CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

NICK

Bang!

The shot rang out, deafeningly loud in the tiny cellar. The noise reverberated around the room, but the pain that ripped through my eardrums was nothing compared to the sudden burning agony that hit me and was spreading through my abdomen.

The motherfucker shot me.

He grinned down at me with a twisted, smug grin on his murderous face. I lifted my eyes past it and saw Alicia standing right behind him, a broken bottle raised over her head, her mouth open in a silent scream, and devastation in her eyes.

It was seeing that look in her eyes that threw my body into overdrive, fighting blindly and on instinct as I remembered the promise that I’d made to her. Everything seemed to slow down around me. I saw the huge fist that was headed for my jaw in slow motion, ducking my head at the last minute and watching as it slipped past me.

I threw up my own fist at the same time that Alicia flew into action, bringing the bottle down on the asshole’s head just as I connected with his temple. The man grunted, and his eyes glazed over, he muttered a disbelieving, “Fuck.”

Then his massive body collapsed onto mine, and he was out like a light. It took all of the strength I had left to heave him off of me. Alicia and Emilia tried to help, tugging at his shoulders until he rolled to the side.

Emilia backed away, sobbing while Alicia dropped to her knees beside me and grabbed both of my hands. They were covered in blood, but it didn’t look like she cared. She looked at me with pure torment shining in her eyes when they dropped to my soaked shirt. “Nick.”

“Hey, princess,” I mumbled, flashing her a small smile and squeezing her hands. “Told you I was going to come back to you.”

Alicia blinked back tears, but then they started rolling down her cheeks anyway, her voice cracked and strained. “You got shot.”

I nodded, glancing down at the bright red blood that was pumping from the spot that burned like a fucking bitch. Bright red. Shit, that wasn’t good. Still, I smiled at Alicia. “Never said I wouldn’t get shot. Just said that I was coming back to you.”

“And that nothing would happen to you,” she said, reaching for the hem of my shirt. “What can I do?”

Sirens sounded in the distance. That was good. Alicia would be safe once they arrived. At the rate that I was losing blood and from the color of it, I doubted I would still be around by the time they did. But I had to fight. For Alicia.

“Pressure,” I grunted. “Put pressure on it.”

Alicia hiccupped on a sob, but nodded and accepted the jacket that Emilia held out to her. “Okay, how do I do this?”

“Just ball it up, and press it as hard as you can, okay?”

“Okay.”

To my surprise, the searing pain was already starting to give way to numbness, and my mind was starting to swim. Everything was happening faster than I had anticipated.

“How are you feeling?” Alicia sounded so damn worried that it broke my heart.

Her gaze met mine, and the pain I saw there forced me to gather every last bit of fight I had left. I just didn’t know if it was going to be enough. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Are you hurt?”

Shaking her head, she brought her lips to mine and brushed them with the softest kiss. “Not a single scratch, thanks to you. Again. You’re not fine, Nick. I can see that you’re not. You have to hang in there. It sounds like the sirens are nearly here.”

Blood was pounding in my ears, but she was right. I lifted my hand to cup her chin and brought her mouth back to mine. “I’m hanging in there, I promise. But I want you to promise me something, too.”

“Anything,” she breathed, her lips still against mine. It was almost like she couldn’t bring herself to pull back. I sure as hell didn’t want her to. If I was dying, which I was sure that I was, then I wanted to spend every last second that I had left with the only woman that had ever really made me feel alive.

“Promise me that you’ll keep fighting, no matter what, okay?”

Alicia’s eyes fluttered closed, and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Don’t talk like that, please. Just stay with me, okay.

One of her hands came up to cup my face, gently stroking my cheekbone. Her beautiful features were starting to blur, my vision sort of swimming, and I couldn’t make her out clearly anymore, even though she was right there. I managed a weak smile. Maybe it looked like a grimace. “I’m trying, but I need you to promise me anyway.”

“I’ll keep fighting for so long as you do.”

