The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (186 page)

I was almost trampled in the rush from the paramedics as they stormed past me and I watched from afar as they pulled Mason out of the way and started to work on her, one of them desperately trying to find one of Red’s veins as the other pulled out the defibrillator.

What the hell did he need a defibrillator for? Red was fine, she was just asleep, she was just tired, that’s all, tired.

Her body jerked as an electric current flowed through her and I clambered onto my hands and knees, frantically crawling across the floor to help her. They were hurting her, her tiny little body jolting wildly with each shock they put her through.

I could hear a funny noise, it was kind of low and long but at the same time high-pitched and I squinted at it as I unsuccessfully pulled myself along the floor towards her.

“Red . . . wake up now baby, they’re hurting you.” I tried to say but the sound was getting louder and something was bubbling up my throat.

I reeled back in shock when my stomach pumped its entire contents all over the floor just as the high-pitched sound turned into a scream and left my throat at an alarming velocity.

Mason was crouched before me saying something, his lips were moving but I couldn’t make out what he was saying as my ears roared and my blood pumped wildly.

“No . . .” I managed to choke out this time. The scream had seemed to clear my airway and I grabbed hold of Mason, “Help her, please . . . help her . . . Mason, please. . . .”

His face was pained and he turned to Ava, utter desolation and alarm expressed openly.

Ava now appeared beside me and she wrapped both arms around me.

It was only then I realised how badly I was trembling, my whole body seemed to quake and shake violently as she pulled me against her.

“Shush Lucas, they’re doing everything they can for her, I promise, I promise Lucas.”

“You have to help her Ava, they’re hurting her. She won’t like the electric thing, she’ll hate that. It will hurt her . . .”

She nodded and gestured her chin towards the paramedics “They’ve stopped look, they’re not using the defibrillator now, look.”

I turned to look but the whine came back and I quickly diverted my gaze again. Every time I looked at Red, my heart seemed to stop beating and my ears pounded as a high-pitched whine came from inside me, choking me and suffocating me.

So I didn’t look.

I refused to look.

I refused to acknowledge.

She was fine.

She was fine.

Chapter 43

Layla

SO DARK. EVERYWHERE, darkness flooded me and I squinted to find anything I could concentrate on.

“Hey, baby.”

“Ry?” I gasped as I turned to the voice behind me.

His deep laugh made me smile. “What are you doing here, Ry?”

“I should be asking you that, Kay. What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

“I’m not even sure where we are, Ry.”

He patted the bench beside him and I frowned, I was sure that wasn’t there a moment ago.

I settled beside him and curled into his strong chest when he lifted his arm for me.

His hand stroked my hair gently and I calmed immensely and relished myself in his scent and hold.

“I miss you” I whispered to him and his arm tightened around me.

“Me too, baby.”

We remained silent for a while, both of us revelling in each other’s presence. “You need to go back now, Kay. You don’t belong here.”

I turned to look up at him, “But . . .”

He shook his head firmly, “Not yet, Kay. I’m doing okay without you, you need to get back. Lucas needs you.”

I nodded but didn’t move. “Will you look after Kenny?”

He nodded. “And you Todd?”

I nodded in acknowledgment before he kissed the top of my head and pulled back.

“Oh, and by the way, don’t be a bloody hero again” he scolded softly.

I nodded “No, it wasn’t one of my best ideas.”

He chuckled lightly then pressed his mouth against my forehead as he took my hand in his, “Always, Kay” he whispered.

“Always, Ry.”

* * *

His back was to me when I opened my eyes. His gaze through the window, his shirt was wrinkled and plastered to his strong back with his sweat and his hand was running through his wild hair.

I knew then how much I loved him and how much he loved me, and I knew I would never find another man who loved me as much as Lucas did.

I felt Ryan’s hand slide from mine as he handed me over to another, to a man who would protect me with his life and his very soul, and I, he.

As if he sensed my consciousness, he turned slowly and gripped the window frame as he saw my open eyes.

I tried to say something but the tube that fed through my nose and lined my throat into my lungs, prevented me.

