blood seeping through his shirt tells a different story. “Stay down.” I don’t have any choice; Max is pinning me to the ground.

The people around us are already scattering, their screams echoing in the distance. I reach for him, my hands shaking, but he shakes his head, his grip tightening on the table. Sin returns fire, a round of booms that deafen me.

“Go,” he urgesMax.

“I’m not leaving you,” I insist, panic surging in my chest, fighting off Max’s restraint. “You’re hurt. You need help!”

But Sin doesn’t argue. “I’m not going to let you get caught up in this, Magnolia. Not now.” A trickle of his blood falls onto my dress.

The sound of footsteps approaches, heavy, quick. Sin’s eyes flicker toward the shadows at the edge of the courtyard, and for a moment, I see something dark, something dangerous in his gaze.

“Sin, please,” I beg, my voice trembling. “Let me help you.” Max is dragging me away now. Rollins passes by us, along with six other men; they’re helping Sin.

I want to argue, to demand he let me stay with him, but the look in his eyes stops me. There’s no room for negotiation. I feel the world tilt beneath me, my body frozen in place as I watch him, my heart pounding in my chest.

But then, before I can do anything else, Sin’s hand drops, and his body sways dangerously. Rollins grabs onto him as panic claws at my insides.

I scream for help, but the world around me fades the farther Maxwell carries me away.

Maxwell carried me the entire way home.

Sin isn’t far behind us.

Not moving and being held by security as they bring him into the kitchen. I go into overdrive, tossing everything off the counter as they lay him on the cold marble.

Bria rushes into the kitchen, wearing pajamas and a frantic grimace. “What happened?”

“Dinner, shot,” I cry. “Two shots.”

“Where?” she asks quickly.

I throw up my hands, looking to Maxwell. “I don’t know,” I breathe.

She grabs scissors from the drawer, cutting off his shirt. Two of the guards are holding pressure on his wounds already, and now we can see the extent of it all.

“Is Magnolia okay?” Sin croaks, awakening for the first time.

“I’m here.” I take his blood-soaked hand, trying to stay out of Bria’s way. She knows what she’s doing.

He breathes out, rasping, “First shot through the shoulder.” I groan in agony hearing his voice so distraught. He is alive though, right here, alive. “Then the second hit my stomach.” His tortured eyes glance my way briefly before he’s out again.

“It’s clear all the way through in his arm.” Bria smiles, examining him, placing gauze underneath the hands of the men. “The shot to the stomach was a graze on his side, thank God.”

“Is that good?” I shriek, knowing I need to calm myself.

---