My girl was no pushover, that was for sure. God, I loved her.

“I’ll keep fighting for you, no matter where I am,” I promised. “I love you, warrior princess.”

The last thing I was aware of as my vision faded to black and my ears finally stopped ringing was Alicia’s soft lips on mine and her whispering, “I love you, too.”

***

An angelic voice was making all sorts of dirty promises in my ear. If this was heaven, I could get behind it: Alicia promising to blow me every day if I stayed with her? Fuck yeah.

Who knew that bad boys made it to heaven after all? And wait, why does heaven smell like a hospital?

A feather light touch closed over my hand, and my knuckles screamed out in pain, despite the fact that it was the most gentle of touches imaginable. Not heaven then.

I groaned. Instantly, there was the sound of a chair scraping back and then Alicia’s delicious scent drifted to my nostrils. “Nick, are you awake? Baby?”

Her voice was soft, but insistent. She tapped my forehead lightly. “Nick? Are you in there?”

My eyelids felt like someone had glued them together, but after a few tries, I managed to crack one open. A flash of gorgeous eyes was all I managed to catch before the brightness of the light in the room forced me to close it again.

“Nick! You’re okay.” Alicia’s words were spoken with such passionate relief that I felt compelled to risk the brain damage that it felt like the light was going to cause and open my damn eyes. As soon as I did, her lips were on mine, and she pressed a gentle kiss to them. “Thank god.”

Alicia was standing over me, off to the side of a hospital bed. Her golden hair fell in a curtain around the side of her face as she leaned over, and she brushed it back over one shoulder. Her eyes lit up when I managed to keep mine open for longer than a few seconds and reached for her hand. Every nerve in my body was singing with pain from the movement, but it was worth it when she placed her tiny hand in mine. “Hey, princess.”

Fuck, I sounded like I swallowed an army of frogs.

Concern mingled with relief on her features. “Hey, superman. Can I get you some water?”

I nodded, opening my mouth when she brought a cup to my lips and swallowing gratefully. When she’d poured enough of the cool liquid down my throat, I tipped my chin to indicate that I was done, and she put the cup on the metal table next to my bed. “Superman? That’s what you’re going with?”

A small smile curved on Alicia’s full lips. “Absolutely. Have you seen yourself lately? The police are saying it’s a miracle that we all made it out of that shit show alive.”

Memories crashed into me, one after the other, as my muddled brain started putting together the fact that I was in a fucking hospital and why I was there. Some of the things were hazy, and my heart started pounding as I gave Alicia a long once-over. Well, the parts of her I could see from where she was pressed up against my bed.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Were you hurt?”

She smiled that beautiful, radiant smile that I loved so damn much. “I’m fine. Memory a bit fuzzy?”

I nodded, and for the first time, I became aware of low, digital beeping noises around me. It felt like I was trying to rip my head from my shoulders by doing it, but I turned slowly to see that there was a bank of machines behind me.

“That’s probably from the concussion,” she told me.

Concussion? I thought, but apparently said out loud because Alicia answered me.

“Yup. You took quite a few hits there, Superman. The doctors have been telling me for days that you were going to be okay, but I was still so worried. I have no idea how you managed to survive it all.” A single tear rolled down Alicia’s cheek, and my muscles protested, but I reached up and wiped it from her cheeks.

Fuck. Pain seared up my side as I reached up. My ribs hated that. I pushed it back. I had more important things to worry about than pain.

“I told you I would never hurt you that way,” I told her. “But back up there, princess. Days? How many days?”

Alicia gulped and paled, like she was reliving her worst nightmare before she finally answered me. “Three.”

I’d never been down that long. Hell, I’d never been down at all. “Why?”

“Because there’s not many parts of your body that you didn’t hurt, but I should go get the doctor to explain everything.” I tightened my grip on her hand.

“Don’t go yet.”

“I’m just getting the doctor. I’ve been sitting by your sleeping side for three days. I’m not going to give up on you now that you’re awake.”

