Chapter Sixty-two
Blood.
There’s blood. So much blood
Olivia is screaming, the sound muffled behind the tape but it’s a sound I’ll never forget, edged and soaked in agony. There are tears on her face, streaking through the grime and dirt clinging to her skin.
She’s been shot.
Panic consumes me as I drop to my knees, finding where the bullet entered her and press my palms to it to stem the bleeding. It’s in her thigh, there’s a hole where it has sliced through her, the blood bubbling and streaming out of her, seeping through the fingers I hold to her wound.
“Dean!” I yell frantically, the shake in my voice clear, “Get the ropes off!”
She thrashes under my hands, trying to move, to cry out but she can’t.
Dean hurries over, cutting through the rope before he gently takes the tape from her mouth and then her scream rips clearly through the warehouse.
“Stay still, baby,” I whisper, “Shh, I’ve got you.”
“You didn’t choose me,” She screams, trying to move away from my hands despite the amount of blood pumping through my fingers.
“I did. I’ll always choose you, Olivia.” I tell her. It wasn’t a case of not choosing her, I would choose her over and over but if I gave him what he wanted, he would have shot her anyway.
Tears stream from her eyes, her skin reddened from the tape, wrists, and ankles raw from the chafing of the rope.
“Stay awake,” I tell her when I see her lids starting to droop. “Call an ambulance!” I demand.
“The police,” Killian hesitates, looking to where Iwan and Stefan are restrained.
“Then get them the fuck out of here,” I growl, “But call a fucking ambulance.”
I don’t pay attention to what they do or who fucking does what, I keep pressure on the bullet wound and lift her leg above her body, trying to stem the blood flow.
“Stay with me, kitten,” I tell her, “Olivia!”
She mumbles something, her head lolling to the side. The shock, the blood loss and the trauma all wreaking havoc on her body. Sirens wail in the distance.
I’m covered in her blood and when I lean forward, gripping her face to try keep her awake, the red smears across her pale skin.
“Fuck,” I hiss, hearing my voice crack. “Wake up, baby.”
“It’s two minutes out,” Sebastian advises.
I flick my eyes to him, pleading.
The brothers are nowhere to be seen and neither are Iwan or Stefan. It’s just us in this rotting warehouse, the stench of fish now threaded with the smell of her blood, metallic and hot.
Sebastian adds pressure with me, looking desperately toward the door waiting for the paramedics.
“Olivia,” I croak, “Olivia, wake up, kitten.”
But she doesn’t. She looks too pale; her chest moves too slowly.
“She’s losing too much blood,” Sebastian says.
“I choose you, Olivia,” I beg, “I will always choose you.”
“Kai,” Sebastian whispers.
“She’s my wife,” My voice cracks, “I need her.”
“Hello!?” Someone yells.
“In here!” Sebastian bellows. “Hurry!”
I hear them rushing, I hear them asking questions, but I just kneel here, silently begging for her to wake up but she never does. There’s so much blood.
“Sir we need you to move.”
I can’t get my body to work.
“Sir!” The paramedic yells.
Someone grabs me – Sebastian – and drags me out of the way while two paramedics drop to Olivia. They work quickly, efficiently, speaking in terms I don’t understand.
And then Olivia is hauled onto a gurney and rushed from the warehouse, but she still isn’t awake.
I’ve seen people bleed out before; I’ve watched the life drain away quickly because of it but I don’t remember there ever being that much blood.
I try to follow into the ambulance, but the paramedic closes the doors before I can get inside, the lights flashing as the sirens echo through the industrial estate, but I don’t have a chance to demand to be let inside. Sebastian controls the situation, hauling me to the Maserati as he shoves me into the passenger seat.
“Get fucking with it, Malakai,” he snaps, gunning behind the ambulance to follow it to the hospital.
“That’s my wife,” I croak.
“Yeah, and she needs you right now.” He snaps, pissed at me, “Not this useless version of yourself. She needs you.”
I turn my eyes to him.
“So, either snap the fuck out of it or I’ll drop you on the side of the road and go to the hospital myself.”
“Like fuck you will!” I growl.
“Get your head out of your ass!” Sebastian hisses back. “Your wife needs you.”
He’s right. I look down at the blood on my hands, the stained cuffs of my shirt. Her blood. My wife.
