AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I knew I was running on fumes.
My soft pink dress was stained and torn, one tear going from my knee all the way to my thigh, grass stains and grazes decorated my legs, and the rest of me was just generally covered in dirt. I looked like I’d just wrestled my way through hell, which wasn’t exactly an understatement, but that also wasn’t my main priority right now.
“Romeo, stop!” I called after Ham’s brother as he made a beeline for the exit. “Romeo!”
Goddamn it.
Leaping out of the hard plastic waiting room chair, not giving a shit who was looking at me, I kicked my shoes to the side and took off running. His footsteps were huge, one of his equal to what I imagined were three of mine.
Romeo was taller than Ham and built like a brick wall. People jumped out of his way as he powered through the crowd, determination and a mission on his mind.
Launching myself forward, I grabbed hold of his arm, both my hands wrapped around his wrist before he made it through the double doors and out onto the street. He didn’t fight me, but I could tell by the way he looked over his shoulder and down at me he was not impressed or happy with the situation we were in.
“I need you to stay,” I told him, a little out of breath even though I’d only run less than a hundred feet. “Please, stay with me. Some of the club are on their way, but right now, I don’t want to be alone.” I looked up at him, tears welling in my eyes.
The tears, they were real. The sappy, feel sorry for me speech that was a little indulged.
His eyes flicked around taking in the environment around us like he was making a note of just how close people were, whether they could hear us, if they were a threat or not.
Romeo gritted his teeth. He wanted to pull away from me, to tell me that he didn’t care or that it wasn’t his job to look after me. But I think deep down, he’d actually started to almost feel like it was. He felt guilty about what the sheriff did to hurt me, felt like it was his fault for bringing all this shit onto the club. But the truth was, the club wasn’t stupid. They knew what they were taking on when Ham came to them to ask them for Romeo’s protection. They knew it was more than likely going to be dangerous, and that there were going to be threats where people could get hurt. They’d accepted that, but he couldn’t understand why.
“Fine, I’ll stay until someone else gets here,” he muttered, the sharp look in his eyes letting me know he wasn’t happy about it.
I took it anyway. I needed to hold out until someone else could get here and explain to him why he shouldn’t go running out on some wild goose chase.
We took a couple of seats back in the waiting room, my eyes glued to the doors that Uncle Leo had shot through with Hadley about fifteen minutes ago, expecting him to come flying out with my new baby cousin any moment.
A moment that just over an hour ago, I wondered whether I was ever going to get to have.
“So, tell me what he was like when he was a kid,” I probed Romeo for information, finally catching a small smile pull on the corner of his mouth—a rarity for sure. Ham continued to walk ahead of us, laughing it off.
“Goody-two-shoes down to the bone.” Romeo laughed.
I had so many questions I wanted answered, but I was cut short when I heard gravel crunching and an engine revving as it sped down Blizzard’s driveway toward the house. I didn’t recognize the vehicle. It was moving too fast. The brothers always drove slowly because of the number of kids that were around.
My brain understood those two things but was unable to put two and two together until it pulled to a sharp stop, and the chairs Romeo was holding dropped to the ground.
“Gun!” he screamed.
I swore my heart stopped. My body froze as I watched the windows slowly roll down revealing not one but three guns.
A scream bubbled up inside me, but before I could release it, I was hit with so much force that my lungs were crushed. A body came over me, two arms hooked around me, lifting me off the ground.
The sound of bullets echoed loudly, one after another, never letting up, never stopping to give their victims time to escape.
Romeo.
It was Romeo carrying me, his arms wrapped around me, crushing me so forcefully I was finding it hard to breathe.
Was that better than being shot? Or worse? Should I tell him he’s hurting me or just be thankful I wasn’t taking a bullet to the head.
With a thump, I landed back on my ass falling onto the grass as he tipped up what I realized was the round table that Hadley and Leo had used to sign their marriage certificate. Not only that, but it was still on the table, and Romeo had just tossed it onto the ground, in the dirt.
“We’re gonna make a run for it,” Romeo ordered, turning to face me. “We need to get behind the house and get inside. No doubt Blizzard has an arsenal of guns in there, and we don’t know how many more of these guys are gonna show up.”
My ears were ringing, but I nodded knowing what Romeo was saying was true.
The gunfire seemed to be coming sporadically now, like they’d stopped just firing aimlessly, and were now shooting for targets. We were those ducks in that carnival game. The ones that just floated past with no protection that you had to shoot and make fall over.