She leaned over the bed again for another soft kiss, and I tried deepening it, needing to feel more of her, to know that she really was okay, but I winced as pain shot from my lip. Alicia snapped back immediately. “I’m so sorry. Your lip is busted. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You should have because it was totally worth it,” I told her, giving her a smile with the half of my mouth that didn’t feel like it had been hit by a freight train.

Alicia gave me a private smile. “It was all worth it. You got any rules for what happens now?”

“Not one,” I admitted.

“Guess we’ll just have to figure it out together, then,” she said, an excited flush spreading on her cheeks.

I took her hand and squeezed it tight. “Guess so. What happened after I passed out?”

“The feds rounded up the last of the mobsters and found Antonio, Emilia’s son. He’s safe. A little shaken but not hurt.”

“What did your father say about her?” It was clear to me that Emilia truly loved the Greystone’s, but I found it hard to believe that Warren was going to keep a traitor in their midst, especially since Emilia had led the attackers right to Alicia’s doorstep.

Alicia swallowed guiltily. “I haven’t told him. I think he assumes, but he hasn’t asked me straight out, and I don’t want her to lose her job, so I’m keeping it quiet until he does.”

I nodded. “I can respect that.”

She pressed a kiss to my bicep. “Thank you. Now I really need to go get your doctor and tell him that you’re awake.

“He’s awake?” Warren’s voice carried from the open door, and the man himself stepped in, leaning on a thin metal cane.

“Daddy, you know that you’re not supposed to be walking yet,” Alicia admonished him. My brain may be catching onto things slowly, but I did notice that Alicia didn’t drop my hand like a hot potato as soon as Warren entered. Instead, she squeezed it and stepped away slowly, looking down at me again. “As for you, I’m getting your doctor.” She shot her father a look as she passed him on her way out. “And I’m telling on you, to yours.”

Warren just laughed and shooed her away, but all traces of humor vanished from his face as soon as she stepped out of the room. I could practically feel the temperature in the room drop. The man was surprisingly menacing for one who looked like he’d only barely escaped death, dark circles under his eyes, gray pallor, and hollowed out cheeks included.

He rounded my bed to the seat Alicia had vacated and lowered himself into it. The only sign of his pain and discomfort as he did it was a tiny wince that was gone in the next second. Warren looked at me in quiet contemplation and steepled his fingers before he started talking. “I’ve been made well-aware of the relationship between you and my daughter.”

My throat went dry. Or maybe it was dry to begin with, but it suddenly felt like the Sahara fucking Desert. I couldn’t get a word out, so I waited for him to continue.

“You’re fired,” he said.

I was stunned into silence, but it actually made sense. Of course, he was going to fire me. I fucked up on his first rule, and there were no longer mobsters after them, so Alicia didn’t need me anymore. Not in that way, anyway.

Warren surprised the hell out me by cracking a smile when he continued. “And since you’re no longer an employee of mine, I have no right to dictate what you do or do not do with your personal life.”

“What?” I croaked, gaping as widely as I could, which wasn’t all that much. It felt like my jaw was coming unhinged from the small movement, and I groaned softly.

“Yes,” Warren said. “If you’re going to keep seeing Alicia, I’m going to recommend that you quit your job. I haven’t enjoyed seeing her looking so worried and sad these last few days, and you look like hell.”

“Have you killed him yet?” Alicia asked, appearing in the doorway with a kindly looking man with raven-colored hair and a white medical coat.

Warren laughed. “No, I promised you that I wouldn’t.”

“Good,” Alicia said, rushing back to my bedside and kissing me deeply, despite my busted lip. Knowing that I could have an actual relationship with her, though, one with no secrecy, mobsters, or worries about her safety, I didn’t feel a single ounce of pain as she kissed me, not from my lips or any other part of my body.

This kiss felt like the beginning, and I couldn’t fucking wait to see what happened next.