The drive behind the ambulance clears my head. She doesn’t get to leave me. Not like this. The moment we stop, I’m out of the car, running toward the ER doors.
“Where is she!?” I demand.
“Sir!?”
“Where is Olivia Farrow?” I growl, “She was just brought in. Gunshot wound.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m her husband, where is she?”
They show me through to a quiet family room with Sebastian following, but then they close the door and provide no answers. I throw it back open, but Sebastian stops me.
“Malakai!” He growls. “Fucking stop. They will come to you when they have answers.”
“She needs me.”
“She needs the fucking doctors right now. She will need you when she wakes up so pull it together, wash off the blood and wait for her.”
I nod mutely. Wasn’t he the one who told me she needs me right now? Or was that just to get me to stop panicking? I have no fucking idea what is going on right now. It’s like the years of training, of preparing for a life like this have all gone out the window. I don’t know what to do, how to act.
But I start by washing my hands in the small bathroom attached to the room, watching the stained red water swirl down the drain. It takes five minutes to get it all off but the sleeves of my shirt are soaked with it so I can’t completely get clean. Sebastian goes in after me, washing off the blood on his hands and then he sits in one of the chairs while I pace the room.
It’s several hours later when a doctor comes into the room.
“She’s stable. We stopped the bleeding and repaired her leg. She lost a lot of blood though, we had to give her a transfusion. She’s awake.”
“Where is she?”
“This way.” We both move to follow. “Only one of you.” The doctor says.
Sebastian stops, “I’ll handle the mess at the house.” He tells me before he turns on his heel and jogs out of the hospital.
I’m let into a small private room like the one she was in before and find her lying in the bed, her face turned toward the window.
“Olivia,” I croak.
Blood shot eyes turn to me, but she doesn’t smile, her expression doesn’t change. If anything, she looks at me with contempt.
“Olivia?”
“I don’t want to see you.” She turns back to the window.
I step up to the bed, “What is it?”
My hand reaches for hers, but she flinches away, pain crossing her features.
“What’s wrong, kitten?”
She brings her eyes back to me, glazed but she doesn’t cry even though the tears sit on her water line. They never fall.
“I don’t want to see you.” She repeats, firmer.
“I chose you, Olivia,” I panic, “It didn’t matter what I said, they would have shot you anyway. I was trying to keep you alive.”
She shakes her head and withdraws her eyes from me again, “Everything is a game. A scheme.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know about the bet, Malakai.”
“The bet? What fucking bet?” I demand.
She laughs without humor and then flinches. I move for her again, trying to provide her with some comfort.
“Don’t fucking touch me, Malakai.” She snaps, “You’ll never touch me again.”
“What is happening right now!?”
“You made a bet, Malakai and don’t try to deny it. You made a bet with Sebastian, to sleep with me.”
The blood drains from my face.
“It was all a game to you,” Her voice cracks, “You used me. And now this?” She gestures to her leg. “You can pretend you were going to choose me, but we both know you wouldn’t. You only ever choose yourself.”
“Olivia, let me explain,” I don’t move to touch her again though I am desperate to, “Please.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Malakai. I don’t want to be near you right now.”
“Olivia, you’re hurt. You need me.”
She scoffs, the laugh filled with disdain, “I don’t fucking need you, Malakai. I never did.” Bored eyes travel the length of me, “But I will admit I wanted you. That I fell for you. So, congratulations, maybe you can get an extra hundred grand since you managed to fuck me and make me fall in love with you, hope it was worth it.”
“Olivia, please,” I beg, “That isn’t how–”
“Leave.”
“Olivia…”
“Leave!” She screams, loud enough it’ll draw the attention of the staff outside. “Leave!”
Tears fall freely from her eyes now, grief twisting her features, paling her skin.
“Leave!” She cries again, and fuck…
“Okay.” I hold my hands up, “Okay, baby. I’ll leave.”
“Don’t come back.”
“We’re married, Olivia.”
“And I’ll hate it for the rest of my life.” She jabs, sniffling as those fat tears roll down her cheeks. I want to kiss away her pain, hold her until she no longer feels like she is falling apart, but I can’t. She won’t let me.
“This isn’t over.”
She swats at her tears, “We never even begun, Malakai. There is nothing to be over. We are nothing.”