“She sounds like a Scooby-doo villain,” Theo whispers from somewhere behind me.
“You know you’re not walking out of here alive, right?” I growl, my tone laced with promise. “You’ve hurt the woman I love… big mistake.”
Emma laughs, one filled with condescension as she says, “I have two fully armed gentlemen standing to your right, James, of course I am.”
A thump sounds to the right, then another. I keep the gun trained on the crazy woman standing in front of me, but I turn my gaze and see Theo standing over two unconscious bodies. “You mean,hadtwo fully armed gentlemen?” he sniggers.
I raise an eyebrow at him. “We’re gonna be having a little talk about that later.”
Theo slaps his hands together and gives me a grin.
Turning back to Emma, who’s stood ramrod straight, a look of fear flittering across her features, I say, “I think this is the part where you put your hands behind your head and beg for your life.”
The police, who we’d been waiting for, come bursting through the door, shouting for weapons to be lowered and to get on the ground. I flick my gun down, dangling it from my index finger in an act of non-aggression, and place my hands in the air. Two men grab Emma and place her in cuffs, hauling her out of the door and to who knows where. I’m just gutted I didn’t get to put a bullet in her head.
The cops walk over to me, taking the gun from my hand. “I have a license for it.” I tilt my head toward Theo. “He’s my lawyer.”
The cop removes the bullets and puts the gun into an evidence bag. “You’re gonna need to bring the paperwork down to the precinct before we can hand this back to you.”
“No problem,” I agree.
He walks off, and Theo comes and stands next to me. “Did that really happen, or did I wake up in the twilight zone?” He keeps blinking, then rubs his eyes.
“Yup,” I drawl. “That just happened.”
“Thought so.” He nods his head slowly. “I need a drink.”
I bark out a laugh. “You always need a drink, tips.”
Movement toward the door catches my eye, and I see an officer rushing by with Raven in his arms. Not wasting another second, I chase after them.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
JAMES
All hell broke loose after that—people shouting, people running around, people being arrested and hauled into waiting cars and vans. Leo’s team arrived after Theo and I had gone in and found a crew in the next warehouse over, loading up the next truck full of victims.
The officer who carried Raven out handed her to Drew. She looked so pale and lifeless, and my heart broke for her—for what she’s been through and for what she’ll have to go through when she wakes up. I watched as they loaded her into an ambulance, EMTs checking her vitals, and I’d never felt so helpless. All I wanted to do was run to her, hold her, claim her as my own, but I couldn’t.
Theo drove to the hospital. After watching my world being carted off in an ambulance, the adrenaline left, and I became numb. Was she okay physically? Did they do anything to her that she won’t recover from? Will the mental scars from this affect her so much that she won’t be the Raven I fell in love with anymore? So many questions and no answers.
I’ve never been one to care about hospitals. They were never a place I ever visited as a kid or even as an adult. Broken bones were fixed by my father’s doctor, and any cuts as I got older were dealt with a slug of vodka and a Band-Aid.
I check my messages, desperate for something to distract me from the endless torture of waiting for the love of my life to wake up.
Noah
What the fuck happened? I leave you lot at the gala for five minutes, and you all end up on a kidnapping mission!!
Caleb
I mean, I was only involved in some of it. Theo was the one who took two guys out.
Noah
WHAT? Needy Viking boy? Are we talking about the same person here?
Theo
