When she stood up, he said, “Move,” with a nod towards the table. Having a pretty good idea what was waiting for her, Ashlyn moved to do what he asked only to reach up, grab his arm and shove him away, taking him by surprise, and buying herself just enough time to raise her knee and-
“Fuck!”
-take him by surprise when she made contact with his balls. She watched as he bent over, covering himself with his hands as he stumbled back before she moved, racing towards Shayne only to find herself tackled to the ground before she could reach him. When she felt him try to pin her down so that he could press the knife against her throat, she rammed her elbow into his side and kept going only to have him grab hold of her legs and yank her back, using the move to climb onto her back, but she wasn’t done.
She kicked back at him, rammed her elbows back, and crawled, pulling herself across the room only to have him yank her back every time, but she didn’t give up. She kept moving, kept kicking and fighting him with everything she had as she managed to gain a few feet so that she could reach out and-
Found herself staring into silver eyes when she felt Shayne’s hand wrap around her wrist and pull, dragging her towards him just as Caleb moved to place the knife against her throat. Shayne pulled her just far enough to bring Caleb closer, and then he was grabbing him by his hair and yanking him closer.
“Run!” Shayne shouted as Caleb tried to grab her again only to miss when cold dread suddenly touched every inch of her body as she found herself dragged away. She looked up to find her mother and the rest of the women dragging her towards the door as Caleb gave up trying to grab her and focused on Shayne.
She watched him try to stab Shayne only to shout in frustration as Shayne blocked the move, shoving him back just far enough so that he could place one foot in the middle of Caleb’s chest and push, causing the other man to stumble back as he stood up, raised his knife as he moved over Shayne and-
Flinched when the sound of a gunshot suddenly sounded in the small room, the deafening sound causing her to reach up and cover her ears as she watched Caleb’s body drop to the ground only to watch as a painfully familiar man stood in his place.
“Oh, shit...” came the hoarse announcement to find Tristan standing behind her.
She watched as the man who’d haunted her dreams, the one that started this all, stood there, staring at them as he tried to make sense out of what just happened only to watch as the realization hit and when it did, the king glared at Tristan as he said, “Tadgh.”
She watched as Aidan and Declean raced past her and-
“Fuck!” Declean shouted when the king suddenly disappeared.
“Someone tell me what the hell just happened,” Ashlyn said as she sat there, staring at the spot where the king had once been.
“The curse just revealed a secret,” Tristan said as he reached down and helped her up.
“Mo bheag mhuirnín,” Shayne whispered, drawing her attention to find him watching her.
“Oh, God,” Ashlyn said, quickly rushing to his side as the room suddenly filled with a bright white light seconds before warmth suddenly enveloped, letting her know that his brothers were sending the missing women home, but she couldn’t think about that right now.
She dropped to her knees by Shayne’s side only to feel her stomach drop as she noted his pale skin before she took in the hand pressed against his side and watched as more blood seeped between his fingers. She felt his trembling hand cup her face, drawing her attention to find him watching her through silver eyes.
“I’ll come back,” Shayne promised. “I’ll keep coming back for ye.”
“You’re going to be okay,” Ashlyn said, biting back a sob as she placed her hands over his only to feel her stomach drop when she saw the blood soaking into his shirt right above his heart and realized that Caleb had managed to stab him a second time.
“Don’t even fucking think of it,” Tristan said as he pressed his hand over the fresh wound and pulled his phone out with the other while she knelt there, watching as the silver faded from Shayne’s eyes and-
“I’ll always come back.”
CHAPTER 32
“We’re losing him!” someone yelled as Shayne finally managed to open his eyes and found himself staring up at the trees above him. He felt himself being lowered to the ground as several paramedics knelt down by his side.
He watched as one of the paramedics grabbed a handful of white gauze pads and pressed it against his chest, tearing a weak groan from him as the one kneeling to his left raised his head just far enough so that he could pull an oxygen mask over Shayne’s head as everything started to go dark again and-
“We lost him!”
“We losthim twice on the way over here,” someone said as Shayne felt his body gently swaying as he moved.
He opened his eyes and watched as fluorescent lights quickly moved above him as he was pushed down a long white hallway before his eyes began closing again and-
“Someone alert the O.R. and get four units of type O blood up here now!”
“He’s lost too much blood,”came the announcement that left him groaning, too weak to do anything more than that before he finally gave in to the darkness that had been threatening to swallow him whole.
“You’ll wantto make sure that your butter is room temperature before you start,”came the words that let him know that he was in hell.
