I turned to them all and held up my gun. “If Ivan and you all want me gone, you want to fend for yourself in the dismal place you’ve been all these years, then do it.” I set the gun down on the cement floor. The metal clicked loudly as I let the handle fall. “I won’t fight you. I won’t even beg you. Take my life, shoot me down.”
Ivan eyed me curiously and then his smile came slowly. It crept across his face, centimeter by centimeter, like a bull finally seeing his target and knowing he’d won. “You tried, little girl. You tried. A woman can never rule, though. Had you birthed a boy from real Armanelli blood, maybe your family would have stood a chance.”
“Maybe.” The first shot rang out. I didn’t flinch. “Maybe, but I would have had to sell my pussy for a seat when all I needed to do was rule with it instead. Love conquers evil, you fool.”
Another shot rang out.
His eyes bulged when it registered.
I wasn’t the one bleeding.
He was.
“No…” he whispered, grabbing at his first bullet wound.
I caught him as he was about to fall to his knees and whispered in his ear. “Respect the ones you love and they’ll fight for you, bleed for you, kill for you. You never lived by the Armanellis’ oath but you should have because now even though you bleed, I won’t bleed with you.”
I dropped him to the floor and jumped over him to run to Rome. I yelled out for help to get him in a car.
Maksim felt for a pulse. “Katalina, I don’t feel—”
“Get him to the hospital. Now.” I wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t give in.
Not now.
Not when we’d been so close.
That little feeling that something was going to go wrong was roaring now. I wouldn’t let it take over though. Rome had put enough confidence in me to keep me from falling down now. He’d held me up when no one else had. He’d believed when there was no belief left.
I’d do the same for him.
26
Rome
The first voice I heard was Bastian’s. “If she wants to order them for the room, we don’t care.”
“Well, I do. There’s no point to a hundred bouquets of flowers. Men don’t care about flowers.” Jett’s voice sounded perturbed.
“He will. Those flowers sort of smell like Katie. So he’ll love them,” Vick said in a lighter tone than everyone else I’d heard so far.
Silence stretched long enough for me to grow concerned. I didn’t know what the hell I’d woken up to, but the fact that Katie wasn’t answering had me opening my eyes.
“Where’s Kate-Bait?” The second the words left my mouth, the second I opened my eyes, everything came back to me.
She jumped up from my bedside to hover over my face, squeezing my hand. “You’re awake,” she whispered.
I didn’t answer her. I took in her curls, the way they fell around her face, how they almost bounced with the slight tilt of her head when I didn’t respond.
“Can you hear me?” she asked, a frown forming fast.
“Of course I can hear you,” I grumbled and winced when I tried to shift in the bed.
“What the fuck, Rome? Then answer me!” She shoved me in the shoulder and I winced.
“Jesus, woman.” I didn’t ask or even wait for a sorry. I’d be waiting forever.
“I’m scared as hell.” Her voice shook as she said it. A steadying breath seemed to calm her a little. “Can you feel your legs?”