Page 164 of Corrupted Kingdom

‘Hurry,’ he urged, turning around to give me some privacy. I thought about our kiss. It was the wrong thing to be thinking about when my lover was fighting for his life in the ICU.

My heart in my mouth, I stripped my clothes off and wiped myself down as best I could with an extra shirt John had grabbed, before sliding the scrubs on and tucking the gun back into the waistband. I glanced in the small mirror that hung next to the bed. I still looked terrible, my skin caked with dried blood, but I was a damn sight better with fresh clothes.

‘Okay,’ I said, letting John know I was decent. He turned around and I gave him a tight smile. I was just about to pass him when he grabbed my arm again. I looked up, surprised, to see something else in his face.

Pity? Affection?

‘Ana,’ he said softly, pulling me to him. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me, and I melted into his embrace, comforted by the gesture. I felt his hand on my hair as he hugged me tight, as fresh tears started to flow.

‘It’ll be okay,’ he murmured into my hair. ‘He’s gonna be okay.’

I gave a small nod, hovering there in the space his arms offered, part of me just wanting to stay here in the safe darkness of his embrace. But that was dangerous. Very, very dangerous. He smelled like pine needles and gasoline, and I probably held on to him too tightly. The realisation of what I was doing made me tense. Dornan is dying in a hospital bed and I’m appreciating the way his best friend smells.

‘I would never let anything happen to you,’ John said quietly, and my heart dropped into my stomach with a resounding thud.

Oh fuck.

As soon as he’d said that, he released me, but made no move to step back from me, my head barely reaching his chin. ‘If he . . .’ John’s face twisted momentarily. ‘You’ll be okay. Trust me.’

If he dies, you’ll be okay.

I nodded again. We stepped out of the room, my bloody clothes discarded and forgotten, and made our way to the critical care ward.

To Dornan.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

MARIANA

Did I ever say it?

I love you.

You saved my life.

Nine years, and I showed him, but did I ever say it?

You are my world.

You are my everything.

I didn’t know. Standing in a hospital corridor that smelled like bleach, waiting for John to come back and tell me if Dornan was alive or dead, I didn’t know if Dornan ever understood that I would have died for him in a heartbeat.

John came back to where I was standing in my green hospital scrubs, a surgical mask in his hand.

‘Here,’ he said gruffly, handing me the mask. His rough hand brushed against mine when he placed the mask in my outstretched palm, and he let it stay there for a beat too long. I stared at his hand, transfixed and probably in shock.

I wasn’t there anymore, though. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten, or because I was in shock, or because my shoulder had started to bleed through the hospital scrubs I was wearing. Whatever the reason, I was awake one minute, looking at John’s mouth intently as he pointed to the blood on my shoulder, thinking It’s weird that I can’t hear him all of a sudden.

Then it was like somebody turned the light out. I didn’t even feel it when I hit the floor.

Just . . . nothing.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

MARIANA

‘You can go,’ I said to John, even though I really wanted him to stay. But he had a wife and a daughter and an entire club that was no doubt reacting to the news that their VP had been shot.

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