Page 53 of The Last Time You Break Me

He huffed a broken chuckle and shook his head right before he brought those dark eyes back to meet mine and I gasped… Because there it was again. That bleeding blue. “Your eyes… They are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” I whispered in awe as I leaned over the table a little bit more. I had to stop myself so I didn’t bathe my tits in salmon and rice.

“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about yours. They shine like crystals. Glorious, otherworldly crystals.” He met me in the middle, our lips touched and my soul soared as it reached for the stars that twinkled above us. I hadn’t noticed until we broke the kiss and my head fell back as I gazed up at the ceiling to inhale a deep and steadying breath. The roof had parted as the panels retreated and opened a skyline of glass that showcased the stars.

“Wow,” I sighed.

I felt his eyes burn into me, never breaking my focus. “Yeah, wow.” He breathed and I could have sworn my cheeks heated.

“This all feels so… Surreal. I’m not this girl. I’ve never been this girl,” I uttered as I shook my head and cut into my salmon to take my first bite and give myself some time to breathe.

“That will change. You’re my girl now, love. You can bet you’ll know that you’re the center of my entire universe.”

I smiled at that as I chewed and watched him do the same with a trouble-brewing smirk on his mischievous lips. “I feel guilty. We should be out there looking for Lucas.”

He nodded in agreement and then shrugged as he thought better off it. “We should. But that bastard will still be a snake in the grass tomorrow. As you said, we have to take our moments. Not waste them because the world will never stop spinning ifwe do. Our troubles will still be there when we wake, the only difference is our hearts will feel a little less heavy.”

The swinging doors opened once again but we had been too blinded by one another to notice this man—dressed to the nines as a server—was not in factourserver.

I smiled coyly at Reggie with a promise of glorious sensations to come later tonight held within my gaze. I remained like that, smiling at the man that I loved so consumingly, that I hadn’t understood why his face had dropped at that moment. Why his eyes had widened and a look of pure horror stole away his features. Why the color drained from his face and crept down into his neck until all of him looked as white as a ghost.

I wondered why he rushed from his seat in slow motion. Why his chair had skidded back and he had lunged toward me. Then I noticed that the view of the world was tilting and I was falling from my seat. It wasn’t until I hit the ground brutally that I heard the bang that resounded throughout the room. It echoed around us like the explosion of a bomb. The impact as I hit the floor had my smile falling from my lips, replaced with a frown. Another shot was fired and I felt Reggie fall to the floor beside me, firm on his knees as he pulled my head into his lap, and his heavy hand fell to my stomach.

“No, no, no. Please, no. Don’t do this, baby. You’ll be okay. Everything will be okay,” he rushed brokenly. A glassy sheen tormented his gray eyes and I frowned at the sight. I hadn’t thought I had ever seen this man cry before this very moment. “Open those eyes, beautiful. Open those crystal emeralds for me, baby. Open them!”

I hadn’t noticed I was even closing them until I suddenly felt weak, the colors around me faded to black as I fought for strength, “Call Dom! Call fucking Dom now! Get me the car, someone get me the fucking car!” Shouted voices ensued around me. At first, they were evidently heard, all until they faded as thesound became distorted. Hushed and broken words whispered beyond the veil of life and death and I could no longer make sense of them.

All until one sentence was whispered directly into my ear. “I love you, Hellcat. Please don’t leave me.”

Chapter Nineteen

Reggie

Torn to Pieces - Pop Evil

Iheld Lara in my arms as I became frantic to do something, to do anything other than watch the woman I love die in my arms. But what could I do other than scream and shout orders out to those around us? What could I do but glare at the dead man at the head of the table, slumped to the ground with a bullet hole in his head as he stared back up lifelessly as the rest of his body remained hidden by the table?

I was torn between those eyes of death and the eyes of life that were fading right before me.

I fucked up.

I did this.

I brought her out into the world while we had all this shit going on when I should have kept her safe at home. I was deluded into thinking that I could protect her. That I could move quicker than a speeding bullet that I watched soar through the air before it implanted itself into her chest. That I could moveheaven and earth and even raise a little Hell in order to keep her unharmed.

But I was just one man.

One worthless fucking man.

My hands were saturated in liquid crimson and this time, I detested the sight. It didn’t bring me joy or peace, or warped images of broken bones. Instead, it brought me heartache and despair as my heart constricted brutally in my chest and it gave me the pain of a heart attack.

But I couldn’t waver, I couldn’t falter in my grief.

I needed to save my girl.

I lifted her into my arms and charged for the door, I couldn’t wait for a second longer. Her eyes had closed and she had stilled in her breathing. Blood pooled from the wound and I was helpless in stopping it. I had applied pressure, but if we had waited for an ambulance, I knew in my broken heart that she wouldn’t make it. I rushed into the night, the cold air knocked me back a step as it assaulted me and stole away all of the heat from the room we had just left. The car sat idling by the steps, engine running as an ashen-looking chauffeur stood there with the door open.

I helped Lara into the passenger seat, but as I tried to hold her steady, she slid down, the leather slicked in her own blood. I cursed and somehow managed to get the belt around her to hold her up so she wouldn’t end up on the floor. I rushed to the driver’s side, slid in, and took off without any regard for safety. My foot was pressed to the floor, the speed gauge pushed to its limits as it fluttered back and forth between what it was capable of and what I was pushing it to. I skidded into the parking lot of the nearest hospital, left the car running as I jumped from my seat, and bellowed through the doors that had just automatically opened as somebody casually walked inside. “I need a gurney. I need help, somebody help me!” Just as I pulled her into my armsand stood from the car, a convoy of blacked-out SUVs pulled up into the lot with haste, the engines roared and the tires squealed. Dom and the boys were in front of me a second later, bellowing demands and seeking answers that I couldn’t give them. Not yet, I pushed past them and hurried toward the door. It felt like I was fighting against quicksand, every step almost impossible to take as I fought through the pain. A couple of nurses and an orderly stood by the doors waiting as I laid her down and took her hand in mine, my grip was unrelenting and the possibility of breaking it was lost to my fear of never being able to hold her hand again.

“Female, twenty-two. Bullet hole to the chest, SATS have been fluctuating. I lost her pulse,” I rattled off, filling in the blanks as they rushed her toward surgery. One of the perks of my days back in the military. One of the nurses took more observations right there and then and called them out to the people around her as we moved, none of which were good.

---