I see Clive hiding behind his men, not even bothering to attack. Letting his men do the dirty work for him.
I aim at him trying to take him out, but he’s too far away. A bullet grazes my shoulder, but I keep shooting, sticking to the plan. Another hits my leg; I kneel on the ground still shooting. Not stopping until I the plan succeeds.
Another hits my hand knocking the gun out of my hand. I start to reach for it, but one of Clive’s men knocks it out of the way.
A gun is pressed against my head, and I hold my hands up, not that I will surrender. I won’t. I would rather die than surrender.
I glare at Clive and Erick, my body red with rage, as they walk over. They are the reason everything started in the first place.
“Ready to give up yet?” Erick asks.
I don’t give him a response. He doesn’t deserve one.
“Don’t worry; we aren’t going to kill you yet. What fun would that be?” Erick says.
I frown. The only reason they wouldn’t kill me now is if they had bigger plans they thought would hurt me worse. “You can’t hurt me. Arlo and Nina are gone. And I know you won’t hurt Gia. So there is nothing you can do to hurt me.”
Clive smirks. “Oh, there is certainly a way to hurt you.”
“No, there isn’t.”
“There is,” Clive looks to Erick both smirking at me. “Eden, your new slave toy. Except, she isn’t a slave. You love her.”
I growl. I don’t want them threatening Eden or telling me I have feelings for someone that I don’t. I will never love again. Love only makes things worse.
“My slave is nothing more than property to me. If you steal her, it would be the same as if you stole my car. I would be pissed and kill you. So go ahead and try. I’ll enjoy hunting you down.”
“We will. The only way to stop this is to turn over Nina, but I bet you won’t do that. I think your feelings have shifted.”
I open my mouth to respond but I see the gun coming down on my head, and I know it’s useless anyway. I close my eyes to control the darkness before it comes. But then I don’t have any control at all. I’m lost to the darkness.
I open my eyes and find Eden’s. She’s staring at me, looking at me worriedly, and I’m sure I’m still dreaming. She can’t be worried about me.
I close and open my eyes again to try to force myself to wake up, but when I open them again, she’s still sitting on the foot of my bed staring at me with her big eyes.
“How are you feeling?” she asks.
I frown. “Like hell.”
She nods. “You want some pain meds?”
“In a minute,” I say, sitting up and examining my body. My left shin is sore, along with my right shoulder and right hand. And my head is pounding like I was knocked out.
“Don’t worry; I didn’t stitch up any of your wounds. You wouldn’t be alive if I did. Maximo had the doctor come and remove the bullet fragments and stitch you up. He said you should rest in bed for at least a week, but you probably wouldn’t listen to his advice.”
I nod.
“How long have I been out?”
“Since yesterday afternoon,” she says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I was worried you wouldn’t wake up, but the doctor said I shouldn’t worry. It was impossible not to worry though.”
I grin. “You were worried about me? I figured you would be praying for me to die so you could be free.”
“Nah, I figured you had something written in your will that I would go to some long-lost cousin of yours or something if you died.”
I smirk. “It’s not written in my will, but it gives me ideas.”
She laughs, but it’s nervous.