Chapter 33 #4
“Oh, my friend, your security guys must not be that great at their job.” Bartholomew’s words seem to reverberate through the derelict office.
“And your poor wife just found out the happy news today. Please don’t blame her.
I’m sure she’s hoping it’s yours. After all, she knew all along it was you at the club. ”
Slowly, Adriano’s eyes lift back up, finding mine. Pain and betrayal are written all over his face.
It’s not true! I madly shake my head, almost choking on the gag in my mouth. Not true!
“There’s still a chance for the two of you, you know?” Bartholomew goes on. “Since Iris was aware of your secret identity, it means she was making love to you, not ‘that other guy,’ as you put it.”
Adriano’s face loses all color as he gapes at me while the crazy man continues speaking.
“So don’t be alarmed, dear boy. I’ve referenced my old anatomy textbooks and determined the safest path for the bullet. One that will be nonlethal to your wife. However, I’m afraid the child…”—sigh—“won’t survive.”
All of a sudden, I feel as if I’m a spectator outside of my own body. He is making Adriano choose between our child’s life and his own. Maniacally, I start to yank my arms, fighting to get free, but it’s no use. The ties won’t break.
“That’s a more difficult choice, isn’t it?
” the deranged man prods, still pressing his gun to my abdomen.
“Sacrificing your life for something you must despise. The life growing inside your wife’s womb is the one thing you always wanted but knew you could never have.
But it is also evidence of her deception.
She cheated on you. This is the proof of that.
That can’t be worth dying for? Can it, Adriano? ”
Can it?
Sacrifice my life to protect another man’s child.
Agony and despair grip me.
If today hadn’t happened, what would she have done? She knew it was me at the Annex. Would she have eventually confronted me about it and then told me we’re having a kid? I never did confess to her that I can’t father children.
And what about me? What would I have done in return? Would I hate the kid? The child of the woman I love? The child I could never give her?
No. The thought booms in my mind as I stare into the warm amber depths of my wife’s eyes. I could never hate anything that is a part of her. That is also, in part, my Iris. I love her too much. Everything about her. Including her child. A child conceived with another man.
I would’ve gone along with it. Never would’ve admitted that I know the truth. Know that she had an affair. And I would have loved the kid as if it were mine. Because it’s hers.
The cocking of the gun breaks the silence. “I really need you to make your choice, Adriano.”
I uncurl my fingers from around the grip of my Beretta, letting the weapon drop to the nasty floor. The thud seems to echo in the stifling space.
Bartholomew sucks in a breath. “My oh my. I had hoped, but I never believed you’d actually do it.”
I tune out his voice, focusing solely on my wife.
Rage and regret battle within me as I take in my Little Iris, her frantic eyes, her tear-streaked face.
She’s thrashing, still tied to her chair.
Her head is whipping from side to side, and she’s trying to scream.
What is she saying? I could have sworn I heard my name.
This girl… Her anguish is tearing at my heart. The heart that was a block of ice before I found her. But now, it’s the place where she will always remain. My sweet, sweet Iris. Always beautiful, even as she cries.
I’ve never been moved by anyone’s tears before.
Never had anyone shed even a single one for me.
No one had any cause to weep for me, and I have never given anyone a reason to do it.
Men like me are not mourned. We don’t elicit tears, unless they spill because of fear.
Yet, Iris is crying for me. And her tears cut me deeper than any blade ever could. I can’t take it.
In my peripheral vision, I see Barty raise his gun, aiming it at my chest. But I can’t look away from my wife. I want her to be my last sight on this earth. So I can keep it with me wherever I’m headed.
Time. I wish we had more time.
If I could go back a decade, I’d let the crazy bastard blow his brains out.
Then, none of this would be happening. I wouldn’t be facing death knowing that old adage is true.
No good deed goes unpunished. But then again, seeing my Little Iris cry, shedding her beautiful tears for me… maybe it was all worth it.
Or maybe I’m just as nuts as Barty.
Jesus fuck! I should have told her the truth. I should’ve admitted that I fell in love the instant she gave me that cookie. I should have—
BANG!
The gunshot explodes in the small room. Piercing pain rips through my right shoulder. I stumble. Go down on my knee. Lean forward.
My lungs are trying to expand to take a breath in, while my hand is busy staunching the surge of blood from a searing hole.
Muffled screams echo around me. And there are thumps, like the pounding of wood, making the floor shake beneath me.
Footsteps. Slow. Measured. Approaching me head-on.
The asshole is coming to gloat, not realizing his aim was shitty.
I keep myself bent, waiting for him to get closer.
Three steps away.
Two.
I grit my teeth, blocking out the pain as I apply more pressure to the wound.
“My dear, dear Adriano. You really should’ve—”
I launch forward. Grabbing his wrist, I wrap my uninjured arm around his throat and tackle him to the floor. Barty thrashes, gasping for breath as he tries to get free. But I keep him pinned to the ground.
My shoulder and arm are on fire, but it’s nothing compared to the rage burning in me. The crack of a bone breaking as I shatter his wrist while I wrestle the gun out of his hand is music to my ears.
“You should have aimed better, Bartholomew!” I bark into his face just as another gunshot slices between us.
Barty twitches under me. He takes a labored breath and meets my eyes. Then, the psycho grins.
