“You plan to move on that fast?” she yells.
Barbie jumps from the bed, her eyes wide and she’s shaking.
Fuck! Why did Livia have to come now?
“We didn’t do anything, we only slept.”
Livia looks to her, sneers, and looks back to me. “Get her to leave, Ryken, now. If you want to try to save us at all, get her to leave.”
Her threats won’t work anymore. Looking to Barbie, she hasn’t stopped shaking. She’s watching us with wide eyes and still dressed in my shirt.
Quinn comes to the door, and I glare at him. How the fuck did Livia get past him in the first place? He’s rubbing his eyes. That’s how she got in—he wasn’t even awake.
“No. Now get the fuck out, Livia.”
She gawks at me then looks to Saskia. She didn’t want anything to do with her before. She also knows that Barbie loves her. So if I don’t listen, guess who will.
“You plan this? To sleep with my man?”
Barbie’s hands shake, looks to me then back to her. “We only slept. Nothing else, Livia.”
“I want you to leave, Sass. I want you to go right now.”
Barbie doesn’t argue, picks up her shoes, and doesn’t look back as she walks out the bedroom door straight past Livia and Quinn heading toward the door. I go to stop her, but Livia steps in my way.
“She won’t choose you. Do you not see that? If I told her, she would choose me.” It takes everything in me to not strangle her. “Now you need to do the same. You can’t throw us away that easily, Ryken. We’ve been too good together. Built a life.”
I’m sick of this shit, fucking sick of it. I can’t handle it anymore. Taking a step toward her, I go to tell her something, and that’s when I see it. That’s when I see them.
Three other men are in the suite. Quinn turns fast and drops to the ground, and army crawls to where his guns are located. Grabbing Livia as shots fire through, I pull her to the ground covering her with my body. One hits me in the arm, and then a gun is slid in front of me. Quinn fires back, I can hear the shots next to me. Reaching for the gun, and keeping Livia under me, I do the same, lifting and firing. Two are shot, the third man runs. Quinn runs to the door to make sure everything’s clear before he comes back in.
Barbie.
I look up to him, and his eyes are wild.
“She left before this went down. I’ll find her.”
I release a sigh in relief then get up from Livia. Her eyes are wide as she looks at me. She looks scared. “Liv.” She doesn’t say a word, tears roll from her eyes. I go to move her, but Quinn yells at me to stop.
“If you move her, you could cause more damage.” He walks over and looks at her.
“Livia, are you hit?”
Her eyes leave mine and look to Quinn as she mutters a small, “Yes.” And he automatically dials an ambulance.
“Fuck.” I drop to her side and kiss her forehead. She cries harder, not moving.
“I can’t move, Ryken, I can’t feel my legs.” Her words shock me. I try to talk to her, to tell her everything will be okay.
A few minutes later paramedics arrive and assess her. She’s been hit, the bullet has passed through her side and lodged in her spine. They’re careful when they move her and rush her to the hospital. Quinn and I follow closely behind, and the moment we arrive, she’s rushed in for surgery.
“She’ll be fine, Boss,” Quinn says. His gun is still on him, I can see it tucked in his pants.
It takes hours. We sit in the same spot watching the clock tick by, until the doctor comes out. The police have come. Livia’s parents have visited. But there’s no sign of Barbie.
He tells us what we all don’t want to hear, that it did indeed hit her spine. They have to wait and see how she’ll recover. But they have high hopes that she will walk again, but it will be a long process.
My heart plummets to the fucking ground.
It takes everything in me to not go after Antonio right now. Because I know it was his men. No one else would be stupid enough to do that.
“Why were there guns?” Christopher, her father asks.
He listened when we spoke to the police, but we played dumb. We aren’t familiar with the police here. This isn’t our local territory.
“We don’t know, sir,” Quinn answers for me.
Christopher looks at him then back to me. “What is it that you said you did for a living, Ryken? Because I don’t really feel all that confident with you for my daughter.”
“I run my father’s businesses.” He looks to the floor and looks back to the door to where the doctor came from. Livia’s mother hasn’t said a word, she’s just sitting there with her hands tightly clasped together, and she’s rocking.