She falls asleep about halfway through. “I love you, baby.” Then I fall asleep myself.
Thirteen
“So just like that you took her back?” Bastard raises both his eyebrows. It’s hard to take him seriously with all the bruises and cuts on his face. The man is usually well maintained but it’s like he got up this mornin’ and decided to say fuck it. “You want Victor Gage’s sloppy seconds?”
I reach up and slap him upside the head. “Shut up about my old lady. We’ll get shit worked out, but yeah we got back together. I’m tired of livin’ a lie. Tired of runnin’ from somethin’ that wasn’t even there to begin with.” Which is true. I’ve followed Ashley around for the last five years. She always looked miserable to me. Even with a huge ass smile on her face. I know what those baby blues look like all lit up with her smile. She never once smiled at Victor Gage like that.
“Ashley’s a good girl. One of these days she’ll stop bouncin’ between you two.” Bastard holds up his shot glass and tips it into his mouth. He wipes his lips with the back of his hand and stands up.
“Do you want another black eye? Or a broken nose? Because your mouth is gonna get you there,” I mutter, takin’ my own shot of whiskey and standin’ up. “I can’t even pretend to understand her relationship with Victor. Seems to me it was a whole lot of twisted and fucked up. But she did love the guy so I guess she had her reasons.”
Bastard walks out the front door of the club with me trailin’ behind him. “The way I see it, Ashley has two sides to her. The one that has to please those around her and be with Victor and actin’ like a fragile flower is what her family wanted.” He stops and turns around to face me. “Then we have the side of her who wants to kick ass and take names. That’s where you come in. She can be that person with you and that’s when she feels safest. She just didn’t know how to merge her lives, so you did it for her, right?”
I grimace at him and take a step back, hatin’ how he’s so…insightful. “Whatever. You shouldn’t use that college degree against me. It’s not fair.”
He just smirks at me and turns around to head to his bike. We have a meetin’ with the big man this afternoon. The big man bein’ Barney, the head boss of the Dallas mob. I seriously hate the guy.
I left Ashley in bed a few hours ago. I figure with the past couple of days she could use the rest. Though I’m almost to my bike when I hear her voice call out to me. I have my eyes on her so maybe that’s why I don’t notice the people around me. Ashley is definitely distractin’ with her swingin’ hips and bouncin’ tits.
I bunch up my brow at the look on her face as she runs across the lot to get to me. The brothers gathered around outside are yellin’ and screamin’ and right before Ashley gets to me, I see the problem.
Micah Benito stands on the other side of the fence, a huge rifle in his hand. And he has that motherfucker pointed right at me.
The second Ashley jumps into my arms I wrap mine around her but she has other ideas. She wraps her legs around my hips and points Lola’s gun at Micah.
But it’s too late.
Searin’ pain goes through my shoulder and I nearly drop Ashley. I hear her cry out but I’m in too much shock to pay attention.
That crazy motherfucker shot me. I seriously can’t believe he shot me. Standin’ in my own yard. That’s a fuckin’ act of war.
“Damien…” Ashley whispers, jerkin’ me out of my thoughts. I don’t know how I could hear her over all the gunfire and yellin’ but I do. Though I wish I could go back to the moment she first got out here. I would have jumped on top of her. Covered her with my body, but then again that didn’t help her anyway.
Ashley stares up at me with wide eyes, blood soakin’ her white shirt. It’s hard to believe that the bullet went through me and into her. “Baby…”
“No!” screams Lola, who rushes towards us only to be pulled to a stop by Ryan.
Ashley’s hand goes limp in mine, all her blood pooled around us. “No baby…no. Stay with me,” I whisper, leanin’ my forehead down on hers. Then I sing our song to her. I do it softly, the words ripped from my throat.
It escapes my notice the things goin’ on around me. I’m either in shock or my soul has left my body along with Ashley’s. Because if she’s dead, I know it’ll only be a matter of moments before I go to.
I can’t live without her.
“Son…” Pop’s voice echoes in my head and I lift my head to see him. “You gotta let the paramedics get her. You need to go with ‘em too,” he says calmly and in control. Nothin’ on him is out of place, but then again, he’s the club prez, he learned control at birth.