“Red?”

I smiled slowly but I managed it.

“Oh God, Red . . .” he choked out.

He stumbled over to me and dropped to his knees by the bed as he took both my hands in his. His head came down to rest on top of them and then he cried, loudly and uncontrollably, as he chanted my name over and over.

“Red, baby. God, I love you, I love you . . .” over and over until I slid one hand from his and lifted it to my mouth, kissed two fingers and placed them on his lips.

He stood and leaned into me, his face hovering over mine as he returned my kiss with a soft gentle touch of his lips on mine. “You are in for one hell of a fucking spanking, Red.”

I smiled and nodded as eagerly as I could, then flinched at the pain in my stomach.

“Hang on baby, I’ll get a nurse.”

He disappeared and I smiled gently as Ryan blew me a kiss from the corner of the room, winked and then vanished.

“Bye, baby” I whispered to him, knowing he was okay, he was doing fine and he would wait a while longer for me.

Lucas would just have to share me when we got up there. That would be fun and I felt a grin lift my lips at the thought.

Two men in my bed in the afterlife.

No complaints from me.

* * *

Kenny’s funeral was hard. The hospital had released me for the day and wheelchair bound, Lucas had refused to let me do anything, never letting me out of the chair, and lifting me in his arms whenever it was necessary.

My Dad had refused to even acknowledge me and my mother was nowhere in sight. No surprise there then.

She had left us when I was five and we had never seen her again. My Dad had brought us up single-handedly but when I had ran off to Gretna Green with Ry to get married he had disowned me and held it against Kenny for his knowledge of what I had done.

The only good thing to come out of the whole thing was Sara. She had turned up at the hospital, a mess, and held onto me for hours and hours and then we had talked, both of us hashing out our thoughts, grievances and apologies. We were taking baby steps but I knew we would get there.

Mason didn’t know what to do with himself every time he visited. His pain and guilt over what had happened ate away at him and I could tell Ava was growing concerned and we both hoped it wouldn’t see Mason delving back into his old habits.

I had told him over and over that it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t pushed me into Kenny; it was Kenny’s gun that had gone off and shot me, not Mason’s or Ava’s and it was me that had invited Kenny into his home, not knowing what Kenny’s hidden agenda actually was.

Lucas refused to leave my side and eventually the nurse had physically dragged him out of my room so he would go home for some rest and clean clothes. But he had returned within the hour and snuggled on my bed, gently pulled me against him, then slept for twelve hours solid.

I had been lucky really. The bullet had done some substantial damage but it was all repairable and everything inside me still worked properly after the three operations I’d had to have.

I was a lucky girl.

* * *

I was released five weeks later, just in time for Lucas’s birthday. He had told me in his dominant way that I would be staying at his apartment until I was 100% better.

I hadn’t argued; I was looking forward to lots of amazing sex if I was honest. Five weeks was a long time to go without, especially when you were sharing a bed, even if it was a hospital bed, with the Sex God that was Lucas.

“Holy . . . Wow . . .” Lucas mumbled when I stepped out of the hotel suite’s bathroom where we were staying for Lucas’s birthday party.

I smiled wickedly at his face. The tight red sleeveless calf length dress I was wearing was sexy but very classy. It hugged me like a glove and the side split reached up to the top of my thigh. I had teamed it with elbow length black gloves and five inch black stilettos, with red heels.

Lucas stalked across the room looking particularly sexy himself in tight arse hugging black trousers and a black shirt that stretched deliciously over his chest.

“You like?” he asked as he caught me devouring him with my eyes.

“Very much” I smiled back as he reached me and I slid my hands around him and dragged my nails over his taut buttocks.

He growled before he mirrored my action and grabbed my arse. “I am so fucking this tonight, with my fingers, with my tongue and then with my hard cock. You are mine in every way tonight, baby.”

I pulled in a much needed breath as his words sent a shiver through me then I looked up at him and gave him a seductive smile. “And how about I repay the favour and fuck
your
arse with my tongue and my fingers?”

