Bleeding Hearts: The Complete Duet

by A. Zavarelli

  As we descended into the bowels of the brick building, I feared that this was it for me. That I was going to die here. But I still held out hope that Brayden was nearby, and that he would put a stop to all of this. It was a ridiculous notion, but it was the only one I had.

  Once we were on solid ground, the men walked me down another long corridor, and I shivered when I saw some of the rusty old equipment lying around. It looked like it was an old meat packing plant, and I was officially scared out of my mind.

  They opened another metal door where there was a third man standing guard. I spotted Brayden across the room right away, sitting in a chair. His eyes widened in fear the moment he saw me, but it was the voice below me that had my heart leaping out of my chest.

  “Baby girl. God, no. Please…”

  I looked down to see Ryland sitting on the cement below me, his eye swollen shut and his face badly beaten. I shook the men’s hands off my body and immediately lowered myself beside him, clasping his face in my hands.

  “You’re okay,” I breathed. “Oh my God, you’re okay.”

  I was filled with relief, and so fucking happy. But Ryland wasn’t. For the first time since I’d known him, there was real fear in his eyes. He pushed me behind him and shielded me with his body as he glanced up at Alfredo.

  “What the fuck else do you want?” he pleaded.

  “That depends.” Alfredo smiled. “How much is the little Irish bitch worth to you?”

  “Everything,” he said without hesitation. “I’ve already told you. The rest of the shares? I don’t care. Name it, and it’s yours.”

  Alfredo released a hearty laugh and pointed a finger at Ryland in amusement. “You see, Jacob. That’s why I like you. That loyalty. You would have made a great addition to my crew.”

  Ryland didn’t look at all flattered by the compliment, and he tightened his grip on my hand as I clung to his body.

  “But the thing is,” Alfredo continued. “I’m already loyal to someone else. I’m sure you can understand.” He shrugged. “It’s a long-term business arrangement. Can’t really back out on it now.”

  “Whatever Robert’s offered you, it can’t be more than what I’ll give you,” Ryland said. “Anything you want.”

  Alfredo looked insulted as he muttered something in Italian. “That wasn’t the deal we made six years ago, amico.”

  The conversation I had with Ryland drifted back to my mind. He told me he’d paid Alfredo to spare our lives for seven years. The clock had slowly been ticking away, and we were supposed to have another year.

  I glanced at Brayden across the room and snarled.

  “How did you get mixed up in this?” I demanded. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  Ryland squeezed my hand in warning, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t take my eyes off Brayden. Off the cause of all of this. It was his fault we were in this room. His fault that all of this was happening. I didn’t care if it was logical, I hated him for it.

  “I’m so sorry, Brighton,” he whispered. “I thought… I thought I could change things. I didn’t know…”

  “It’s just business,” Alfredo remarked flippantly. “I’m a man of my word. You two were dead that night Frankie fucked up. You should just be thankful for the six extra years this one bought you.”

  I closed my eyes and pressed my face against Ryland’s back. I didn’t want to accept that this was it. But his words sounded so final.

  Neither Ryland or Brayden was bound, and I wondered why. But when I glanced up at Alfredo and his companions again, I saw the guns strapped to their hips. There was no way out of here. Frankie had carved this path for us, and it couldn’t be changed. I pressed a hand to my belly as a sob escaped from me. And then I thought about Mick and hope bloomed inside of me like a ray of sunshine. I’d only been here ten minutes, so maybe if I could figure out a way to stall, then we’d have a chance.

  “Where are your keys and phone?” Alfredo asked.

  It took me a minute and Ryland squeezing my hand to realize he was talking to me.

  I dug the keys out of my pocket and held them out while clinging to Ryland’s body. “The phone’s in the car.”

  He turned to one of his men and gave him instructions in Italian. When he walked out the door, Alfredo and his friend stepped forward.

  “Alright.” Alfredo pulled his gun from the holster and waved it around casually. “Enough of the chit chat. How do you want to do this? You can all go together… real quick, bang bang bang… or one by one. Your choice.”

