Chapter 35
I’ve never been happier than at this moment when all my mistakes, regrets, and sins are out in the open, and Mia still chooses to love me.
I need to get her out of here, and soon. As I look at my father, his eyes are open and lifeless, and his body is stiff. He’s fucking dead. She killed for me. I am torn between remorse and amazement. I would have killed him a thousand times before I’d ever let her taint her soul with that.
I move to stand, but my knees buckle under me. What the fuck? Pure terror stretches in her eyes as tears stream down her face.
“No… please, Blake. Please don’t leave me. Please, no. NONONO.” She clutches her head as if dispelling an image from her mind.
“I’d never leave you,” I say, then I see what has her in such a panic. The bullet went straight into my left side. I am sure from the quick blood loss, it’s my spleen. Fuck, this is bad.
“Don’t move,” she says, tearing at her dress. I look down once again, blood soaking the material. It’s too much.
Yet, I am at peace. I’ll die in her arms. Cupping her cheek, I urge her to look at me.
“No, don’t you dare,” she says, pressing the cloth into my open wound.
“Silver…”
She shakes her head, sniffling, but I can’t ignore the truth. I am going to die. Isn’t that ironic? Now, when I’d do anything to live, my seconds are numbered.
“Look at me.”
She squeezes her eyes shut, and I add, “You have to leave. There is one more guard and the pilot we know about.”
“I would never abandon you.”
“Please, do it for me.”
“And you’ll stay alive for me? Can you do that?” she asks hopefully, as if I have the power to stop death. Not to be able to console her fucking hurts me more than anything else, because it would be a lie.
It’s my spleen. It’s ruptured. I won’t make it.
“Let me look at those silver eyes where I see my entire life.”
Sobs rip from her, and she looks so dejected it shatters me.
“I told you it’s corny that you call me Silver because of my eye color,” she smiles brokenly.
“Ah, baby, that’s not why I call you that. It’s because you’re my silver lining.”
She cries even harder. “Then hold on. For me. Please. You promised. You said I am yours and no one else’s. Prove it.”
“I need to know you’ll be okay,” I say, ripping my sleeve off. I wrap it around her shoulder and armpit to stop the bleeding. I’d sell my soul to get the chance to kill Caleb again for inflicting pain on her.
“I will never be okay if you die. Do you hear me? Don’t leave me. I refuse to live without you.” She clenches my shirt between her trembling fingers. Her distress butchers my insides. I don’t know what will end up killing me faster, her anguish or the blood loss.
“You’re a fighter. Fight this. For me, for us, for our future together. Because I don’t see that with anyone else but with you.”
“Fuck, I love you so much. I am going to bargain with God or the devil himself to let me come back to give you that. And if it’s possible, I will return.”
My focus wavers while I try to fix my eyes on hers.
She helps me lean back as she caresses my face.
“Please. There might be a bomb somewhere. You’re going to get everyone else killed if you don’t leave.”
“You think I am good, but I am selfish, Blake. If I die with you here and now, so be it.”
I guess I have to gather my strength and carry this stubborn woman of mine.
“What are you doing?” she asks as I offer her a smile and stand up, pushing through the weakness of my body.
“I’m better. Come on, let’s go.”
“Sure?” The hope in her voice undoes me.
Don’t die on her before you get her out to safety.
I move to Caleb and crouch in front of his body. Rot in hell, Father, but your true punishment will only begin once I’m there.
I grab the gun and my dagger. As we walk away, she presses herself to my side. Every step is a feat in itself.
The moment we’re out of the laboratory, the fucking guard appears, but I shoot him, the bullet ripping through his skull, before he even has time to draw his gun.
Mia’s and my blood mixes, leaving behind a trail of broken hopes and ruined dreams. We sidestep bodies as we trudge to the exit. When we’re out, the sun caresses my face. With my girl by my side, I don’t feel cold, but warm.
I see our friends running toward us. There’s a helicopter preparing to take off, but Dane and Abi are racing toward it.
Mia’s safe. She will make it, yet I don’t let go, clinging to the thin rope of life while the abyss of death waits for me, ready to claim me once I can no longer hold on.
I turn her to me and press a soft kiss to her plump lips.
“I love you. You’re my destiny. Our souls are connected, Mia, and we’ll be together again.”
She fists my shirt so tightly, as if she can keep me here if she holds on with all her strength. Tears stream down her face, and it guts me.
“Don’t say goodbye. I won’t accept that. Our friends are here. Please. Please, Blake, don’t leave me.”
Kaden, Celine, and Hunter reach us, trying to peel Mia from me, but she won’t let me go.
“Look at me. I need you to look at me,” I command.
Once she does, with the last of my strength, I palm her cheek, and she leans into my touch, placing her hand on mine.
“It’s okay. I love you.”
“I love you so, so much. Stay with me. Please,” she sniffles, choking on her cries.
She peers around her at our friends. “Do something,” Mia screams while Kaden’s eyes narrow on my gushing wound.
“This is nothing, man.” I try to ease the atmosphere when he comes to my side, and I whisper, “Take her away. You know I won’t make it.”
“Be the fucking stubborn guy I know and push through it.”
Do they think I want to die now when I’m looking at the best reason I have to live? But what good would hoping do when I know the facts.
Celine puts her arm around Mia’s shoulder. “Don’t die on us, Blake. Please. We’re a family. We’re supposed to grow old together,” she says in a shaky breath.
“Fight. Fight one more time, please,” Mia pleads.
My strength bleeds out of me, and my hand drops. As I slip into darkness, a broken, “I love you” escapes my lips. My last thought is that I wanted to grow old with her, make her my wife, and put my babies in her. But then everything turns black, swallowing Mia’s soul-wrenching cry.