Page 3 of Sweet Revenge

“Look at you,” I said to myself, floating around like some sort of a fucking ghost. “Wake up, dumbass. You’re gonna die.”

Was that what was happening now? Had I died? Maybe all of that business with Drake and the horrid pain wasn’t real, and I was actually still lying on the bakery floor, bleeding to death. Was I dead now, having an out-of-body experience?

It didn’t make sense that I’d go back in time during an out-of-body experience, but shit, I’d never been dead before. How the fuck was I supposed to know how it worked?

I saw myself with a stupid grin on my face, looking at the cakes, wondering what the hell was taking that sweet woman so long. “Don’t you know you can’t do normal shit?” I yelled at myself, not getting any sort of reaction. Obviously, the me with the dumb smile on my face couldn’t hear the hovering me. “You can’t get distracted, idiot.”

Pre-bullet wound me continued to stand there like a duck floating by a bunch of hunters hiding in the bushes. I was about to get it.

Floating me watched as that bitch Raven came out the back with the fucking cake in her hands. “Shoot her!” I urged. “Run. Do something, man. Don’t just stand there and get shot!” What the hell was wrong with me? I had absolutely no guard up whatsoever, even though that woman was clearly not the lady who had taken the cake back, and there was something psychotic about the look in her eyes.

It was hard to watch, seeing that bitch pull a pistol as I stood there like a dumb sap, reading the message she’d frosted onto the cake. “For Ragno.”

Why had it taken me so long to process that message?

This is what love got me. Shot three times.

Wait—love? What the hell was that all about?

With each pull of the trigger, the floating version of me cringed. I felt the sting of the bullets again, the disorienting sensation I’d felt before I fell backward onto the cold tile floor, my chest burning. Above me, I saw Raven’s smiling face and the end of the gun before everything went black.

My eyes flew open, the pain incredibly intense again, but I didn’t care. If losing consciousness meant I had to go back to that bakery, I’d take the pain. “What kind of a fucking surgeon are you?” I asked, my voice more muddled than I liked.

“Oh, I’m not a surgeon,” he retorted. “I’m a doctor, not a surgeon, and I don’t have an X-ray or an MRI to guide me. Sorry, pal, but this is the best you’re gonna get unless you want me to call an ambulance. I told my sister she should’ve dropped you off at an emergency room and got the hell out of there, but she’s too kind. I’m not.”

I had no idea what to say to that. Even if I’d been capable of forming words, nothing would’ve come out. He was still digging around with some fucking metal tool, looking for bullets, and it hurt like a son of a bitch. Maybe when he was done he could just pour a bottle of alcohol into my chest cavity, followed by some live bees.

“Listen, babe.” Elisa’s voice drew my eyes to her. She was still blurry, but I could focus on her face better than I could her clumsy brother. “Look at me, okay? I know it hurts, but Drake will be done soon enough. Just keep looking at me, and I’ll help you get through it, okay, Daemon?”

I swallowed hard, trying to do what she said and keep my eyes on her, but it was nearly impossible to ignore the pain radiating throughout my chest, down my arm to where she was squeezing my hand. Knowing she was there made me feel better. Her brother was right. She could’ve easily dumped my ass at a hospital and disappeared, but she didn’t do that. I had no idea why.

What was it that made a woman like Elisa treat me like a decent human being? I thought back over our relationship together, how it had started out. I hadn’t always been the nicest to her. Visions of roses with thorns came to mind first, then the dog kennel, how I’d accused her of helping her father to find out my secret information. I remembered how I’d felt the first time I rescued her from her father’s hired assassin, Ragno. How I’d been willing to kill to earn her freedom. Ragno was buried in her father’s garden somewhere.

Not that he lived in that house anymore because the second time he’d kidnapped her, I’d burned the entire fucking place to the ground. I remembered her face when I’d opened that basement door, how she’d been tied up, her face all fucked up, but she still hadn’t given up. She’d even tried to fight me before she realized it was me and I was there to get her out of there. I’d never been so relieved or so proud in my entire life.

Elisa was special in ways I couldn’t even describe. I’d never seen anyone like her. When we were together, I felt like I was on top of the world. When we were apart, it was like a piece of my heart was missing, like some other surgeon had cut part of it out a few years back and tossed it in the trash.

But having those sorts of feelings for someone made a man weak. I’d seen it a thousand times before. After Jenny’s murder, I’d vowed never to let anyone into my heart again. Losing the first girl I’d ever loved had made me into something I didn’t want to be. If I’d never been caught up in her the way that I was, I would’ve been a stronger man. Having these feelings for Elisa now gave my enemies a place to hit me, a soft spot to exploit.

Somehow, I felt more alive knowing she was by my side than I ever had before, even though, at the moment, I was as close to death as I’d ever been. My heart raced in my chest just thinking about the beautiful woman who was staring down at me. It was a strange juxtaposition, feeling alive and so vulnerable at the same time, especially when my life was literally in the hands of her brother, a La Rosa, someone who had made his opinion on the matter clear. If it were up to him, I’d be lying in a ditch somewhere.

That was part of Elisa’s magic, though. Her kind heart made people want to help her, even when it wasn’t what they would normally do. Drake loved his sister, so he was willing to do what needed to be done to help me.

Drake let up for a second, giving me a chance to breathe. Elisa turned her attention to him as he spoke. His voice wasn’t clear or loud enough for me to hear, but I had a feeling whatever he was saying wasn’t good.

Elisa’s eyes were misty with tears as she looked back at me. “You’re going to be fine, Daemon,” she said. “It’s just that another piece is lodged a little deeper than Drake originally thought, so he’s going to have to dig in a little deeper, and I don’t have any pain medication to give you.”

I had nothing to say in response, so I only stared at her for a moment and nodded. It was hard for me to imagine anything hurting more than it already did. But then, I wasn’t about to say it was impossible.

“It’ll be all right,” she assured me, the smile on her face wavering slightly. “I’ll be right here. I’ll hold your hand the whole time. And once it’s out, it’ll all be over.”

Again, I nodded. Drake told her to step back, so she scooted slightly out of my line of sight. The pain intensified to a new level, and the world went dark around the edges. My mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I closed them against the pain, against the misery, and against the ever-present possibility that I was about to die. Everything crumpled like a wet bag folding up on itself, and I found myself drifting away again, welcoming the black abyss.

CHAPTER3

ELISA

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