Page 120 of Keep Your Guard Up
Bruised.
Randy grinned and turned to face me once again. The sick fuck was enjoying this, hurting the people I loved.
Neveragain.
Stepping through on my left foot, I used the momentum to double pump my calf. Leaping into the air, I launched a vicious superman’s punch. Glorious, wonderous pain sang out across my hand when I struck true on the very end of his chin. Thelanding of the blow sent his head swinging, knocked out cold by the time he hit the floor. I let out a raspy breath and stared at Randy for a moment, half-expecting him to jump up and go for another round. He didn’t. His body was as still as Sunny’s.
I snatched up the gun on the floor, removed the clip, and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans before shoving the clip deep into my front pocket. Police, Ambos, Firies—whoever came here could take it off me. I’d be gone by the time they found us.
I dropped to my knees, then to my side next to Sunny. The adrenalin was fading and the searing, blazing pain from the bullet wound in my abdomen felt like my insides were being personally shredded by Lucifer himself. Fitting, considering the deep orange sunrays that were filtering through the windows. The sun was rising.
I looked over to the woman laying next to me. Her eyes were lightly shut, as if she was simply sleeping. Ignoring the bile that rose from the sight of her split lip, cheekbone, and bruised jaw, I smiled. I smiled at the love of my life beside me—the other half of me; my soul; my world. We’d found each other, after all of the pain and suffering and loss. It’d all been a long, winding road that led to her, the most extraordinary destination of all. Stifling a groan, I picked up her warm hand and pushed my big fingers through her small ones. After releasing the precious metal down onto her fingers, I squeezed her hand three times.
I.Love.You.
My insides felt like they were being tasered, but I just kept looking at her. Her curls were frizzy and messy, but I still itched to run my hands through them, to tug them the way she liked. Her chest moved up and down rhythmically, in a sequence of steady breaths.
“Come on, Sunny baby,” I gently urged. “Let me see those eyes.”
I ran my spare hand over the band of freckles that striped across her nose and up her cheekbones, unintentionally smearing blood across her face. I never knew I could be laying here, a bullet inside me that was squirting blood fucking everywhere, and still feellucky.
I was so lucky.
I was so lucky to love this woman.
I was so lucky to die next to this woman.
I was so lucky to die for this woman.
“Let me fall in love all over again, Sunny. Open your eyes.”
The floorboards thudded beneath me, and I groaned. JJ was beside me yelling into my retrieved phone. From the corner of my eye, he ripped his shirt off and shoved it into my leaking gut.
“You know,” He sniffled lightly, “If you wanted to play the whole damsel in distress, we could have gone to the beach instead. I could have dragged your heavy ass out of the water instead of shoving my shirt into your insides.”
“I know you’re a sucker for a damsel in distress,” I rasped.
Sunny took a slow, deep breath but still didn’t open her eyes.
I held her hand tightly, still warm, and squeezed it three times again.I.Love.You. “I love you, mate.” I wrapped my spare hand around one of his wrists that was coated in my blood. JJ sobbed and growled simultaneously.
The faint sound of sirens tickled my ears.
“Thank fuck,” he muttered under his breath, loosing a shuddering breath. His hands were shaking, or maybe that was me. I was so cold. “Stay the fuck awake, Chance. I mean it.”
“Get Milah out. You have to help her, J. She’s a tough nut, but she’ll listen to you.”
His face softened as I broached the subject that would catch his attention from anything.
I squeezed Mari’s hand three times.I.Love.You.
“Your sister will cut off my balls if I show up to get her without you. Open your eyes,” he demanded.
“They …” I rasped. “They weren’t that big anyways.”
“No way are your last words to me going to be you telling me I have small balls. Open your eyes, Chance.” His voice cracked, and I groaned when he put more pressure down on the burning fucking hole in my stomach.
“’Til forever falls apart, brother,” I whispered the vow we’d kept for all of those years.
