AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I drift off to sleep and curl into the hard, warm body that cradles me like I’m a precious thing.
Harsh banging noises wake me hours later and I feel Xavier’s body jerk under me.
“Shit!” he curses under his breath and rolls out from under me. He gets to his feet and quickly pulls on his dress pants, not even bothering with shoes or a shirt, his tie still hanging across his bare chest. He kisses me hard and I try to grab him, hold him with me. “Stay here. Don’t leave this room for any reason. I’ll be back for you.”
He grabs a gun from the end table beside the bed and I wince when I see it. “Don’t worry about me. Just stay right here.”
He doesn’t look at me again. Just opens the door and slips out, the gun held high in his hand, making me shiver with fear.
I hold my breath waiting and hoping. There’s no sound for what feels like forever and then I hear a sharp rat a tat noise and cover my ears, tears rolling down my face. Men’s voices holler and I hear running feet. A hand starts to turn the door handle and I freeze, my eyes wide and locked on the movement.
Then nothing. Then again, the door handle turns again. I put my hand up to cover my mouth, muffling my own gasp.
One of Xavier’s men pops his head around the door and freezes when he sees me only wearing a sheet.
“Shit!” He says and pops back out. “Don’t tell him I was here!” He hollers as he charges down the hall.
More popping and thuds from downstairs have me grabbing my dress and slipping it back on barefoot, doing it up quickly. Then I slip out the door and follow the faint noises downstairs.
“What the heck is going on?” I whisper to myself, tiptoeing down the stairs. I see nobody at first and then all of a sudden when I hit the hall, it seems like men are running everywhere guns drawn and mouths tight with anger.
“What’s going on?” I holler at one man and he just waves me back. He’s exposed for just a second but it’s long enough for a shot to catch him in his leg and he topples to the ground, holding onto his thigh and groaning, his gun still clutched in his other hand.
I run up to him and push hard on his leg, trying to stop the bleeding. He shudders in pain but doesn’t make a sound, still holding up his gun, his eyes fixed on the hallway. A shadow comes down the hallway and before I can blink, the man shoots at him and the stranger drops to the ground, moaning.
I start to go to him but the first guy grabs my arm, shaking his head. “He’s the bad guy. You go out there and he will kill you.”
My stomach drops and I look backwards towards the door and then back to the hallway. “Where’s Xavier?”
The man grunts and then nods towards all the yelling and the shots. “Oh my god,” I whisper. I jump to my feet and before that man can grab me, I race down the hall and skid around a corner coming face to face with at least ten armed men, only one of whom I’m interested in.
Xavier sees me and his face suffuses with red. “Get the hell out of here, Tally!”
One of the other men that I don’t know hears him and points towards me. I freeze as the gun comes up towards me.
“No!” I can hear Xavier’s scream like it’s coming from a tunnel and as the man pulls the trigger, it feels like time stops.
There’s a flash in front of me and a grunt of pain. I wince and cringe, my eyes closing automatically, expecting red-hot pain but feeling nothing.
Men scream and run around me and I open my eyes, watching one of Xavier’s men slam a gun into the man who shot me.
Or did he? I lift my hands and feel my limbs. But I don’t feel anything. Some of Xavier’s men rush up to me and then dive for something on the ground. Something dark and still and my heart stops, my body icing over with fear as I realize that there’s a reason I didn’t get shot.
Xavier did. He leaped in front of me and took a bullet for me.
I drop to my knees, wailing, tears flowing freely as I push hard on the spot on the arm of his suit where sticky red paints it.
He doesn’t move. No matter how loud I scream.
CHAPTER10
Xavier
Ihear the beep-beep of machines and groan, growling under my breath, wanting to swat the damn thing making the sound. I just want to sleep.
“Xavier,” I know that voice. Pain and tears blur the sweet sound but I know that voice. With an insane strength of will, I pull myself out of the fuzzy cotton-ball feeling that’s dragging at me
My eyes open with effort and the gritty, dry feeling makes me want to close them again. But I don’t. I need to see her.
