Chapter 29 #2
A scream rattles my brain, and I glance up to see Bonnie, clutching her black strands, her blue eyes wide as she looks down at what remains of Joel.
“Fucking roll call!” I scream, needing Bonnie to hear me, as well as the others.
Bonnie stops screaming, her cries turning into sobs as she falls to her knees a foot from the pool of blood.
“Lenny!” I scream, and I hear her whimper before I see her, staggering to stand, holding her arm as blood oozes down to her wrist.
“I-I’m he-here,” she sobs.
“Sebastian!” I yell, and his arm pops up from behind the basins, giving me a wave.
“I can’t stand, but I’m okay,” he calls, and my eyes dart everywhere.
“Darla!”
“Y-yes,” Darla whimpers, popping her head out from the front counter. Or at least, what remains of it.
Fuck.
Fuck!
FUCK!
The gun tumbles from my fingers, clattering to the floor as air seizes in my lungs.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t breathe.
I CAN’T brEATHE!
The loud approaching sirens start to fade as I clutch my chest, clawing at my pinafore, trying to get the zipper down like that will somehow help me breathe.
Bonnie appears before me, her lips moving, her eyes frantic, but no matter what I do, I can’t get air into my lungs.
Someone else appears before me, a paramedic, then a police officer, but still, I can’t fucking breathe.
Suddenly, I’m jostled around, Bonnie, the paramedic and police officer vanishing, and in their place… is him.
Asher.
Warm hands cup my face. Whisky eyes pierce my vision. Soft lips press to my ear.
“Breathe, Lily.”
I choke on a rush of oxygen, a cough escaping one after the other as air slowly begins to trickle back in.
Asher pulls me to his chest, and I wrap my arms around him, needing him more than ever to keep me afloat.
I’m not able to stay in his embrace for long. The scene looks like a war zone, quickly filling with paramedics and police, trying to figure out what happened.
Asher doesn’t leave me. He stays by my side, his arm around my shoulder, giving me comfort. To the outside world, it looks like nothing more than a friend offering support, but if it didn’t… if it looked like more… in this moment, I wouldn’t care.
Seb and Lenny get rushed off to the hospital with non-life-threatening bullet wounds, followed by Bonnie and Darla, who are getting treated for shock.
The paramedics want me to go to the hospital as well, but I decline, and after four intense hours of interviews, plus a slap on the wrist that will likely get followed up on for having an unregistered firearm, the officers let me leave.
Asher drives me home in my car, getting Steve from his work to pick up his motorbike that he left parked across from my salon.
Apparently, they could hear the gunfire from the auto repair shop, and Asher jumped on his bike to see what was going on.
I’m so glad he did. I’m fairly certain I would’ve died if he didn’t show up when he did. I just couldn’t get my lungs to work, but his presence… his voice… it brought me back.
Once we are home, I tell Asher I need a moment, and I go to my bathroom, tearing my clothes off as I turn the water on in the shower.
It’s scalding hot, just what I need right now, and I step under the stream, my cheek stinging from the cut, but I welcome the pain. I deserve the pain.
If it weren’t for me, Joel wouldn’t be dead, and my other staff wouldn’t have been injured or had to endure such a traumatic event.
“Oh my God,” I whisper into the empty space as it all sinks in.
Another attempt on my life was made today, but the assassins, who were clearly not that good at what they do, didn’t care what collateral damage there was. They were street thugs at best, and they used their stolen weapons to shoot up my salon… to shoot my staff members.
“Oh my God.” I sob this time, sliding to the floor of the shower as another sob comes, and another.
Cries rack my body, making me jerk with each one as the reality of today settles into my bones.
The shower door opens, and through the blur of my tears, I recognise Asher’s feet, his ankles, and his calves as he steps inside, closing the glass door behind him.
“Lil,” he whispers, sliding to the floor with me before lifting me in his arms, cradling me to his chest. “I don’t know how to help you.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a squeeze, unable to say any words, but needing him to know that this, what he’s doing right now, is what I need.
I cry into his neck for a long time, and he holds me close, pressing his lips to the top of my head, and telling me that he’s got me.
When I finally run out of tears, I press my lips to his ear and whisper softly, because speaking the words too loud will make telling him the truth more real.
“It’s my fault.”
“No.” He shakes his head, trying to pull me back to look at me, but I tighten my arms around his neck. “Don’t say that, Lily. It was a random drive-by shooting. Nothing could’ve prepared you for that.”
I shake my head. “No. You don’t get it,” I whisper. “It really is my fault. Someone wants me dead.”
This time, my attempt at keeping my arms locked around his neck fails, and he forces me back to meet his dark gaze.
“What did you say?”
“There’s…”
Shit. Can I really tell him?
“There’s what?” he asks, his brows nearly meeting in the middle as he frowns at me.
“There’s… a hit out on me,” I admit. “Someone has been trying to kill me.”
The way his eyes flare, like a storm is brewing in them as he looks down at me, makes my heart seize.
He studies me for a moment, water dripping down from his hair, his eyes darting between mine as he thinks over something.
“It wasn’t a mugging the other night, was it?”
When I shake my head, he curses.
“Fuck, Lily. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you will ask questions I can’t answer,” I admit, and again, he studies me.
“What’s going on?”
I shake my head. “You should leave. It’s not safe to be around me.”
He scoffs. “Like fuck. I’m not going anywhere.”
Swallowing back the lump forming, I clear my throat. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
A smirk tugs at his lips. “I do.”
“Should I ask how you know how to use a gun since this country has extremely strict gun laws?” I point out, and he raises a brow.
“Should I ask you the same, Lily? How do you know how to shoot? You shot those guys this morning. Clean shots, right through the eye socket. You’re no amateur.”
I shrug. “I guess we’ll just leave it at that, then.”
Sighing, Asher’s lips thin. “I don’t really want to leave it at that.
I want you to talk to me, Lil. Tell me everything.
But I know you feel like you can’t right now.
” He presses his forehead to mine, water running down both our faces.
“So I’ll be patient and wait until you realise that you can trust me.
I may be young, but I’m not dumb or na?ve.
I know there’s more at play here. Something a lot bigger.
But I want you to know, I don’t care what it is.
I don’t care what you’re into. I just care about you, and I’m not going anywhere. ”