Page 37 of Stay Little Fighter

But I’d never truly deserve that forgiveness.

I would never deserve her light.

Maybe when everything is said and done, I’ll walk away. Without the throne I was promised or the woman I’ve loved since before I understood what the word meant. I’ll still see her and Ronan on holidays, and maybe that will be enough.

But even as I think it, I know it won’t be. No amount of time with her will ever be enough.

Even if she allowed me to love her forever, that time would be insignificant.

“Say something,” Ryker snarls, shoving me harder against the car.

“What do you want me to say?” I growl. “Do you want me to tell you that I would do anything to have switched places with her? Is that what you want? Because I would. If I could turn back time and stop her from jumping in front of that goddamn bullet, I would do it a million times over.”

He stares at me for long seconds, his golden eyes filled with rage and fear, and for a moment I think he’s going to kill me where I stand.

I would if I were him. If he were the one that got Chloe hurt. If he allowed her to be taken when she was in his care.

The fact he’s hesitating makes him a better man than me.

One worthy of her.

He blows out a rough breath and takes a step back.

But before he drops the gun he was holding to my head to his side, he aims it at my thigh and pulls the trigger.

Agony slices through my leg, almost knocking me to the ground, but I manage to keep myself upright and swallow the grunt that tries to escape.

Ryker’s shoulders ease slightly as he slips the gun into the back of his pants. He wraps an arm around me and, without a word, helps me hobble to the emergency room doors.

If I didn’t already know this motherfucker was a walking-talking contradiction, the fact he just shot me immediately before acting as my crutch to get to medical attention would have done it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

RONAN

NOW

We barely make it through the door before someone takes Chloe from Kingston.

The conflict is obvious in his dark eyes, the need to have her cared for warring with his need to protect her from any more pain, but he doesn’t hesitate.

He carefully lays her on the bed, brushing his fingers through her matted hair for just a moment before nodding to the nurse to take her away.

I can barely breathe through the panic weighing on my chest.

Trusting strangers to keep her alive right now feels impossible, but they’re her only chance.

Our only chance.

Because I know what it’s like to live without Chloe, and I refuse to ever live like that again.

Kingston grasps my shoulder. “She’ll be okay,” he chokes out.

The words aren’t for me. Or at least not me alone.

He’s trying to convince himself of them because the idea of living without her is just as unthinkable to him as it is me.

Guiding him to an empty row of plastic chairs, we barely manage to take a seat before Ryker guides Damon into the emergency room, the latter with what appears to be a bullet wound he didn’t have before we left them.