The Bloke (Men Under Revue #1)

32. Colby

Chapter 32

Colby

All sound surrounding me had stopped, nothing more than murmurs and muffled tones as I stared across the floor at the man holding my world against his chest with a knife to her throat.

My eyes flared wide, taking in the scene unfolding before me.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.

It all happened so fast.

One minute, she was executing our plan to lure the man away from the poker table, and the next, he had his arm wrapped tightly around her with a knife to her neck as if she were nothing more than an expendable shield.

Nick was shouting something at me, but I heard nothing that came out of his mouth between my anger and the blood that rushed through my ears.

I had to help her—to save her, but for some fucked up reason, I couldn’t move.

What the fuck Colby, fucking move!

Nick restrained me from charging the man, and I had no fucking clue why he would prevent me from saving my fucking wife.

All I could do was stare at her over his shoulder, seething with feral rage.

My wife looked at me with her big, stormy eyes in shock and fear at her situation before they softened into an apologetic and pleading look as she mouthed, ‘I love you’ before her hand, which was fighting Jameson’s grip, dropped down to her side.

Instead of feeling the warm sensation of that love around me, my heart shattered into a million fucking pieces.

It wasn’t a declaration; it was a silent goodbye.

She was fucking saying goodbye.

The only sound that I heard over all the muffled screaming and shouting was from a gun being loaded off to my left, and no more than a second later, the trigger was pulled.

“Colby!” Sienna screamed as sound finally broke through the barrier of my mind.

Bang!

I watched in horror as a bullet ripped through my wife’s chest, and she dropped to the floor, nothing more than a limp and lifeless body.

Nick finally released me from his hold, and I hauled ass across the casino floor, falling to my knees at her side before pulling her into my lap.

“Everything’s going to be okay, love. I’ve got you.” I choked out; her eyes were closed, but I continued repeating the words, believing she could hear me. “I’ve got you, Sienna. I’ve got you…”

Tears streamed down my face, landing on her flawless cheek, her excruciatingly slow breaths nothing more than a whisper. I put pressure on the bullet wound with my hand to prevent her from losing any more blood while the other felt for a pulse.

As long as that keeps beating, you don’t need to worry about me.

“Nick!” I shouted, not taking my eyes off my wife and her paling face.

She was losing too much blood, and who knew if the bullet hit any major organ? The sight of her condition alone had me dreading just that. Fuck, fuck, fuck! “Nick!”

Breathe.

I could hear her soothing voice in my head, begging me to calm down and breathe. I had fallen so madly in love with her that I would be nothing if she were gone. My free hand pulled her body tightly against my aching chest.

I was suffocating.

Breathe.

To hear my name on her lips just once more…

Breathe, Colby.

To see her bright, beaming smile as her stormy eyes fixated on mine.

Breathe, love.

To feel her love squeezing my heart and chaining me to her side forever.

“Breathe, mate!” Nick had been violently shaking my shoulders as I snapped out of my hysterical trance, eyes desolate like hers.

I could feel the warmth leaving her body, slowly turning it cold within my arms.

“Bring her back, Nick,” I begged, my voice cracking with the strain to compose words. “I can’t—I can’t live without her.” And I didn’t want to. A life without Sienna was a life I no longer wanted. “Fucking save her!”

“I can’t do fuck-all with you unconscious, so take a minute—”

“She’s fucking dying in my arms, Nick. She doesn’t have a fucking minute!” I barked before my swollen, tear-filled eyes met those of the man who had pulled the trigger. “You.” I snarled, releasing my wife’s body to Nick as I forced myself to stand, fists clenched so tightly they shook.

“Your wife is quite the performer—” He started before my fist smashed into his jaw, my knuckles splitting from the impact.

“Don’t you dare say a fucking word about my wife, you trigger-happy motherfucker.” I sneered. “Just who the fuck do you think you are?”

His uniform and full tactical gear told me exactly who he was, but I was still reeling from a shockwave of emotions while attempting to process what the fuck had just happened, that that was all I could bring myself to say.