Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
It’s all like a dream. My body slumps back, my focus entirely on her and the way her eyes lift to mine, brightening at the sight of me looking at her.
“Just relax,” Jase tells me as he drags a chair across the room, cutting off my path to Aria for a split second and again I try to get up and go to her, but it fucking hurts.
Daniel tries to push me back down, a gentle push, but he can fuck off.
He doesn’t need to do a damn thing anyway; the pain is enough to keep me from moving. It’s such a sharp pain, I can feel it everywhere. It heightens the slight twinge from the needles in my arm. The pressure on my chest feels like too much.
All of this pain is negligible though. She’s here. We survived.
“I’m fine,” I grit through my teeth, refusing to take my eyes away from her.
“Have it your way,” Daniel says then raises his hands and backs up to lean against the wall in front of me. His head rests against the cream walls, next to a painting of some church. Seeing it reminds me where I am. The doctor came in a moment ago. Saint Francis Hospital is small and off a back road. They’re also now equipped with two dozen men outside this room, this hall, and this building.
The doctor said I need at least a week in bed. I’ll give it two days.
I want to be home. With Aria.
I won’t stay here for long.
“How are you doing?” Jase asks me and I give him a side-eye.
“Fucking peachy,” I answer him. My heart tightens as I watch Aria take a half step closer. Her fingers wring around one another nervously. She’s still quiet and hasn’t said a word.
I remember those last moments, but I also remember that she ran away.
And the last time we were alone… I remember that too. How she cuffed herself to the bed at my command. At my arrogance.
Never again. I’ll never let it happen again.
“What happened?” I hate that I have to ask and the knot in my throat nearly suffocates me knowing that regardless of what happened when I blacked out, my songbird went through it alone. I wasn’t strong enough for her.
I failed her.
My throat constricts when Jase tells me Nikolai killed her father. He shot him and now we have a truce. One built on the condition that we join forces to eliminate Romano.
Nikolai was her prince in shining armor. I knew I’d owe him, but I never imagined I’d owe him for my own life.
“Romano is the new target then,” I tell Jase with a tight voice, letting go of the jealousy and the hate I have for the first love Aria ever had. I force the semblance of a smirk to my lips as I shift on the bed. Every movement exacerbates the pain of the needles digging into my arms.
I needed a blood transfusion. Three ice cold bags of the shit. I may not have been able to speak or even open my eyes. But I felt it. I felt everything as I hovered the edge of death, fighting to get back to Aria, moving toward the sound of her mournful hums.
“It’s the right move to go after Romano. We can let Talvery’s men choose what position they take afterward, but for now, Romano is the only enemy,” Jase says and Daniel agrees.
“I know.” I swallow gravely and watch Aria in my periphery. My brothers may be in front of me, but I couldn’t give two shits about them. I don’t care about the war. The territories. I don’t care about anything other than never putting Aria in the line of fire again.
“He knows we fucked him.” Jase’s voice is even as he slips his hands into his pockets. I can see through his jeans how balls them into fists before releasing them and then does it all over again as he speaks.
My heartbeat is faint and the voices around me are nothing but muted white noise as I stare at him. The soft beeps of the monitor continue all the while I have to force myself to focus on what they’re saying.
All I want to do is make sure we’re all right. I need to know that Aria and I are all right and that she forgives me. For everything.
I’m so fucking weak for her.
She has me in every way she can. Forever more.
“With Aria being seen and involved, the Talvery men won’t turn on us.” He peeks over his shoulder and pauses, seemingly biting his tongue before adding, “For now.”
I gauge Aria’s response, but she gives away nothing. Nothing at all. Her small frame doesn’t even sway as she keeps her focus on me. On the tubes that connect to the needle in my veins and the monitors on my chest. I wish I could rip the fuckers out right now. I don’t want her to see me like this.