my hands together and rested them against my lips, hoping that she would pull through this, that the wound was as minor as my brother described.
The doctor finally provided information. “The bullet scraped against her scalp. It moved past the bone but didn’t pierce it. We’ll give her a blood transfusion because she’s lost so much, but she should be okay.”
Thank fucking god. “Why isn’t she awake?”
“Passing out is a natural defense to extreme trauma. It keeps the heart rate low and the blood pressure down. I’m sure she’ll come around in a few hours. I’m gonna patch her up and get that transfusion going. Just sit tight.”
I sat at her bedside and waited for her to wake up.
Gauze had been tied around her head, and an IV was placed in her hand. Her vitals were stable, so she would be okay.
But I wouldn’t be.
My phone rang, and Bates’s name appeared on the screen. My teeth clenched the second I looked at his name. My fingers ached to grasp a gun and pull the trigger. I wanted to execute him in front of my fountain like I did with all my other victims. I wanted to hang him from a noose and stab him in the gut.
I stepped outside and took it. “You have a lot of nerve.”
“I just wanted to see if she was okay.”
People passed me in the hallway but didn’t stop me from raising my voice. “Are you fucking kidding me? You shot her in the head, and you want to see if she’s okay? She’s been shot in the head, asshole. Of course she’s not okay.”
“What did the doctors say?”
“She’ll be fine. She’s asleep right now.”
“Good. I never meant to do any real damage—”
“Fuck. You.” My brother had pissed me off a lot over the years, but never like this. “You stabbed me in the fucking back. You betrayed me. You’re supposed to be the one person I trust most in this world, and now I can’t trust you at all.”
“We had to make it look real, Cato. We can’t let Micah and Damien know how much she means to you.”
I grabbed my hair and nearly yanked it out of my scalp. “Knock it off with that already!”
“And she needed to be punished for what she did. Let’s not forget how much of a betrayal it was.”
“We were supposed to scare her—not shoot her. You had no fucking right.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“Because I’m not a psychopath!”
“I never meant to seriously hurt her—”
“Fuck off, Bates. If I see you again, I will kill you.” I hung up and shoved my phone into my pocket.
When I returned to her bedside, she was awake. She stared at the monitor and examined her vitals as she tried to figure out where she was. When her eyes landed on me, they didn’t have that deep look of affection I was used to. She tensed noticeably, pulling her IV with her as she prepared to defend herself. Her lips were pressed tightly together like she was prepared to scream, and the terror in her eyes showed her complete disgust.
“Baby—”
“Don’t baby me. Don’t ever baby me again.”
Those simple words broke my heart. “Bates wasn’t supposed to do that. That shouldn’t have happened.”
“But everything else was supposed to happen? I trusted you.” Moisture flooded her eyes as she looked at me with a mixture of hatred and heartbreak. “I give birth to your daughter, and then you do this to me? I thought we were a team. But then you fucking stabbed me in the back like the piece of shit that you are.”
“I was still upset about what happened. This gave me closure. It gave me justice. Now we can both move on.”
“Justice?” she whispered. “Pretending to execute me is justice? For me trying to save my father’s life? What about everything that’s happened after that? What about Martina? Christmas? How many times have I told you I loved you without you saying it back? I signed all that stupid paperwork to prove your money means nothing to me. I did all of that…but you really couldn’t let it go?”
I held her gaze without any idea what to say.
“You somehow found a woman who loves you for you…and you do this to her?”
“You aren’t so innocent—”
“We’ve come a long way since then. We’re different people now—both of us. We have a little girl at home right now, and you thought it was appropriate to pull this stunt? Fuck