His eyes widened but I noticed how black they turned, his desire and excitement told me his answer without words and I reached up and kissed his mouth gently “You are mine in every way tonight, baby”

He sucked air through his teeth and then plunged his lips over mine, his tongue demanding my compliance whilst he dominated every inch of my mouth as his hot breath pulsed all the way down to my womb.

His phone rang and we both groaned at its intrusion. His dark eyes bore through me, telling me just how much he wanted me before he pulled back and went to answer it.

I went back to the bathroom and fixed my lipstick before he finished his call and we made our way down to the party.

I was a little nervous, truth be told; because tonight would be the first time I met his family.

His Mother and Father were coming along with Lucas’s brother and he was excited to introduce me to them. He hadn’t told them about me, mainly because they knew what a manwhore he was and they would’ve brushed me off as one of the little women without giving us a chance.

So now as we came up to our three months ‘anniversary,’ Lucas was excited to show me off as his, his words, long term girlfriend. I had laughed at this but I suppose to Lucas, three months
was
actually long term.

He squeezed my hand. “Ready, baby?”

I nodded and smiled at him before he led me into the room.

The place was packed to the rafters and the room exploded in cheers and whoops as Lucas made his entrance.

I spotted our friends and told Lucas I was joining them whilst he made the rounds with his eager birthday wishers. He nodded and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before he let go of my hand and I knew his eyes were on my arse when I walked away.

I could feel them burn through the thin material of my dress and my cheeks suddenly matched the intense colour.

“Yes, he is staring at your ass” Sara chuckled as I joined her.

I rolled my eyes as she handed me a flute of champagne and I mumbled an appreciation to his parents for throwing such a stylish and lavish party for my man.

My man? I frowned at myself when the possessive term slid through my thoughts.

Yes, he was my man and I shivered in excitement as it actually sank in.

My man was a Sex God; a hot hard, caring, intelligent and beautiful Adonis and he was all mine.

“What are you grinning at?” Liv asked then lifted a brow as if she could see into my head, “You dirty bitch” she added with a wink and a nudge as I laughed.

“Little Willowww. . . .” Mason slurred as he pulled me in for a hug. I frowned at him as I returned his embrace.

“You okay, Mase?” I asked as I cast a glance to Ava.

She looked sad and upset but she shook her head at my silent question if he was high. He was just drunk and although that was bad enough so early in the night, I was relieved he hadn’t turned back to old habits, some of them being hard to die.

“Me and you, tomorrow lunch, Mase. Then we talk” I said in his ear. He pulled back and looked searchingly at me but then sighed and nodded, his brow pulled tight in his acceptance that we needed to do this.

He drifted off as Sara came back to me and pulled me towards the dance floor as Ava, Liv, Courtney and a few more women joined us and we were soon all bumping and grinding against one another.

Switchfoot’s ‘Your love is a song’
started playing and I frowned at the sudden change in rhythm, this song being a slow track but then I understood when I was spun round and pulled tight against Lucas’s hard body.

“Dance with me, this is my favourite song and now I want it be ours, baby.”

I slipped my arms around his neck as he pulled me in deeper and I rested my head against his chest; even in my five inch heels I was substantially shorter than him.

“Ooh, your love is a symphony, all around me, running through me . . . Ooh your love is melody, underneath me, running to me. Oh, your love is a song . . .” he sang in my ear and I breathed in every single word.

I looked up at him and no sooner had I titled my head, his lips were on me, his kiss was gentle and tender and I knew he was telling me everything he felt right at that moment.

“I love you too, so much.” I told him when he pulled back but only so far that the tips of our noses were touching.

“Don’t ever leave me, Red. Never. I would die without you.”

I palmed his cheek and circled my nose around the tip of his. “Never baby, my heart won’t allow it. It would shatter first.”

His eyes dropped to my lips and he smiled softly “You know; you have the lips of an angel. You have the eyes of a temptress and the body of a goddess but you also have the heart of a lion, baby. Strong, solid and fearless” He whispered against my lips.