Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 153571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 768(@200wpm)___ 614(@250wpm)___ 512(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 768(@200wpm)___ 614(@250wpm)___ 512(@300wpm)
"I…" He rubs his throat, his eyes wide and startled. "It was an accident."
"Right," I say, my lip curled in disgust. "Lucky for you, she never fucking loved you. You were just a placeholder for me. But you aren't needed anymore. You'll never be needed again. Get the fuck out."
"I just wanted to make sure she's okay. They called me because I'm her emergency contact."
"Not anymore. She made it clear that she didn't want to fucking see you ever again when she ghosted your sorry ass." I glance at Finn. "Get him the fuck out of here. He isn't to go anywhere near her room."
Finn jerks his head in a nod, amusement lighting his eyes. "Will do."
Damien sighs heavily, his eyes running around the room, taking in the line of cops who now stand at my back, glaring at him instead of trying to stop me from knocking his teeth out. Even fucking Danvers is looking at him like he's shit on his shoe. "I'll go," he mutters. "Tell her I'm sorry."
"Hell no," Tahani growls. "She's moved on and forgot all about you. She's happy with someone who knows how to love her. Someone who deserves her. We aren't telling her a damn thing about you, Damien."
Damien glances at me, jealousy eating him alive. Good. It fucking should. I hope he spends the rest of his goddamn life remembering exactly what he lost. It's what he deserves. I don't plan to be him. I've fucked up with her so many times, in so many ways. For four damn years, I've been fucking up with her. He's proof of that.
But it ends here. I'm done failing her. It won't ever happen again.
"Get him out of here," I say, stepping around him, desperate to see her. To hold her. To tell her how fucking sorry I am for everything she's been through because of me. I just pray to God that, when it's over, she's still willing to make me the luckiest motherfucker on the planet by tying her life to mine permanently and marrying me.
I don't deserve her, but I plan to keep her anyway. I'm greedy like that. For her, I'll always be greedy like that.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Mila
"You're a lucky girl," my nurse, Amanda, says, smiling down at me while she changes out my IV bag. She's not much older than I am, with dark hair and kind eyes. She's a lot different than the elderly nurse who took care of me in LA.
I lift my gaze from my tired contemplation of the white wall and blink up at her, not sure what she's talking about. I don't feel particularly lucky. I feel like I've been to war and have the battle wounds to prove it. I've never been so tired in my entire life, but I can't sleep.
"In addition to the officer outside your door, there are about twenty more in the waiting room for you," she says, reading the confusion on my face. "Someone cares about you a lot to have so many men with guns looking out for you."
"Oh."
There's a question in her eyes, but she doesn't ask it. I'm not sure I know how to answer it anyway. I highly doubt most of the cops out there are here for me.
They're here because of Jose Guerrero.
For some reason, no one has been back here to ask me any questions about what happened though. I have a feeling that's Roman's doing. He's the only one of the twenty I'm worried about, and it's been hours since I last saw him.
"Are you sure you don't want anything for pain?" Amanda asks when I grimace. "As the local anesthetic wears off, it's going to get rough."
"No, thank you." My shoulder already hurts like hell, but I don't want to take anything that might hurt the baby.
God, the baby.
Dr. Lina ran all sorts of tests, but he wasn't able to tell me much more than the doctor in LA told me. It's still too soon to make any promises. I think I hate those words. They make me feel completely helpless.
Tears burn at the backs of my eyes, but I don't let them fall. Somehow, I've kept them at bay since Roman broke down in the ambulance, but I don't know how much longer that's going to last. Without Tahani here to distract me, I feel like I'm hanging on by a thread.
Why won't they let Roman back here with me? Is he in trouble for killing Guerrero?
I shy away from the memory of Roman killing Guerrero, afraid that if I think too deeply, I'll make myself sick worrying about what comes next. Roman did what he had to do…because I couldn't resist telling Guerrero that he would never win. Because I couldn't keep my mouth shut, he shot me, and then Roman had to shoot him.