Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69472 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69472 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I force myself to open them. Then I see something, and I realize I’m hallucinating.
“Evie?” I look at her. She’s ghostly white with blood on her lip and in her hair. “You okay?”
“Lucius.” She drops beside me, her arm hanging oddly at her side.
“Your arm.”
“Lucius. Stay with me.” She cups my cheek, and she’s right in front of me, but I can barely hear her. “Lucius!”
I close my eyes.
She’s screaming for help and begging me to look at her.
I try to. I want to make her happy. “I’d do anything for you,” I try to tell her. But no words come out, and everything turns into deathly stillness.
33
Evie
“I hear her!” someone yells.
“Here. We’re here!” I scream despite the splitting pain in my head. “Help!”
“Evie!” Teddy runs across the lawn to us, then hurdles the hedge around the fountain. “What happened?”
Sin appears through a side gate, a gun in each hand as he scans the gardens.
I focus on Lucius. “Help him!” I cry to Teddy.
He pulls out his phone and dials 911 as he opens a beaten-up leather bag.
I try to listen to him talk, but I can’t take my eyes off Lucius. “—two GSW, major blood loss, AB+, heartbeat—” He presses his stethoscope to Lucius’s chest. “—is Afib. Shit. We need medics now!” He tosses his phone. “Help me lay him down.”
I use my good arm and maneuver Lucius gently down to the ground. I don’t like the way his head lolls on his shoulders or the pallor of his skin.
Teddy gives me a glance. “You’re in bad shape, too.”
“I’m fine. Please, just save him.”
“Sin!” he calls.
Sinclair runs up, guns still in each hand.
“Get this shirt and vest off him while I check his leg.”
Sin drops to his knees, and with surprising gentleness, he strips off Lucius’s shirt and tears away the vest. “Come on, Lucius. Don’t be a dick.” He presses his ear to his brother’s chest. “It’s beating.”
“Hand me that gauze.” Teddy barks.
I lean over to reach for it, but my head goes fuzzy.
“Evie!” Teddy points at me. “Grab her.”
Sin catches me before I hit the ground beside Lucius. I can’t seem to control my body. It won’t follow even the simplest instructions.
“Save him,” I try to say. But I can’t tell if the words come out.
“She’s concussed, and I don’t know what else. Fuck!” Teddy’s voice goes in and out. “—keep pressure! I need you to—they’re coming. I hear sirens—don’t move his arm. Shit, we’re losing him!” The anguish in Teddy’s voice tears a hole in my heart.
I try to sit up, to do anything and everything to help, but I can’t. Lucius needs me, and I’m helpless. It’s ripping me apart. He came here to save me, walked right into Charles’s trap. It was all for me. So much pain. For him. For me. For his whole family. When will it be enough? When will we have suffered enough? I turn my head, even though the agony it causes is like a volcano erupting at the back of my cranium. Lucius is pale and lifeless. His body jerks as Teddy performs CPR.
A wail slips from between my lips. “I need you.” I cry. “Please!”
Lucius doesn’t open his eyes.
With what little strength I can manage, I reach out with my hand and take his. His skin is cold and clammy, but I know he’s alive. He has to be. I won’t give up on him. I can’t. Even when my eyes close, even when my head feels like it’s about to burst, even when I hear Teddy yell, “I can’t get a heartbeat!” Even then, I won’t give up. I’ll never give up on Lucius.
I force my eyes open one more time, and all I can see is Teddy doing chest compressions, trying to force life back into his brother. The cacophony in my head grows louder, and I can’t move anymore. I can’t do anything. How did we get here? I can’t remember. All I know is that Lucius is hurt. He’s dying. He’s dying.
“Lucius, please.” I’ll happily beg him—the man I thought was the devil. I’ll sell Lucius my soul if it makes him breathe again.
But if it doesn’t, I won’t let him go alone. Not when I finally know what it feels like to be loved, to be part of a family. “I’ll be with you no matter what. We’ll go together. You and me. I promise.” I smile as I see him smirking at me with his usual devilish flare, his eyes so bright and full of mischief. “Are you ready? I’m ready.”
No matter what he’s done, he’s mine. His sins are as much mine as they are his. Because he’s part of me. And now I know I love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone.
34
Lucius
“Evie!” I scream into consciousness with her name on my lips.