Page 123 of Driftwood Daffodil 3
“Nova and I are going to leave.” Simon took a step back, pulling me with him.
“I don’t think so.” Romeo said. “You stay right there.”
The intense way their eyes were locked on each other made my stomach flip. There was no doubt in my mind that Romeo would pull the trigger. There wasn’t so much as a twitch of hesitation in his stance. It was unnerving.
But Simon… he was angry. Angrier than I’d ever seen him. He wanted to hurt someone. I didn’t know what he would do. It was like he snapped, and that was scarier than Romeo’s calm demeanor.
“If you shoot me, you might hit her.” Simon pointed out.
Which I thought was a valid argument. Romeo, did not.
“I’m not worried.”
I was worried. “Can we all stop talking about shooting people?”
“Shut up,” Simon pressed the barrel harder into my temple. “This is all your fault.”
“How is this my fault?” I didn’t put the gun in his hand.
“You thought you were too good for me. Not so fucking smug now, are you?”
Was he serious? “You cheated on me!”
“And you dumped me for Gio.”
I did not. “You know what Simon, just shoot me. This whole argument is fucking ridiculous. It’s not my fault if you can’t handle a little rejection.”
“You were mine first!”
For a second I thought he might actually pull the trigger. I even closed my eyes in anticipation. But he took a deep breath and once again focused on Romeo.
“Tell me something Nova,” he growled in my ear while keeping his eyes locked on Romeo. “Did your precious Gio tell you about your father’s family?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Had he completely gone off the deep end? “My father didn’t have any family.”
“So, you don’t know.” He tipped his chin at Romeo. “I bet he knows, don’t you Romeo?”
Romeo tipped his head, “I know you have exactly thirty seconds before I put a bullet between your eyes.”
That’s when I saw it. The cold thousand yard stare men like Romeo had. Death was nothing to someone like him. As much as this situation was fucked up, I didn’t want Simon to die. He needed help, not death.
“Simon, just walk away.”
“He won’t shoot.” Simon snarled. “His aim isn’t that good.”
“You sure about that?”
I wasn’t. In fact I was sure that Romeo would hit his target dead on.
My heart was hammering so hard in my chest that my ribs ached. I could feel the tension building in Simon’s body. If this went on much longer someone was going to pull the trigger. I had to diffuse the situation before someone wound up dead. And there was only one way I could think of to do that.
Slipping my hand behind my back, I grabbed Simon’s balls and squeezed.
Everything that followed happened so fast that my mind didn’t have time to process it.
Simon cried out and violently shoved me away, sending me right into Romeo, who was not prepared for the weight of my oncoming body. A shot went off as I crashed into him. Romeo stumbled and fell back, dragging me down with him. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and grumbled out curse words.
By the time Romeo got me off of him, Simon was gone.
