“Shit!” He lifted up her shirt and saw the wound seeping blood. “Get an ambulance. A doctor. Any fucking thing. Just … make it stop.” He removed his shirt, pressing it against the wound. “You’re fine, Tessa. Honey, you’re fine.”
She nodded her head, and he saw the pain in her eyes. She was trying to hide it.
“I love you, Alonzo. I don’t care about anything else. I would have been a good wife to you.” She talked slowly.
He heard the commotion going on around him, but he ignored it all.
“You will make a good life for me, babe. We’re going to be so happy. We’re going to go away. I’ll take you all over the world, to every single beach your heart desires. You’ll want for nothing. We’re going to have a lot of children. We’ll name them after each letter of the alphabet.”
Tessa laughed and cried out.
“You just can’t leave me, Tessa. You hear me? I love you so damn much. You can’t leave me.”
“I don’t ever want to leave you. I love you.”
He leaned down, and even as his hands were covered in her blood, he cupped her face, kissing her back with a passion. “Don’t leave me. I forbid you from leaving me.”
He didn’t know how much time had passed or what was happening.
This woman, he loved her more than anything.
“Alonzo, the ambulance is here,” Cole said.
He stayed by her side as the two men loaded her onto a gurney. They were already working on her, opening up her shirt to reveal the wound.
Jessica was crying as she held onto Caesar. His mother had come out, and his men were there.
Alonzo didn’t give a shit though. Tears fell down his cheeks, and he was in agony as he watched the only person he had ever loved get wheeled away.
He followed her.
“No, Alonzo, don’t. One of the men will go with her,” Maria said.
His mother held his arm. When he was a boy, he would have listened to her.
He would have listened to his father and done what was required of him. He watched Tessa’s feet disappear around the corner of the house.
Turning to his mother, he glared at her. Pulling his gun out of his pants, he pressed it against her forehead. She looked completely startled but he didn’t care. “Let’s get something clear, right here, right now. That woman is my life. She is my fucking reason for breathing. You will not keep me from her. You will never keep us apart, and I will turn this entire fucking city into a bloodbath. Test me, Mother, and you’ll be the one dead.”
He moved away from her and rushed around the building just as the doors were about to close.
“She’s my fiancée. I’m coming with you.” He climbed into the back of the ambulance.
Tessa was no longer conscious. He held her hand, hating that her blood covered his. The men kept working, and he just sat there and did something he’d not done in a long time. He prayed.
In a world like his that was full of darkness and fear, he prayed to whoever was listening and hoped that someone cared enough.
She was too good to be gone, to have her life taken from her.
Even as the tears fell from his eyes, he stayed with her.
When they got to the hospital, one of the men put a hand on his stomach. He couldn’t follow her into surgery. The bullet was still in her stomach, and they had to operate.
Jessica, Caesar, Cole, and Demetri arrived as he was filling out her medical forms. They were not an issue for him as he’d been taking care of her for a long time now.
“If she doesn’t make it,” Alonzo said. “I will declare war on Adesso and his entire fucking clan.”
“Alonzo, you know he acted alone,” Jessica said.
“I don’t give a fuck. His father should have had him on a leash. He came into my home. Killed my men and attacked my woman. That is not going to go away lightly.” He rubbed at his eyes.
“Alonzo, don’t react. Not yet. Not until you know what is going to happen,” Jessica said. “She’s a fighter, and you’re going to see that.”
He sat back, staring at the door he’d seen her being taken through. If she died today, he would cause pain and terror unlike anything the world had ever seen. He would kill, torture, and make people fear the name Tessa Brown as he avenged her death. Then, once his job was done, he would follow her because his life was worth nothing without her.
Epilogue
Six months later
Tessa moaned as Alonzo filled her pussy. His body covered hers. Their fingers were locked together as he rode her, their wedding bands catching her eye as he kissed her neck.
She was so turned on by the man that was now her husband.