Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
“Damien!” I called, another sob falling from my lips.
He rushed into the room with Miles right behind him. “Fuck!” Damien roared as he rushed over to me. He yanked his shirt over his head and applied pressure to my wound. I cried out in pain, gagging when the intensity of it made vomit rush up my throat. Damien reached up and ran his hand over my unbruised cheek, his face pained. “I’m here, baby,” he soothed. He looked up at Miles. “Cut this fucking tape,” he ordered.
Miles quickly cut the tape and ripped it off me. Damien stood up and lifted me into his arms, cradling me to his chest. “I’m taking her to the hospital. Call Dr. Burns,” Damien instructed Miles. “I want him ready to take care of her when I fucking get there.”
Miles nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket as he walked ahead of us to the front door. He slid into the driver’s seat of a sports car and Damien got into the backseat with me, keeping pressure on my leg. “Fucking hell, baby girl, I’m sorry this happened,” he murmured, agony for me clear in his voice.
“It hurts,” I cried.
Damien pressed his lips to my temple. “I know, beautiful. I know, and I’m so fucking sorry.”
Damien
I pulled my phone out of my pocket as soon as Hayley was knocked out from the morphine Dr. Burns had given her so he could work on her leg. I dialed Drake’s number and put the phone to my ear. His phone went straight to voicemail, and I clenched my jaw, flexing my hand at my side to prevent myself from trashing the hospital room.
How in the fuck were you meant to protect someone—especially someone as precious as Hayley—if you didn’t even have your goddamn phone on?
I tried Tyrone’s number next. He answered on the third ring. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Where’s Drake?” I demanded to know as I paced the length of the room, feeling like a caged lion.
“Beside me. What’s going on?” he asked.
I wanted to reach through the phone and wring Drake’s fucking neck. “Put him on,” I growled.
Drake’s voice came through the line next. “Damien?” he asked gruffly, sounding annoyed.
“Why the fuck was Hayley left alone by herself?!” I roared. Dr. Burns glanced up at me for a moment before focusing back on Hayley.
“She’s fine—" Drake started, but I cut him off, slamming my fist against the wall. I barely registered the pain that flared through my fist as I hit it. I couldn’t believe he was trying to tell me she was fine, when she was currently knocked out to have a fucking bullet removed! A bullet that could have fucking been prevented had he given enough of a fuck to make sure she was taken care of and protected!
“She fucking got shot!” I roared at him.
Silence rang on the other end of the line for a moment. I knew Drake felt something for my woman, but that shit ended today. She was mine, and just like before, I couldn’t fucking trust anyone else to take care of her. This just proved it.
“Fuck,” Drake swore. “Is she alright?”
I wanted to slit his throat. I wanted to shoot him in his fucking thigh just like Mark had done to Hayley, except I wanted to do it over and over again.
“It’s none of your fucking business anymore if she’s alright,” I snarled. “I’m sending Miles and one of my other men to your place to get her shit. She’s staying with me, and if I see you anywhere around her, I will fucking hold true to my word and fucking murder you, do you understand me? Your carelessness could have gotten her fucking killed.”
I hung up the phone and shoved my hands through my hair before I looked over at my baby girl lying on the hospital bed. The left side of her face was swelling from where she had obviously been hit. I knew I should have taken her with me the first damn day I heard of this problem, but I wanted to give her the opportunity to come to me on her own—to show her that I had changed.
Goddammit though, I couldn’t allow this shit to happen to her again, even if, once again in our lives together, it meant I had to take away her options.
I texted Miles to go with Quinn to get Hayley’s stuff from Drake’s. Drake called my phone three times as I watched Dr. Burns work on Hayley’s leg before he eventually got the memo that I wasn’t fucking talking to him.
Dr. Burns turned to me. “She’s going to be alright. I’m going to give you some pain medication to give her. You can go ahead and take her home so she can be properly protected.” He looked back at Hayley with a sigh. “I take it the girl wasn’t in your care?” he asked me.