“I did… And…I hit my mark. Just as I…planned,” he wheezes, lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood beneath him.
I let go of his neck. “What?”
That absurd grin on his face pulls wider. “Low enough to avoid subclavian and axillary arteries. As well as the brachial plexus, to spare you the nerve damage. Still, it must hurt like a bitch. My apologies for that.”
“The fuck?” I grab his chin, twisting his face toward me. “You missed on purpose, you dumb shit?”
“Killing a man…I’ve been trying to save…would make my mission pointless, wouldn’t it?” He tries to chuckle, but it comes out hollow. “I hope you and…your Iris…have…a great life…together. But…try…not to be…such an ass…from now on.”
I’m staring at Barty, trying and failing to understand this lunacy. He had to have known that I’d kill him for this. But he did it anyway?
“It’s alright.” He taps my hand. “Many great…scientists…have died…for their cause.”
His body jerks once more before his hand drops to the floor with a loud thud.
Bartholomew Shaw takes a shallow breath, and with his exhale, the light fades from his previously smiling eyes. Leaving behind an empty vessel.
“Iris,” Adriano whispers as he crouches before me, removing the gag from my mouth. “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe.”
“You’re…bleeding,” I choke out. Tremors rack my body, making my teeth chatter.
“It’s nothing.” He pulls up his pant leg and slips a small blade from a sheath at his ankle. “Did he hurt you?” he asks as he cuts the bonds around my feet, then my chest, and finally my wrists. “Are you okay? Is…”—he looks up, those pools of icy-blue connect with me—“is the baby alright?”
I suck in a lungful of air.
Oh God! He believes the baby isn’t his.
And he didn’t even find out about the pregnancy from me. I never told him.
“Adriano—”
“Please tell me you’re okay. Or, I swear to God, I’m going to lose it.”
I lean toward him, cupping his face with my palms. “I’m fine. But you’re bleeding too much. We need to get you to the—”
His mouth slams against mine, stealing my air.
He kisses me with the ferocity of a man who has experienced a lifetime’s worth of hunger.
It leaves me dizzy. Consumes my soul, heats up my center, unleashes a heady rush of sensation in every part of me.
This is more than a kiss, and I never want it to end.
“I’m so sorry.” His voice breaks as he murmurs into my mouth.
“All of this is my fault.” His hand cups my chin as he rains kisses all over my face.
My nose, my forehead, my eyes. “I should have… I should have done so, so many things.” He’s holding me impossibly close, as if afraid I might pull away.
“Christ, baby. I was so fucking scared. Never been so scared in my life. I thought… I thought I was going to lose you. That…he’d take you from me. ”
His lips are on mine again. His hand is sliding into my hair as he deepens the kiss. He tastes like dawn breaking over the ocean. And something darker. Something I could have for the rest of my life and not get enough of.
“Can’t live without you, Little Iris. Can’t survive even a single day.
You’re my air. My sun. My lifeline. I’m drowning without you.
I need you. I love you. Love you so damn much.
” He leans back slightly, and those vibrant-blue depths lock on mine.
“I know, I’m not the kind of man you deserve.
I’m not…nice. Or honorable. The list of sins you can lay at my feet is too damn long.
But…could you try? Could you, maybe, try to love me back?
Even a little? I’ll take anything you’re willing to give. ”
More tears burst from my eyes as I kiss him with everything in me.
Silly, silly man.
“Adriano—”
Suddenly, he rears back. His face a mask of sheer determination.
“But you must understand… I have to kill him. I’m sorry.
You’ll probably hate me for it, but… I have to.
I can’t risk…” His hand trembles as he reaches out and places his palm on my stomach.
“I can’t risk the father of your child claiming our baby for himself. He needs to be neutralized. Erased.”
I run the back of my knuckles along his cheek, caressing his grim face.
“It’s you,” I whisper. “There was never anyone else. I only love you. As both—my husband…and my silent guest.”
Time seems to stand still as he just stares at me.
Speechless. His face perfectly still, as if frozen in ice.
But then, he blinks. The vein on his forehead starts pulsing.
However, the rest of him appears to have forgotten how to function.
He holds his breath—his chest neither rising nor falling—as he looks down to where his hand is spread across my stomach.
His lower lip trembles as he gazes at it in shock.
He remains like that, unmoving, for a long, silent minute.
I’ve never witnessed a person come apart at the seams in complete silence before. But I think I am seeing it now.
“Adriano—”
“We need to get to the hospital,” he rasps, his eyes still looking a bit hazy.
“Yes,” I sigh in relief. He’s bleeding. Losing a lot of blood.
“Full checkup.” He nods. “The bloodwork.”
“Yeah, okay. We should go now.”
“And an ultrasound.”
Ultrasound? For a gunshot wound?
“I’m not sure that will be nece—” I shriek as he wraps his good arm around my waist and gets to his feet. “Adriano!”
“Brahms and the rest of the team should be here soon. When I arrived, I sent him a text with a pin at this location,” he says as he walks to the door. “Wrap your legs around my waist, my sweet flower. We need to get you prenatal vitamins.”
“Okay! Now, let go of me, you idiot! You’re hurt!”
He stops at the threshold and meets my exasperated glare.
Worry. Fear. So much turmoil is still raging in those blue depths.
“Never, Little Iris,” he growls, just before claiming my mouth.