  Oh, God. I was going to be sick.

  “Please,” I sobbed. “Please don’t…”

  Ryland stood and pulled me up with him. And then he gave Brayden some kind of silent signal before he pulled me into his arms, stroking my face in his palms.

  “When Brayden tells you to run,” he whispered in my ear. “You fucking run, Brighton. I mean it. Don’t look back.”

  I shook my head and clung to his body in disbelief. He made it sound like he didn’t plan on leaving with me. I had no idea what was happening, what they had planned, but I wasn’t leaving without either of them.

  “I love you, baby girl.” His voice was hoarse, and there was finality in his words. “So fucking much.”

  It took me a moment to realize what he was doing. He was shielding my body with his. I clung to his shirt and shook my head frantically. “No! It doesn’t end like this. It can’t end like this.”

  I tried to look across the room, to see what Brayden was doing, but Ryland pulled my gaze back to him. “Just look at me,” he whispered. “Stay with me, just a moment longer. Never forget how much I love you.”

  I didn’t understand his words. I didn’t understand what was happening.

  “Now,” he barked.

  I heard a pop, and then Ryland slumped against me before we both collapsed to the ground. There was something warm and sticky coming from his back, and I knew it was blood. I screamed, and I heard more popping, and then scuffling. Angry grunts and curses filled the room. Alfredo sounded surprised and pissed off, but I couldn’t see what was happening.

  Brayden said something, but I couldn’t hear it. Alfredo started talking in Italian. Blood rushed through my ears as I clutched Ryland, trying desperately to feel his heartbeat. I couldn’t move him, he was so heavy against me. His body was protecting me from whatever was happening around us, but I was too hysterical to understand.

  I finally managed to get my head out from beneath him, just enough to see Alfredo’s companion lying dead in a pool of blood on the floor. Alfredo was wrestling with Brayden, and he was bleeding all over the place.

  “Brighton, run!” Brayden yelled. “Run now and don’t look back.”

  I was frozen in horror. I couldn’t have run if I wanted to. But then Alfredo reached for his gun, pressing it directly to Brayden’s head. I screamed and pleaded, but he didn’t listen. Brayden’s eyes found mine from across the room, and he whispered something so softly, I could barely make it out.

  “I’m so sorry. I was supposed to get you out of here. I failed. I’m so sorry, Brighton.”

  And that was when I saw it. The gun laying on the floor next to the other man’s body. I didn’t know how to handle a gun- I’d never handled one in my life. But I lunged for it and pointed it at Alfredo, desperately hoping it would go off when I pulled the trigger.

  The door burst open behind me, and I was so certain it was the third man coming to finish us off. I didn’t look. I just closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger. And I kept squeezing until every bullet had emptied from the chamber and there was nothing but the sound of empty clicking.

  “Brighton.”

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and a voice that was calm and familiar. Everything was blurry when I opened my eyes, but it was Mick’s face that I saw.

  “Shhh…” He gently pulled the gun from my hands. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  I looked across the room and saw Brayden struggling to sit up as he kicke
d Alfredo’s body away. And then my gaze swung to Ryland. I squeezed my eyes shut and begged for it to end. Begged to wake up from this nightmare.

  I crawled towards him with heaving sobs and cradled his head in my lap.

  “Help him,” I pleaded. “Help Ryland. You have to help him!”

  I held onto Ryland and stroked his hair in my fingers, telling him how much I loved him. Telling him that everything was okay because we were together, and it was the only thing I could do.

  Mick rattled off an address to someone on the phone and then kneeled down and rolled Ryland so he was completely flat. His eyes were closed, and there was blood seeping into his shirt. I let out a sob and held my hand against the wound as I felt for a pulse.

  “You have to hold on, baby,” I sobbed. “You have to hold on.”

  “The ambulance is on its way,” Mick said, moving my hand so he could apply pressure to Ryland’s wound. I let him, only so I could hold him.

  I stroked his hair and pleaded with him to be okay.

