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Even though I’m screaming, I can’t hear anything over the pounding of my own heart and the ringing in my ears. I jump up, bending over the table, adrenaline spiking through my veins as my heart races, trying to get to him as more shots ring out. I can’t let him get hit again. I reach out, trying to shield him as I feel the hot burning sensation tear through my body. I vaguely know I’ve been shot, but I don’t care. I have to help him. I wrap my arms around Maxwell trying to hold onto him as together we plummet toward the concrete patio.
I shift so I’m covering him completely. I hear our security team firing back and Victorio yelling something. My head hits the concrete and almost instantly my field of vision begins to shrink. I can feel a wetness at my back as I fight to stay alert. I’m half lying over Maxwell. I struggle to keep him covered. Yet, even as I try, I know I can’t. It doesn’t matter anyway.It’s too late.Maxwell eyes are wide open, completely unfocused and none of the warmth associated with the man is present. He’s looking up at the sky… lifeless.
“No,” I try to roar once more, but I’m not sure sound comes out. My own body begins to shut down.
I can’t catch my breath. It’s like I have a ton of bricks weighing me down. My thoughts swim as I lose consciousness, shuffling through images, nothing sticking until at last, Emilia’s face comes to my mind. Then, and only then, do I surrender to the darkness.
CHAPTER32
Emilia
I pretend I’m sifting through my beach bag and peek at my cellphone. No missed calls at all. I sigh. It has been five days and I haven’t heard a word from Niko since we spoke on the phone. The longer it goes, the more I feel like I’m dying. The last couple of days, I’ve even started leaving my cellphone on so I could see if his number is on it.It never is.
It hurt when he didn’t call me the next day. I’m not sure how I survived, but I did. There are hours in the day that I hate him for getting my hopes up and letting me fall. Then there are even more hours when I cry even harder because I love him, and he doesn’t love me back.
I close my bag and try to turn my attention to Zoe. She’s hurt because she discovered Callan talking to another woman on the phone. She’s in love with him and this is tearing her up.I know exactly how she feels.
I’m a horrible friend, though. I haven’t told her about Niko and Katherine at all. I just let her know I haven’t heard from Niko in almost a week. She has no idea that I’m head over heels in love and with every day that passes it feels like my heart is slowly turning to rock. Heck, she still thinks I don’t want to marry Niko…
I’m afraid it is all I will ever want.
“He had a freaking list, Emmie! A list! What do you suppose is on the list? Is it things he likes in the bedroom? Or, hell, maybe a bucket list of things he wants to do to a woman? We fucked like rabbits, and he never showed me a list. Did I suck in bed so much he didn’t want to give it a shot?” Zoe cries, throwing my arms out.
“Zoe!” I warn. We have a crowd gathering around us—mostly men.
“I’m serious! Why couldn’t he have given me the list? I’m sure I could have rocked his world. I know I could. I’ll tell you what I ought to do. I ought to find out exactly what’s on his list and give it to him so good I ruin him for any other woman and walk away. I’ll tell him to go fuck himself and shove his list where the sun doesn’t shine. That’s what I should do.”
She lets out a heavy sigh and her voice cracks to let me know she’s mad, but underneath that there is so much pain it’s killing her.
“I don’t know who he is, but I can show you my list, baby,” a man calls out.
It’s then that Zoe realizes the crowd around us. “Ew!” she responds.
“I tried to tell you,” I murmur.
“Move along!” she shouts to the crowd, waving them away. “There’s nothing to see here.”
She starts laughing. I do, too, but it sounds hollow to my own ears. I feel heat rise on my face, too. Zoe never blushes, but I can see her pain.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to relax in the room with takeout,” she suggests. She’s trying to sound upbeat, but you can hear the sadness in her tone just the same.
“That sounds good to me, even if it will be pizza,” I exhale, picking up my things.
Neither of us are huge fans of pizza but it’s cheap and that’s key living on a budget. We gather our crap and start walking back to the hotel, crossing the beach and sidewalk. Eventually, we get across the two-lane road. This time of day, traffic is full of people cruising and enjoying the evening air and ocean breeze.
I sigh when our sad little no-tell motel comes into view. It’s a chain hotel but outdated and the rooms are all accessible from the outside. It’s not that it couldn’t be pretty, but the white plaster looks more like gray. Clearly upkeep is not on the owner’s to-do list. The only bright side I have is that this would be the last place Niko would be caught dead in.
Not that he will come looking for me anyway. He can’t even be bothered to call me back.
As we walk to our ground floor room, I fish around in my bag for the room key. Zoe just keeps chattering away. “What do you want to do tomorrow? I think we should break up the monotony and go out on a boat ride to the ocean looking for dolphins. They cheer me up. I think we both could use that.”
“Doesn’t really matter to me,” I mutter as my fingers wrap around the room key—which is an actual key, not a card. When I look up, I freeze. Niko’s attorney Callan is standing there. I take a breath, feeling a mixture of panic and elation. My gaze moves around searching for Niko. All hope is dashed when I realize that he’s not here. Callan is here because of Zoe not because of Niko searching for me. I’m happy for my friend, but my heart seems to break even more. I would have thought that was impossible at this point. I don’t realize that I’ve stopped walking until Zoe kind of plows into me.
She doesn’t speak because Callan pushes away from the building, anger weighing the air around him as he gets closer to us.
“Callan?” Zoe asks.
I kind of step out of the way so they can talk…or fight.They need time alone. Unfortunately, there’s really nowhere for me to go, so I just try to make myself small and let them have their moment.
