“At Chastity’s request. She wanted to wait, and you know what, that was her right. It was her choice. And I wasn’t going to take it away from her.”
“You’re really going to stand there and blame Chastity for this?”
“Blame? Blame has got nothing to do with this.” I shook my head. “It may surprise you, Bull, but this isn’t about you. The decisions Chasity and I made, we made for ourselves. Not you. Not the club. Us.”
“There shouldn’t even be a fucking us.” He exposed his perfect white teeth as he gritted them.
“I love her. And you should know that I’m going to marry her.”
He straightened. His body rigid. His face dark.
“Over my fucking dead body,” he seethed.
“Don’t fucking tempt me,” I seethed back.
I was done with this. He needed to either fight me or fucking get over it.
I watched his throat work as he swallowed. Watched his jaw tighten as he gritted his teeth. “I’m warning you, Ruger. I’m seconds away from putting a bullet in you.”
“This again? Fuck me, Bull, either do it or get over it.”
If I hadn’t been so distracted, I might’ve noticed them earlier. But I didn’t, not until the four men in suits made their way up the cobblestones toward the reception area.
I didn’t recognize them.
They were wearing black gloves and dark glasses.
They were out of place.
And their body language was way off.
Martel’s men.
Somehow, they’d gotten through the security we had scattered all over the farm.
This wasn’t good.
This wasn’t going to end well.
I only had a moment to react.
To decide what to do.
Who to protect.
I had to get to her.
I’d never moved so fast in my life.
I called for everyone to take cover. I pulled out my gun and aimed as I ran. I called her name. I ran so damn fast and launched myself in front of her just as one of Martel’s men raised his gun and started firing. My body took her down to the ground just as three bullets ripped through me and turned my world to black.
CHASTITY
I couldn’t breathe. Ruger was a dead weight on top of me. I could hear shooting and screaming all around me. I heard a shot fired and a body crash into a table and fall to the concrete nearby. Bullets rained down around us. I couldn’t move, which probably saved my life because I had an overwhelming urge to run, even though I would more than likely die if I did. But Ruger had me shielded with his body.
But why wasn’t he shooting back?
Seconds had passed since he’d thrown himself on me.
Maybe a minute?
I tried to shake Ruger, but he wouldn’t budge.
Then, just like that, it was all over. I wriggled out from under Ruger to get my bearing and glanced around, dazed.
It was chaos. Tables were overturned and wedding decorations were destroyed. Flowers lay scattered all over the floor, decapitated and broken, laying amongst the glass and the debris, and the annihilated wedding cake.
Within minutes, the four intruders were dead. Well, three were dead. The fourth was busy having his face broken by my uncle’s fists, his blood splattering in the air around him like a halo and covering the white tablecloth in red speckles. You didn’t burst into the reception of a biker wedding and start firing without it ending badly for you.
I nudged Ruger.
“Baby, get up.” But he didn’t move. When I shook him, he rolled onto his back and I saw the blood stain spreading through the crisp white of his shirt. A new panic took up in me. A dread like I’d never known. “Ruger?”
And then the realization hit me in the face.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no” I ripped open his shirt and let out a cry. Blood poured from three bullet wounds—three in his chest. I pressed my hands over the holes, but blood continued to rise up through my fingers and spill down his torso.
Everything happened in slow motion from that moment on. I started screaming. People around me were a blur. The fear in me more real than anything I’d ever felt.
Someone knelt next to me and I vaguely realized it was Indy. Caleb lifted me to my feet while Indy did what she could with Ruger.
“Are you okay, Chassy? Are you shot?” Caleb asked in a panic.
“Oh God, is he going to die?”
Caleb shook me. “Chassy! Are you hurt?”
I looked at my brother in a daze and slowly shook my head. The front of my dress was covered in blood, but it wasn’t mine. It was Ruger’s.
I looked from the blood on my hands to my brother. “Is he going to die?”
He didn’t have to reply. I could see the answer written all over his face.
The sounds of sirens broke into the chaos. Police. Ambulance. It was complete bedlam.
I glanced over my shoulder at Indy performing chest compressions on Ruger. Everything became muted then, like I was floating underwater and watching the mayhem unfold above.