I loved that game.
I was good at that game.
I never imagined I’d be the damn duck.
“You ready?” Romeo asked, crouching low, his hands ready to push off the ground once I gave the word. His eyes were narrowed and focused like he was a man on a mission, like a fucking navy seal ready to take on an army of men.
“No.” I wasn’t ready.
Romeo reached out, taking my hand in his. “Trust me.”
“I do.” The response was instant and honest. I trusted Romeo even though he was kind of fucking scary. Even though he was the reason I’d been left scarred and broken. Even though, right now, I was scared of how many people I loved could be hurt or worse, and I had no doubt in my mind that it was because he was here.
It didn’t matter.
He didn’t wait for me to second guess it as he leaped to his feet, and we ran through what was left of the most amazing and stunning wedding setting I’d ever seen, that moments ago had been full of family and friends. Had this happened then, it would be almost surely littered with bodies.
He dragged me with him trying to keep my body ahead of his as we ducked and dodged through seating which was now partially shredded, and a confetti of ribbons and flowers that looked like they’d been shot out of a cannon.
The bullets started again, and Romeo hooked me around the waist pulling me back behind one of the large oak trees, the trunk thick enough to hide the both of our bodies. With my back pressed against the bark, I could feel shot after shot after shot pound against the tree, each bullet wedging itself further into the wood, fighting to get to us.
“Shit,” Romeo cursed, gripping his shirt in his hand, and growling as he tore a large chunk off the bottom. He dropped to his knees, mumbling sorry before I realized what he was doing. “You must have caught it on something.”
He wrapped it around my leg and tied it in a knot. I cursed when I realized there was a trail of blood dripping down. Blood was bad, really bad, but now wasn’t the time to have that discussion. “Yeah, caught it on a flying bullet.”
“Meyah!” We both turned to the house which wasn’t far, but the space between us was open, and there was nowhere to hide. Uncle Leo was cradling Hadley in his arms, loading her into the back of Blizzard’s truck. “She’s in labor!”
My heart stopped, and I looked up at Romeo. “I need to go with them. I need to make sure she’s okay. You don’t know how much it will destroy him if something happens.”
Romeo’s eyes moved from where we stood to where Uncle Leo was. Things were quiet now, the gunfire had paused, but they could just be waiting for us to make a move.
“How fast can you run?” Romeo asked, looking down at my leg cautiously.
“As fast as I need to in order to get to that truck before he leaves.”
Inhaling deeply, Romeo once again grabbed my hand almost crushing mine with his hulking fist. “On your mark…”
I took a deep breath. “Get set…”
“Go.”
Looking down at the piece of shirt which was still wrapped around my leg, holding tightly to the wound, I was still unsure of how it had come about. It wasn’t extremely painful, so I figured it was just a slight graze. Unfortunately, a slight graze on my body often looked like I’d been part of a massacre.
I tucked my torn dress across my thigh hiding it from view, knowing if someone came in, whether it be old lady or brothers, they would more than likely make someone have a look at it, and then I might miss the birth.
Had Romeo not been there today, things could have been a lot different.
I cleared my throat. “I haven’t said thank you yet,” I admitted, my cheeks burning. “It’s because of you that I’m sitting right here.”
Romeo shook his head as if his natural reaction was to deny that kind of shit. Then he stopped. “Nothing that no one else would have done,” he mumbled, refusing to look at me. His knee bounced up and down impatiently.
It was a lie, we both knew it.
“That’s not how I remember it,” I objected, only to have him swing his head toward me with a fierce glare on his face, his eyes a mixture of anger and fear.
“Then you better forget it pretty quick.”
I frowned back at him, sitting a little straighter, not for one moment afraid of this guy who I knew his presence alone was making the entire staff and people in the waiting room feel uncomfortable and on edge.