shining blinding light right into my face. I can’t see much, but I notice the obvious silhouette of a person speed-walking up to the window behind Alannah, and I know what it looks like when a pistol is being pulled out and aimed.
I jump to my feet and grab Alannah by the shoulders just as the first shots ring out. The room is quickly filled with loud popping sounds and glass exploding all around us. I drag Alannah to the floor and climb on top of her to shield her body as the shots continue and bullets whiz over our heads. I can hear screaming coming from inside the restaurant and dishes being knocked over as people duck for cover, and the bullets slice through the drywall. Alannah screams underneath me, and my heart is pounding nearly loud enough to drown it all out.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, the shooting stops, and I hear the sound of tires screeching as the SUV peels out and speeds away.
Alannah
There’s red and blue lights bouncing off the walls, and ambulance sirens sing a dreadful melody into the night sky. Three people were hit with stray bullets. One of them died. Stray bullets that were meant for Dominic.
I sit on the hood of his BMW, watching him as he talks to the police with disinclination written all over his face. I know he won’t tell them anything, but I also know he knows who did this. There’s no way a man like Dominic doesn’t know who his enemies are, but a man like him doesn’t tell the police anything. He settles it on his own, which scares me nearly as much as the bullets speeding over my head did.
I can’t explain what it felt like to be sitting across from him in a restaurant in one of his casinos, admiring his gorgeous face and alpha attitude, then to have it all snatched away in the blink of an eye as I’m thrown to the floor.
At first, I didn’t even know what was going on, but I didn’t have time to question it for long because there’s no confusing the sound of gunfire and shattering glass. I wanted to scream, but the air was knocked from my lungs as Dominic jumped on top of me. I know he was trying to protect me, and a part of me is thankful for that, but there’s another part that doesn’t give a shit. I could’ve been killed tonight simply because I was sitting in this restaurant with him. The question now is, well, now what?
After he’s finished talking to the police, I watch as he saunters over to me. Glass and dirt are on the shoulders of his fancy suit that I’m sure cost a fortune, and he locks eyes with me. There’s a level of pain in his gaze that wasn’t there before. He looks miserable as he stares at me, and I can see it in him—he’s worried about me, about what I’m going to say, about what I think. He’s nervous, and he should be.
“Are you okay?” he asks as he stands in front of me, that sad look still holding his face hostage.
“What do you think, Dominic?” I counter. “Our dinner was interrupted by gunfire. That’s not something that happens to me every day, so I’m sure you can guess if I’m okay or not.”
His shoulders slump like my attitude has confirmed his fears.
“I don’t really know what to say,” he begins again. “I’m sorry all this happened. You just got here, and . . . I’m just so sorry, Alannah. I mean that. I’m sorry.”
“What is it that you’re sorry for, exactly? Are you sorry that I almost got shot just by being with you tonight? Are you sorry about the man who actually was killed by one of the bullets meant for you? I mean, seriously. What are you so sorry for?”
“All of it. I didn’t know this shit was gonna happen, and I didn’t expect it, so there was no way to prepare for it. I’m sorry you were put in danger, and I’m sorry innocent people got hurt. I’m sorry for all of it.”
“If the people who were shot tonight were innocent, then what does that make you?”
With every word I speak and every word I hear, I feel myself getting more and more upset. I can still hear the sound of the gunshots, I can still smell the gunpowder, I can still hear the screams and