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Last night, Brianna managed to get us both in the same private room, something I’m thankful for. Even though I was groggy, I remember asking Penelope to come to my bed. There was no way I could stay away from her after everything that had happened. I needed to have her close to reassure myself that it was over and she was safe, and sometime during the night, Henry decided to join us. The dog is giving me a smug look from the bottom of the bed, where his head is resting on our legs.
“You’re fine just where you are, Birdy.”
Shut up before I clip those wings of yours, little bird,Bobby’s hateful words ring in my head.
Penelope tenses in my arms, probably remembering it too.
I hate this.
I hate that he took something that was ours and destroyed it.
I still couldn’t believe what happened was real.
All because of his hatred toward me.
“Hey, you’re all up.”
Blinking away the memories, I focus on Brianna, who’s standing in the doorway. She looks like a hot mess. Her hair is disheveled and dark circles are under her eyes.
“How are you feeling?” she asks, her eyes meeting mine.
“I feel like I should ask you that. You look like you’re about to pass out. Did you sleep at all?”
She waves me off. “I’m fine.”
I narrow my eyes at her, which earns me an eye roll back before she shifts her attention to my mother. “I just wanted to stop by to let you know everything’s set, just like you asked me.”
I glance between the two women determined to make my life miserable. “And what exactly is set?”
“Thanks, Brianna,” Mom shifts her attention back to me. “The press conference. What else?”
What else, really.
I should have known she’d be up to something. Because there was nothing more important after being shot at than to make sure my image was squeaky clean.
“I don’t want a fucking press conference, Mom. What I want is to go home.”
Mom glares at me in her no-nonsense way. “Well, you should have thought about that before playing hero.”
My body tenses at her sharp tone. “I didn’t play anything. He wanted me. Penelope was just collateral damage to him, and I wasn’t about to let him hurt her.” My gaze falls on the bandage around Penelope’s neck and a matching brace holding her arm, and that rage toward the man who hurt her is back, front and center. If he were still alive, I would have finished him myself for putting his hands on her. “And I did a shit job of that too.”
Penelope’s hand covers mine, giving it a firm squeeze. “I’m fine, Sebastian.”
I shake my head. “Nothing like this should have happened. Not with Christian and certainly not with you. If I’d only…”
“You can’t help people who don’t ask for your help. You know that.”
Knowing it and accepting it are two completely different things.
“Either way, we’ve made a statement and placated the media for a little while, but you better than anybody know how they are. The videos of what happened at the concert have already made the rounds on the internet, some of them getting millions of views. You’re the main story of all the news stations at the moment.”
“She’s right,” the tall man says, giving me an apologetic look: Emmett, Penelope’s brother-in-law. “Somebody was doing a live video from the hall, which blew up pretty quickly, and then people started to repost it. It’s been the only thing everybody’s been talking about.”
“Bad boy rockstar jumps in front of a gun to protect his girlfriend,” Brianna shakes her head. “I still don’t know if that was brave or reckless.”
“What it was was necessary,” I grit through clenched teeth. “Enough people have gotten hurt because of me. I wasn’t about to let Penelope be added to the list.”
But in the end, that didn’t even matter. She got hurt because I couldn’t save her. Just like I couldn’t save Christian or…
