Basher #2
All he felt was an inherent need to get to the man with the gun and kill him before he hurt the smiling unicorn who gave his life meaning.
If there was ever something so important that gave his life meaning, it was this—this very moment—stumbling toward the man who threatened to take it all away, who threatened to hurt the sweetest man alive.
No. No fucking way was he letting any of this happen.
Another flash of light.
He blinked twice, fighting against the darkness that threatened to swallow him whole.
No. Only a few more steps.
Romeo's expression suddenly shifted.
The smug certainty was gone, replaced by confusion and then panic.
He pulled the trigger again.
Nothing.
A second time.
Nothing.
With every failed attempt, the color seemed to drain from Romeo’s face.
Was he out of bullets?
Basher didn’t know. He didn’t care.
All he cared about was wrapping his hands around that son of a bitch’s throat and squeezing the life from him.
Sound returned to the world just as Basher lunged at the man holding the gun.
“You’re fuckin’ dead,” Basher heard himself say.
The two of them fell to the floor as Basher began pounding his fists into the terrified man’s face.
He could hear Cameron screaming somewhere behind him. But in that moment, the only two people who existed were Basher and the man he was about to kill.
Red liquid danced around him, splashing against his face and quickly covering his calloused knuckles.
“You’ll never get to touch him,” Basher growled. “Never.”
The body beneath him slowly lost strength. Each powerful punch met less and less resistance.
“Basher! No!” Cameron’s sobbing voice cut through the piercing ringing in Basher’s ears. The pain and torment in the young man’s voice cut through him like a shard of glass.
He immediately stopped.
“Basher!” Warm, soft hands gripped his angry face, causing him to pull focus.
Soft blue eyes locked onto his.
“Basher. Come back to me. Please.”
The rage was still there, burning hot beneath his skin, but Basher clung to the sound of Cameron's voice.
It drifted through the chaos like a lifeline.
Sweet. Calm. Safe.
Listening to his voice felt like being wrapped in a warm, comforting blanket, shielding him from everything else threatening to tear him apart.
The compassion, the love, all of it.
Basher’s breathing slowly returned. His eyes remained on Cameron’s as his heart rate began to return to normal.
“Cam?”
Cameron’s eyes watered as he wrapped his arms around Basher’s neck.
“Yes, it’s me. Please stop. I don’t want you to kill him. Please. I love you.”
Realization set in.
Basher was suddenly aware of the man struggling to breathe just beneath him.
He had two choices: He could ignore his lover’s plea and finish ending this miserable man’s life, or he could turn this man in and let the authorities handle administering justice.
“Please,” Cameron whispered into his ear.
There was no question about it. Basher would always do whatever it was that Cameron desired.
He wrapped his arms around Cameron and lifted him as he stood and stepped away from Romeo’s body.
The desperate wheezing coming from the man’s throat told Basher he was no longer a threat… and probably only had a limited amount of time to seek medical attention.
Taking Cameron’s face in his hands, he locked eyes with Cameron. “I’ll always do whatever you say. You own me. I’m yours, now and forever.”
Basher leaned forward and took Cameron’s lips in his. They kissed long and deep, committing to each other a life of love and devotion.
This was what he wanted—a love so deep you felt it in your bones. Cameron was Basher’s life, his water and his oxygen.
Without him, he had no chance of surviving.
“Holy shit, dude!” Blade’s voice cut through their fairy-tale romance story. “Did you fucking kill him?”
“What? No. He’s still fucking alive,” Ace answered, pulling up next to them. “But he isn’t going to be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon.”
“Not bad, but you’re bleeding too much,” Nikolai said in a thick Russian accent.
“Oh shit!” Cameron shouted, quickly pushing himself off Basher and nearly knocking his weak ass over. “You’ve been shot! Like, a lot!”
“What? Let me see that,” Marcus huffed, pushing through the gathering crowd of Shadow Vipers and lifting up Basher’s shirt without his permission.
“Six! Check that out! Six fucking bullets to the stomach, and the beast is still standing!” Caden cheered. He sounded both impressed and a tiny bit in awe. “Like, seriously, dude, how are you not pushing up daisies?”
“’Cause he’s a fucking alpha!” Blade shot back, looking over Caden’s shoulder at the bleeding mess that used to be Basher’s abs.
A wave of lightheadedness fell over him.
“I… I think I’d better sit down.” Basher moaned, reaching for the floor beneath him before he passed out or did something embarrassing, like puking his guts out.
“I’m calling the police,” Ace blurted.
“Better call Officer Burke. We may need him to spin this our way,” Marcus muttered, helping Basher down to the floor.
He sat down, with Basher resting between his legs, and wrapped his arms around Basher’s body.
“Pass me your shirts,” Marcus ordered the guys around him. “We need to put pressure on these wounds to stop the bleeding.”
All the guys around them quickly tore off their shirts and knelt down, holding them over various wounds.
If anyone were to witness the scene, they would think a cult of shirtless bikers was in the middle of worshipping one of their own—a man so buff that not even a barrage of bullets could bring him down.
Basher liked the thought of that—being worshipped as an unkillable god.
“We got you, brother. You’re not fucking dying on us tonight,” Marcus whispered into his ear.
Hearing Marcus’s words, Basher began to feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time—belonging.
The guys were all here for him. They had all fought this war for him. And now they were all working together to try to keep the last of his blood inside his body, where it fuckin’ belonged.
Cameron took Basher’s hand and squeezed it. “You’re not fucking dying on me either. You’re going to grow old, doing whatever I say for the next eighty years.”
Basher liked the sound of that as well. Getting to spend a lifetime with the guy he loved sounded like the perfect life.
“Think of the grandpa nutsack he’s going to have on him by then,” Blade uttered, turning to look at his buddy Caden.
Caden shook his head. “Not the right time, dude.”
Ace slapped Blade across the chest as he spoke on the phone with Officer Burke.
“And the other guys?” Basher whispered, using all the energy he could muster to think and speak.
“Lucas and Gavin are holding them at drone point.” Marcus chuckled. “I don’t think those gangsters know what to make of those two.”
The whole group laughed.
Pain shot through Basher’s stomach as he took in the room full of laughter.
These guys had risked their lives for him.
These guys were now here, holding his guts in place so they didn’t fall out and he didn’t die.
Then Basher looked over at Cameron, who was staring at him with so much love and concern in his eyes.
“God, I fuckin’ love you,” Basher whispered up at Cameron.
The last thing he remembered was Cameron smiling down at him as the world around him fell silent and darkness finally overtook him.