“No, the mistake was thinking the fucking gay twink could take a piss on his own. The mistake was your husband thinking he could humiliate me in front of the other men, and that there would not be consequences.”
“So what now? You think you’re just going to walk away from this alive?”
“I think that after I deliver the baby,” he gestures toward Ollie and me with the gun, “I’ll have enough money to disappear.” He steps to the side so he can see me better. “Get up and come here.”
I can’t move. I’m too scared, too overwhelmed. Everything inside me feels frozen. The gun lifts until it’s pointed right at me.
I close my eyes and wait for it, for the sound, for the pain. All I can think about is Ollie. If he shoots me, will it go through me and hit him too? If I die, who protects him?
“I said fucking get up!” he screams. Then the gun goes off. The sound tears through the room. A scream follows. For a second, I think it came from me. But I don’t feel anything. I open my eyes, and for one terrible second, I still don’t understand what happened.
“Colton,” Xavier says close to me. Why is he near me?
“Run, hide,” I whisper to him.
“It’s okay, Colton. You and Ollie are safe.”
I can’t process the words. Then I see it. The man is on the floor holding his stomach. Alessia is standing over him with a gun pointed at his head. A groan from my left has me turning. Kenji is trying to sit up. His gun is shaking in his hand. Fuck. He’s pale, and his breathing is shallow. He takes his phone out with his other hand, but drops it. Xavier sees it as well. He rushes over to him and picks up the phone.
“Alarm. 9967. Punch it in on the lock screen,” he says between hard breaths. Xavier follows the instructions. Seconds later, several more men enter the room. I instantly cover Ollie again. His cries are like razors cutting into my very soul. When will this nightmare be over?
I feel a hand smooth over my hair. I look up, but at some point I start crying, and I can’t see through my tears. “Sweetheart, it’s over. He’s not going to hurt either of you.” She tenderly wipes my tears away with her thumb. “Let’s get you and Ollie out of here.”
She helps me stand. The room is in organized chaos. Men coming and going, all of them armed. Someone is taking the cloth that Xavier is holding to Kenji’s wound as we start toward the door. The man who started this nightmare says something that makes my blood go cold.
“You think you are safe? You’re not.”
“Do you know the reason I shot you in the belly instead of the head?” Alessia asks in a calm voice. It’s even more terrifying than the threat from the man. “My beloved husband will want a chance to show you the errors of your ways. And I always give him what he wants.” She guides me from the room. In the hallway, I’m able to take a deep breath. It burns my lungs. It feels like my head has been held underwater too long, and I’m now able to gulp air.
Alessia leads me to a smaller sitting room. It feels formal and cold compared to the den we had been in before.
“You shot a man,” I say for no reason. It’s not a question but a statement of fact.
“I did. I would shoot as many as it takes to keep you both safe.” Her arms wrap around us in a motherly hug. My tears flow again. The gentle hands that hold me shot a man. She stood between us and danger. She risked her own life to save ours.
“Thank you. Thank you so much for saving us.” I get out between sobs. I can’t seem to stop. I want Ronan. As safe as I feel with Alessia, I want Ronan. I want his arms wrapped around me. I want his voice telling me that Ollie is safe.
I’m not sure how long we sit on the couch. It was long enough for Ollie to cry himself to sleep and me to cry myself out of tears. There’s a commotion in the hallway, and I stiffen.
“It’s okay, that will be our family,” Alessia says right before I hear what I can only describe as a human roar.
“Impífidh tú ar an mbás, ach ní thabharfaidh mé duit é.” Kieran growls out from the other room loud enough for anyone within a mile radius to hear him.
“And that’s my man,” she winks at me. Our family. She called them our family.
“Fuck, I really like it when they speak Irish,” I say.
“He just said that he will make Kenneth beg for death and not give it to him. And you think that’s sexy?” Alessia laughs.
“It is when he says it in Irish.”
“I think you unlocked a language kink.”
I blink at her and then do it again. I can’t believe that this proper lady just said I had a kink. What the fuck is that? I don’t havetime to say anything to her, or even to be embarrassed, because Ronan comes rushing into the room.
“Did he fucking touch you?” Ronan demands as he runs his hands first over me and then gently over Ollie’s sleeping form. I shake my head.
“You might have better luck if you ask him in Irish.” Alessia winks at me. My face heats.