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But the shot doesn’t come.
Rather, I hear a thump of sound, feel a gust of wind against my face, and open my eyes to find Maddox’s bulky form tackling the woman to the front pavement.
“Maddox!” I’m terrified because the butt of the gun is now buried in his stomach. Even as they both wrestle for it, she’s still holding onto the trigger. And her face is twisted in a savage expression like a crazed animal.
And then a shot explodes through the air.
I scream.
It’s a split second and everything that happens next is confusing. Maddox rips the gun out of her hand and holds her down. She manages to wriggle out from under him, though. I spring into action. Adrenaline takes over and I frantically search around, finally grabbing a vase to crash over her head.
The crash takes her out.
Maddox takes a deep breath and finally gets off the woman's still body, sitting on the floor with a dazed expression on his face.
And then I realize the blood stain spreading across his shirt.
Oh no. Oh God, no.
“Maddox.” The fear makes my voice shake. He stares at me.
“You’re bleeding,” I say. He follows my gaze to his stained shirt, then looks back up at me.
He nods. And then he topples over.
“Maddox!” I run and catch him before he hits the floor, refusing to flinch even as my body absorbs the full force of his.
“Please, Maddox! Don’t….” I can't finish the sentence.Please don’t die.“I need to call nine-one-one.” I help him lie down and run to the couch and grab my phone dialing as I dash back to Maddox.
He stares at me. “Mimi….where is she?”
“She’s upstairs. She’s safe.”
He nods and his face contorts in pain as he coughs. “Good.”
“Maddox…I—”
He continues in a steady voice, as though he didn’t hear me. “I saw her with the gun aimed at you. She almost shot you. I would have died. If she hurt you, I would have died.”
“Yes, but now you’re hurt.” My voice cracks and tears leak from my eyes. Pain rends my chest, so intense that I struggle to breathe. “You shouldn’t have done that, Maddox.”
“I love you,” he says and the pain is clear on his face.
“Maddox—”
“I love you,” he repeats and weakly brings up one hand to the side of my face. “Marry me.” His eyes close and his hand falls from my face.
“Maddox, please. You have to hang on, okay? You have to survive this for me.”
Eyes still closed, he weakly says, “I will.” Though his voice is barely a whisper, it has so much confidence there’s no room for doubt. As if to sayI’m Maddox Reign and death will not take me from you. The arrogance in believing he will survive a fatal wound is so utterly him that I almost crack a smile.
“I’ll live,” he says and his eyes crack open. I can see he is struggling to keep them that way. “And I wanna spend the rest of my life with you.” With every blink, his eyes are trying to remain shut now, but he forces them open one more time to say, “So you have to marry me.”
“I will,” I tell him. “I’ll marry you. I love you. Please, just hang on, okay?”
His eyes close one more time and he nods. “I’ll hang on, for you.”
But his eyes don’t open again.
