Page 72 of Montana Falls
That thoughts I had about her burned hotter than the pain in my side. It made me restless. I turned my head, staring at the vase of roses on the bedside table. Ruby had brought those in earlier. Said they’d brighten up the place. I told her that she was an idiot and flowers didn’t do shit, but she’d laughed. Laughed and told me to shut up being grumpy, like I wasn’t the kind of man who could break bones for a living.
Laughed like she could see into my brain, and knew that I was bullshitting. I did like the flowers. I appreciated the gesture and the sight of them…
I shifted again, trying to find some way to ease the throbbing in my ribs, but nothing helped. Then I heard it—thesoft murmur of voices. The footsteps down the hall. Then the door to my room creaking open.
I turned my head, expecting to see Aiden, but it wasn’t him.
It was Ruby.
Her silhouette was framed by the soft glow from the hallway, but something was wrong. She didn’t step inside with that familiar sass, the fire in her eyes daring me to say something smart. Instead, she lingered in the doorway, her breath ragged, and her shoulders trembling.
She wascrying.
I blinked, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing. Ruby didn’t cry. Not like that. Not for no reason. But now? Now, she looked broken. Like something far worse than I could imagine had occurred and she had no idea how to handle it.
I wanted to slaughter whoever had made her look like that.
Iwouldslaughter them.
“Ruby?” Her name came out harsher than I meant, but I couldn’t help it. Her tears—they hit something deep inside me that I didn’t know how to handle. I didn’t know how to deal with soft emotions, least of all hers.
She stepped further into the room, her footsteps slow, hesitant, like she didn’t know how to hold herself together anymore. She was still crying, and the sound of it twisted something in my chest. My first instinct was to push her away. I wasn’t in any shape to deal with her shit. But the words died in my throat when I saw her face, big green eyes streaked with tears and red from sobbing.
“What happened? Talk to me.” I asked, my voice quieter this time, even if my words were a demand.
Ruby wiped at her eyes, sucking in a deep breath like she was trying to steady herself, but her next words came out jagged, broken.
“It’s Sapphire,” she whispered, and just like that my world tilted.
I went still. The ache in my side disappeared. The burn in my ribs? Gone. Nothing but silence now, a deep, cold silence that wrapped itself around me like a vice.
No.
Not Sapphire. Anyone but her. Anything but her being hurt.
“She was on stage and she was shot,” Ruby continued, her voice cracking as she edged closer to me, with the hesitance of a tiny bunny trying to avoid the wrath of a feral wolf.
“Tell me she’s okay.” I begged.
Ruby cried harder. “I’m so sorry, Beau.”
I didn’t need to hear the rest. Didn’t need the explanation of the shooter, the mayhem, or the failed attempts to save her.
I didn’t need to hear anything once Ruby had said that Sapphire was gone.
Gone.
The word echoed through me, but it didn’t make sense. Sapphire couldn’t be gone. She was untouchable. Her father had built a life, a kingdom of blood and violence, to keep her safe. A kingdom that I’d help grow for that same purpose. And I had promised myself—promisedher—that nothing would ever touch her again.
That even though I had failed time and time again when it came to keeping her safe, the one thing I would do was make sure she never died. I would do anything, kill anyone, make a deal with the devil himself.
And now she was dead?
She was dead, and I hadn’t been there to stop it. To save her.
I hadn’t been there when she needed me most, and I would never forgive myself for that.
I stared at Ruby, but it was like I wasn’t seeing her anymore. All I could see was my daughter. My diamond. My light in themiddle of all this darkness. The reason I hadn’t burned this world to the ground already.