  He didn’t move. And I couldn’t look away from his face. I knew that Brayden was okay. I heard him trying to talk to me, but I couldn’t look at him. I could only look at Ryland. I couldn’t lose him. It wasn’t fair. We’d finally just gotten things right. We were finally okay.

  “Please, Ryland,” I sobbed. “Please come back to me. You have to come back to me. I just can’t do this without you.”

  I heard footsteps, and then the room filled with people I didn’t know. Police and medics rushed in, trying to pry me away from him.

  “Please,” I begged. “He’s my husband. You have to save him!”

  Mick came and pulled me against him, trying to calm me as they lifted Ryland’s body onto a board and carried him away.

  “We have to go with him,” I cried. “We have to go now!”

  A policeman ushered us towards the door, and then I paused one last time. I knew I shouldn’t look. But I had to see him. I had to see for myself.

  I glanced back at the ground where Alfredo lay with hollow cheeks and lifeless eyes. There was blood everywhere, and his body was riddled with bullets. I had done that. I had killed him. And I was glad.

  Chapter Forty

  Brighton

  Three weeks, two days, six hours, and fourteen minutes.

  Ryland laid in the hospital bed, his eyes closed, his hair perfect. I washed it and smoothed it into place for him every morning. His features weren’t relaxed or at peace, and that’s how I knew he was still with me.

  The doctors had him hooked up to a bunch of machines. He wasn’t breathing on his own, and they kept trying to talk to me about his brain activity. I wouldn’t listen. I didn’t need them to tell me what I knew in my heart.

  I reached for his hand and stroked the tattoo on his ring finger. Even now, we were in sync. That wasn’t a machine. That was something else. Something stronger than medicine or science could ever explain. When he stuttered, I stuttered. When his heart beat, mine would always echo. It wasn’t even love. It transcended love. Ryland and I were something else entirely, and nobody could ever tell me otherwise.

  I placed his palm on my chest and let him feel the rhythm beneath my skin.

  “Do you feel that?” I asked him. “It still beats for you. I’m still here, waiting for you.”

  He didn’t move or give any indication he’d heard me. But I didn’t expect him to. Ryland had been through so much in his life. He needed to rest. That’s all this was. I believed it wholeheartedly. He was just resting.

  “I know you’re tired, baby,” I whispered. “But you can’t leave yet. I need you to come back to me when you’re ready. Because I can’t do this without you. I love you so much. You’re my everything. I need my husband, and our baby needs his father.”

  Silence.

  My calm resolve fractured, the same way it did every day. I missed him so fucking much. I needed him so much. Our baby was due in a month, and I was so scared that he wouldn’t be with me.

  I hadn’t left the hospital in days. There was a media circus going on outside, just waiting for a photo opportunity. Ever since the news broke that the crime had taken place in a warehouse owned by Alex Burton, a lot of other information had started to come to light.

  I guess Alex didn’t count on Alfredo failing or getting rid of our bodies and the evidence. He was a fucking idiot, and I’d unleashed Edith on him with everything I had. I’d hired private investigators, and Mick was sniffing around for me too. I had every intention of bringing the full force of the law down on him, and even that wouldn’t be enough. I finally understood Ryland’s desire for revenge. It ate at me. It swirled and twisted inside of me, consuming me from the inside out.

  I wanted anyone who had anything to do with this dead. I wanted to see their lifeless expressions just like I’d seen Alfredos. I wanted them all buried in the fucking ground.

  But I also knew it wasn’t healthy. If there was one thing I’d learned from all of this, it was that revenge and hatred could eat you alive if you let it. And if Ryland were awake right now, I knew he’d tell me as much. He’d tell me to be strong and keep my head focused on the things that mattered, like our baby.

  So justice wouldn’t be exactly what I wanted. But there would be justice. I couldn’t sleep until there was. For the things that Robert and Alex Burton had done, all in the name of business.

