It was fight time. I’d held the beast back for long enough, kept him under voluntary control, but it was time to throw open the cage door and let him play.
Everything that happened next went by in a flash. Pushing past the pain, I fisted the pen in my right hand and rammed it several times into Paulie’s fat neck. As his blood spurted all over me and he frantically tried to clutch his jugular, I went for his gun. Out of the tiny sliver of vision I had in my left eye, I could see Miller and Angelo drawing theirs.
About that time, Archie lost his shit and lunged toward Miller. A swell of pride bolstered my spine as I watched my dog’s jaw clamp around his arm, causing Miller to drop his weapon. I went to take a shot at the man who’d almost destroyed my Gia, but before I could several vibrations rumbled through my core. Bang. Bang. Bang. I could feel every bullet, but they weren’t hitting me. It was just the reverberation.
Suddenly, a red stain formed in the center of Angelo’s belly.
His eyes widened for a split second as I watched the life drain out of him. Right before he slumped into a pile on the floor, he managed to get off one good shot, and pain went straight through my shoulder, chest, and arm. Once he dropped, behind him about ten feet, I could see Gia, standing at the front door, holding the pistol I’d given her in her shaking hands.
I could feel the warm blood quickly seeping through my shirt, but I wasn’t down yet.
My gaze darted back to Miller, as he finally managed to kick Archie off of him. But my boy wasn’t giving up. Right as my dog went back in for round two with the fucker, Miller lifted his weapon and pointed it right toward Archie.
Nobody fucks with my dog.
Not even a single second of hesitation. I aimed the gun and took my best shot. Even with one eye swollen shut, my left side useless, and my blood draining rapidly, I still managed to hit my target. I got him mid-chest. He toppled backward over my barstool and landed on the ground.
I was so lightheaded. Every breath felt like glass shredding my lungs. I dropped the gun to the ground, my chin hitting my chest as the world started to fade.
Two soft hands cupped my cheeks, pulling my gaze upward. “…stay…me, Tanner…can’t die…” Tears rolled down Gia’s pretty face.
I tried my best to stay awake and alert, but everything was going numb, and I was ready to just slip away. Finally, before my eyes closed, I caught the words coming out of her beautiful lips. “I love you too, Tanner. I love you too.”
My entire body was too heavy and numb to move, yet at the same time it seemed like I was floating as high as a kite. Everything inside me screamed to just go back to sleep. But I had to know where I was, because I could have sworn that I’d just died.
I forced my eyes open and tried to focus, but everything was a blur of shapes and colors. I couldn’t make out anything. If this was heaven, it was a pretty shitty view. Everything was spinning. Then my mind recognized two things—the strong scent of antiseptic and scratchy sheets. Ah, I was in a hospital.
I was alive.
And god, I was fucking cold. My body began a tremor as my teeth rattled.
Finally, a heaviness lay over my body. As it got warmer all of a sudden, my muscles eventually relaxed, and I stopped shivering.
Ahhh. That’s better. As the warmth began to soothe my aching body, I closed my eyes to go back to sleep.
Every so often, I’d crack open a lid, to see if the haze had lifted. I’d catch glimpses of people around me, but I couldn’t make out who they were. I was vaguely aware of time passing, but I was too sleepy to care. Sometimes, I’d feel a touch. A gentle pressure on my right shoulder, someone stroking my hair, another person grabbing my hand.
A soft kiss landed on my forehead. Mmmmm. Those lips. They were plump, pouty, soft and they felt like home. A woman’s scent. It was sweet, clean, and woodsy. The familiarity of it tugged at the back of my mind. It reminded me of walking in the winter snow next to a beautiful woman with olive skin and long, dark hair. She was so vivid and real, I felt like I could reach out and touch her.
And then I remembered her name.
Gia.
I needed to see her, to touch her. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. I fought against the darkness threatening to pull me back under. Finally, I was able to crack one lid open, the other wasn’t cooperating so well. I lifted my gaze and there she was.
“Tanner?” Her pretty lips moved, saying my name.
I lifted my arm to her cheek, just to touch her, and make sure she was real. My little troublemaker.
I tried to say hey, but my mouth wouldn’t move to speak, so I opted for jutting my chin toward her. That was a bad move. I winced as pain shot through my entire jaw all the way to my ear. Instinctively, my right hand shot up to the left side of my face and I might as well have smacked myself in the face. My hand connected with my tender jaw and I fought the urge to wince. Goddamn. Nothing felt good at all.
“No no, don’t try and talk. Your jaw is wired shut. Your eye is swollen, but you didn’t lose it. The vision is fine.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Tanner? Can you understand me?” A tear rolled down her pretty cheek and I swiped it away with my thumb, nodding.
I tried to lift my left arm to sign, but it wouldn’t budge, in fact I couldn’t feel it next to my body. For a second, I panicked like a soldier coming out of a coma only to find limbs gone. Then everything came rushing back to me at once. Breaking my hand, the brawl, the bullet to my shoulder, the pain. I glanced down with my one good eye and took stock of my situation.
My entire left shoulder and arm was in a sling, pulled snug across my torso. Extending out the bottom of the sling was my casted, left hand.
Okay, at least I still had my arm. Whew. And from the looks of it, the fact I couldn’t currently feel it was probably a good thing.
I took a cursory glance of the room I was in. Tyler, Mom, Dad, everyone I loved was there, well, except for one.
I lifted my free hand and signed A-R-C-H-I-E. Ouch. That stung. I suspected that, along with the fog in my brain, had something to do with the medication slowly dripping through the IV in my right hand.
“He’s safe at home. Vet took good care of him. He’s got a few broken ribs, but he’ll recover,” Tyler said.
I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.
They were all just staring at me, waiting for me to say something, anything. Well, I guess introductions were in order. “Mom, Dad, this is Gia,” I said to them.
They all chuckled. “We’ve met,” Mom said, and she looked over lovingly at Gia, her eyes misty. I could tell from that one glance that Mom was just as smitten as I was.
“You’ve been out for five days,” Dad added. “Gave us quite the scare.”
Fuck. Five days? I looked at Gia. She nodded, the agony of all five of those days waiting written all over her face.
“They’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. Lots of meals in the cafeteria,” Tyler said with a wink at them. “Gia hasn’t left your side,” she added without moving her mouth, for my benefit, then went back to both voice and sign. “Brock and Emma are here too. He took her back to your place for a nap.”
Nodding, I patted my shoulder, asking for the scoop. Maybe it wasn’t a good thing I couldn’t feel my arm.
“They gave you a nerve block to help with the pain. You got damn lucky. The bullet missed the brachial artery and nerves, but you’ve got some new hardware in that shoulder and wrist. It won’t be an easy recovery, but you should get full function back.”