They made their way out of the theater when the cameras went dark and guests stood up to use the bathroom or chat.
He made a point to stay focused on the door and not let any reporters or guests distract them as they headed outside.
When the fresh air hit them, more cameras were shoved in their face.
He tried to block them, but she touched his arm lightly and he stepped aside while she gave a short little speech about being thankful that she’d been nominated, and that the other artist deserved to win.
When they finally made it into the back of the limo, he pulled her into his arms and held her, thinking that she would cry. Instead, her hands started running under his jacket.
“Bella?” He closed his eyes and enjoyed the smell of her skin.
“I don’t want to think about losing. Help me forget it. Let me just…” She ran her mouth over his jawline.
He didn’t need any more encouragement. His hands started roaming over the silver dress. When his fingers touched bare skin, he groaned. “Nothing matters as much as this. As much as you,” he said as he trailed his mouth down her neck. When he reached the chain of diamonds, he stilled and realized the car had slowed.
Glancing around, he noticed they were less than a block from her place. Taking a few deep breaths, he held onto her until it stopped in front of her building.
Taking her hand, he helped her out of the car and started towards the front doors. Kenny opened the glass door and stood back to let them pass by. Just as they did, the door shattered in the man’s hands. Bella screamed and he pulled her forward as he covered her body with his.
He lay on top of her on the cement out front of her building as he heard more shots bounce off the cement tiles inches from them. He pulled her through the glass shards while Kenny lay on the sidewalk bleeding and staring up into the sky.
Once he was sure they were safely shielded, he pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as his eyes ran over Bella.
She had a few cuts on her hands and knees from the glass or the pavement, but otherwise she appeared to be unharmed as she held onto him.
“Kenny,” she said, starting to move towards the doorway.
“No.” He held her still and then gave the dispatcher the information she needed.
“Calvin, let me go. Kenny’s hurt.” She tried again to pull away.
“Sweetie, there’s nothing we can do for him now.” He held onto her when she buried her face into his chest. He’d seen the man’s eyes staring blankly as he’d shielded Bella from the bullets.
“Kenny?” She cried into his chest. “Why?”
Another man dressed in the building security uniform rushed out of the elevator and headed towards them.
“Are you hurt?” The man knelt beside them. From this angle, they could only see the broken glass covering the lobby floor.
“Steve,” Bella cried. “Kenny.” She pointed towards the door. “He’s been shot.”
The man pulled out a walkie talkie and rushed through the opening where the glass door used to be.
Calvin was about to warn him that there might still be an active shooter, but less than a minute later, he came back inside, blood covering his hands and a look on his face that assured them that it was too late for Kenny.
Bella turned and cried into Calvin’s chest again.
“Bella, my god.” He closed his eyes as thoughts of what might have happened if Kenny hadn’t rushed to open the door and stepped in front of Bella. “Are you hurt?” he asked when he felt her shaking.
“No, just some cuts,” she said between sobs. “What happened?” She blinked up at him a few times.
Even though there hadn’t been any real loud sounds, he’d known instantly that they were shots. The streets had just been too loud to hear the faint popping sounds. He’d been to the shooting range enough to know the damage a bullet could do.
“Someone shot at us.” He pulled her up to her feet and ran his eyes and his hands over her, making sure she wasn’t injured past a few cuts and scrapes.
“Are you hurt?” she asked him, doing the same.
When her hands came away bloody, he cursed as the sting in his arm finally registered.
“Calvin, you’ve been shot!” she cried out, and rushed to remove his jacket.
He looked down at his ruined coat and sighed as she tossed it aside. “Now I’ll need a new tux,” he said as she pushed him to sit on a bench.
Seeing the bloody shirt sleeve as she pushed it off him, he winced at the sting of his skin sticking to the wet material.
He intuitively knew it was nothing more than a scrape, but still she worried over him until the paramedics arrived and took over. She’d held his ruined shirt against the cut and cried.
“Bella, it’s just a nick,” he assured her. “I could’ve cut it on the glass.” He motioned to the door. “Or the metal rim of the door.” He noticed a jagged piece of metal still holding a shard of glass where he’d dragged her through moments ago.
The police were buzzing around as the paramedics bandaged up his arm.
He didn’t want Bella to see Kenny, so he kept them inside the building. When he could, he asked about the man and was told Kenny had taken two bullets, one to the chest and the other through the neck. He’d most likely died instantly.
When Calvin’s phone rang, he pulled it out of his ruined jacket and, upon seeing Ben’s face, groaned and answered the call.
“What the hell. Did you just get shot?” Ben barked at him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bella couldn’t get warm. Even though she sat in her apartment, covered in a thick blanket, wearing her thickest sweats and heaviest socks, she was still shivering.
Calvin was back on the phone after having changed from his ruined tux, pacing the floor of her apartment.
“I don’t give a damn,” he said, and then turned his eyes towards her. “It’s obvious who it was aimed at…” He waited and listened again as she laid her head back against the sofa.
Images of the last moments of Kenny’s life flashed behind her eyelids each time she closed them. So, she opened them again and looked at her ceiling.
“Yeah.” Calvin groaned and hung up. “The police are sending…” He sighed when his phone rang again. “It’s your brother again.” He rolled his eyes and answered the call. “She’s resting,” he answered. “She’s showered, changed, and sitting on the sofa safe and sound.” Calvin listened for a moment, then held out his phone for her to take.
“Hi,” she said, her voice sounding as if it was miles away, like she was stuck in a tunnel.
“Are you okay?” Her brother’s voice was soothing, and she closed her eyes again.
“I am,” she said, her voice shaking. “Calvin is the one who got shot,” she reminded him.
“He says it was a scrape he got from the glass.”
Her eyes opened and landed on Calvin, who was still standing over her. “He’s lying,” she said with a slight smile, which Calvin returned.
“I’m sorry about your doorman,” Ben said softly, then he covered the phone as she listened to Sarah tell him something. “Sarah wants me to ask if you’ve eaten anything. She says shock can cause you to blow through…” Her brother muffled the phone, but she heard him question his wife. “Seriously? That’s what you wanted to ask her?”