Page 66 of Bound Bride
I tell him that over and over as I straddle him and use my weight to keep pressure on the wound.
I tell him that as the ambulance arrives and medical care is transferred from me to the people trained to keep him alive.
I tell him that as he's loaded into an ambulance and whisked away from me, leaving me standing in the parking lot with his blood soaked into my clothes and a knot in my gut that I did this. I wasn't careful.
I was cocky and reckless and Ethan paid the price.
"Burn the cars," I state hoarsely to whoever is nearby and listening. "Dump the bodies in the river and put the word out. I killed them."
Murmurs rise around me as people agree and get to work, but none of it really reaches me. Nothing does, except the repeated buzz from my phone in my back pocket.
I reach for it and wince as Ethan's blood smears the screen, then my blood runs cold as multiple messages rise from Calvin.
Rose wasattacked.
Is this what Leo meant?
21
ROSE
"Drink this." Calvin places a steaming mug of tea on the bedside table next to me and walks around to my other side. The bed dips as he sits, but I don't look at him.
I gaze down at the painkillers resting in the palm of my hand. The attack at the river was so fast that I thought I was fine until I got to the car and Calvin set me down on the ground.
My balance immediately went. Turns out, when the first gunshot was fired and Calvin dropped me, I hit my head on something.
The injury isn't serious, but everything else is, and the silence between Calvin and me is heavy.
After a few seconds, I toss the painkillers into my mouth and chase them with a gulp of water.
"Rose," Calvin says softly. "What is going on with you?"
"What do you mean?" I wince slightly as the painkillers catch very briefly in my throat. Another few gulps of water force them to shift, then I set the glass down and pick up the tea instead.
"You tried to kiss me."
Fuck.
Part of that felt like a dream. I was praying that somehow my loud thoughts had stayed exactly as that; thoughts.
"I have to tell Kon," Calvin murmurs. "If I don't, he will kill me. He might kill us both."
"What?" My lips have barely touched the tea when I'm spinning to face Calvin. "Why would he kill you?"
"You are his wife. It doesn't matter who I am. No one is allowed to touch you, let alone kiss you."
"But I kissed you!"
"Do you really think someone as possessive as him will care? And beyond that, Rose, this is not a secret I'm going to keep. But before he takes my head off, I'd like to know why. Are you… did I do something to give you the wrong impression?"
My racing heart sinks slowly into my gut. Everything tightens into a hard knot that refuses to shift even as I straighten myself up. "No. Calvin, you didn't do anything. This is… fuck. I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly. It was all just so…"
How do I explain this without getting both of us killed? It never even crossed my mind that Kon would react badly to something like this, never mind that I've now put Calvin in a dangerous position with the man he's incredibly loyal to.
Fuck.
What the hell was I thinking?