  Brayden told me that Ryland had made an agreement with Robert Burton. Shares of his company would go to Alex in exchange for my life. And upon Ryland’s death, they planned to take over his company. But it was all coming out now, little by little. And the charges were racking up.

  I’d never felt more relief than the moment Edith called me and uttered those words. That they had finally been arrested.

  It didn’t change what happened to Ryland. There was a gaping hole in my heart, and I didn’t know if it would ever be the same. I had no choice but to move forward. To focus on each breath. Each task that needed to be done. I would do it for Ryland.

  “Mrs. Bennett?”

  I glanced up to see Dr. Kelly standing in the doorway. I tore my gaze back to Ryland and pretended not to notice. I didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say.

  “I’m glad I caught you.” He came into the room and stood with his chart, the same neutral expression on his face that he always wore.

  I didn’t like him. I didn’t like that he had no faith in my husband or that he had no idea how much of a fighter Ryland was. That he would never give up on me. I hated his cold, clinical words and everything about him right down to his stupid white coat.

  Dr. Kelly didn’t know I’d requested a specialist to come and see Ryland. I’d already set everything up, and he was flying in tomorrow. That was the benefit of being Ryland’s wife. Money talked, and I had plenty of it to throw around. I’d give it all away to the highest bidder that told me they could bring him back to me.

  There were things that could be done in these cases. Things that could be tried. But Dr. Kelly didn’t want to try them. He told me it was all junk science when I’d begged him. And now he just lingered there awkwardly, waiting for me to take the bait. I wouldn’t. His words didn’t affect me anymore, and I was sick of hearing them. If it had been safe to move Ryland from this hospital, I would have. But for right now, I just had to stick it out. Like everything else.

  “Look, Mrs. Bennett,” he spoke in a monotone voice. “It’s been a week since we last discussed your husband’s condition. There have been no signs of improvement, no indications I’m afraid. A decision needs to be made…”

  “The decision has already been made,” I snarled. “I told you that last week. I’m telling you that today. I’ll tell you again next week. And the fucking week after that. Why are you badgering me about this?”

  His lips flattened, and he looked down at me with pitiful eyes. As though I were a complete moron who just didn’t understand what he was telling me.

  “We aren’t equipped to deal with long term care in this facility
for cases like this,” he said. “So if you are committed to your decision, then I’ll have to advise you that he’ll need to be moved…”

  All the anger inside of me boiled over at his tone and his careless indifference. He was talking about Ryland like he was a sack of potatoes. And I was so fucking sick of his disdain. Of all of this.

  “Fuck you!” I spat. “Fuck all of you! You don’t know what he’s capable of. You don’t know what he’s survived. I can still feel him. He isn’t gone. I don’t give a shit what you say because I feel him! He’s going to come back to me. He always comes back to me!”

  Dr. Kelly took a step back from me as though I were a crazed animal, and Nicole ran into the room just in time to see me dissolving into hysterics.

  “Brighton?” her voice was filled with concern as I collapsed against Ryland’s chest and sobbed against him.

  “What did you say to her?” she accused.

  I didn’t hear Dr. Kelly’s response. Because a sharp pain rippled through my back and down my abdomen, causing me to lurch forward. It felt like something was tearing inside of me, and I didn’t understand what was happening.

  When I looked down at the hospital chair beneath me, there was blood leaking out from my pants.

  “Oh God… something’s wrong.”

  White hot pain speared through my body as spots filled my vision. I briefly saw Nicole and Dr. Kelly rushing to my aid before I slumped forward and everything started to fade away.

  Epilogue

  Brighton

  I felt his fingers ghosting over the tattoo on my chest, and I smiled.

  It happened so often that I thought I was going crazy. There were times when it felt so real, but he wasn’t there. It was like he was touching me from somewhere else, and it scared me. I was so afraid that one day I was going to wake up and it would all just be a dream. That I’d really lost him, and I’d imagined everything else somehow.

  I blinked open my eyes and felt my heart stutter when I saw him staring down at me. I would never tire of looking into those beautiful eyes. I held his face and kissed him, deeply and passionately.