Badboy Romance

by Lisa Simmons

  Reece's back was taught beneath his shirt as he swung his fists toward the ground, his hits aimed at his face and connecting more than once. Jack's legs bucked wildly beneath Reece in an attempt to throw him off all while continuing to throw punches at his sides. I watched through blurred vision as Jack landed a hit on Reece's jaw, sending him sprawling out onto the grass beside him for only a moment before Jack was on top of him.

  Jack's arms swung wildly, his fists raining down on Reece's face. Blood splattered his knuckles, the bright red shining like an omen in the darkness. I must have been screaming, because my throat was raw, but I could hear no sound. It was like all the sound had been sucked out from around me now, the pure and utter terror I was feeling blocking out everything except my vision, which was starting to blur at the edges.

  I watched as Jack hit Reece again and again, his arms never ceasing their relentless assault before he buckled forward slightly, a blow to his ribs from Reece causing him to pause enough for Reece to flip hip over once more. As they rolled, a glint of light caught my eye, the new patch of grass revealing the hidden location of the gun as light from the street reflected off the shiny barrel.

  Before I knew what I was doing, my feet were carrying me forward. My gaze was focused on the gun in the grass, but my peripheral vision showed fists flying from both men while blood splattered on the ground around them. The world was weirdly devoid of sound yet, and I had almost reached my target when a hand shoved me back, sending me sprawling on the grass.

  My breath was forced from me with a huff as my back landed on the surprisingly firm ground, but I managed to sit up in time to see Reece's hand extended toward me, his effort of pushing me away from the fight allowing Jack the opportunity to roll them yet again so Reece was pinned to the ground. With his back to me, I couldn't see what was going on until I saw Jack twist to the side, his eyes focused on the exact item I had been trying to retrieve. Reece taking the time to push me out of the way had given Jack enough time to pin him down and see it.

  The gun.

  I watched in utter shock and horror as he reached to his side and grabbed it, his fingers closing around the handle before turning back toward Reece and cutting me off from the view. Again, silent screams ripped from my throat, which was surely bleeding now as I stumbled, attempting to get to my feet. My gaze was fixed on the two squirming bodies, the fight carrying on as the wrestled for control of the gun. Their writhing bodies swam before me as my vision blurred and refocused, the terror and utter agony taking over the only remaining sense I seemed to have left. Finally, I managed to drag myself to my feet. My body stumbled forward, determined to get to Jack and throw him off Reece.

  Suddenly, it was as if all my senses returned as a second ear-shattering shot exploded into the air around us. The gun had gone off, only this time the bullet hadn't missed its target.

  "And when she gets his gun he's begging, 'babe, stay, stay, stay...'"

  Chapter 69

  Blood.

  There was so much blood.

  Scarlett rivers flowed in paths through the sparse grass, cutting deep into the dirt that showed through in the empty patches. It flowed out from the source, the thick, hot liquid seeping into the ground and smothering the blades of grass it came into contact with. The greens and browns of the ground were completely blanketed with the garish red where the blood spread, commanding it be taken notice of. It was practically glowing in the darkness, a blaring sign of what had just happened.

  I had never seen so much blood.

  Fear.

  Fear like I'd never known intoxicated my body in those moments. Fear of the unknown, fear of what had just happened, and fear of how I would handle it. An uncertainty so heavy flashed through me that my muscles nearly gave out. Or rather, the few remaining muscles that seemed to be under any illusion of control. This was fear that took control of my body, cell by cell, nerve by nerve, until it had infected every single atom I possessed. It crept through me, stealing the warmth from my blood, clouding my brain, harassing my heart. This was fear that took me over with a grip so tight, I was certain it might never fully release.

  Pain.

  This was a different kind of pain that what I'd grown used to feeling. This wasn't the dull ache, the constantly lingering feeling of being kicked in the stomach only to fall down a mountain that always seemed to accompany a broken or damaged heart. This was visceral, ragged, flesh-ripping pain. The source of the pain couldn't be located, and it seemed to shift from place to place in my body as if it were confused about what it was actually feeling. One second, a white-hot knife ripped through my gut only to shift to my shoulder and tear through the flesh there. A razor sharp spear would gash through my thigh before pulling out and shoving straight through my lungs. My body was confused, focusing the pain everywhere yet nowhere all at once.

  The world seemed impossibly silent around me but I was oddly aware of the scream that ripped from my throat. All I could comprehend were those three things: blood, fear, pain. The blood that stained the ground and spread farther and farther commanded my sight. The fear that paralyzed my entire body and took over me completely commanded my heart. The pain that ripped through me and tore me apart commanded my touch. This was too much, far too much, and I couldn't handle it.

  Emily stood next to me, her hands clamped over her mouth and her eyes wide with shock. She stood perfectly still, like a pillar planted into the ground years ago that hadn't moved an inch since being put in place. She was only visible through my peripheral vision, however, because my eyes were frozen on the pair a few feet ahead of me. There they lay in a sinister looking puddle of blood quickly growing around them. Neither of them moved, giving away nothing as I tried to force my feet to move.

  The bullet had hit someone, I just didn't know whom.

  The visceral pain I was feeling was purely psychological, my brain playing tricks on my body and forcing it to believe I actually was hurt. But it wasn't real- I wasn't hurt. The blood wasn't mine and there was no sign of an injury anywhere on my body. As I realized this, my foot jerked forward toward the two. A mirrored action by Emily told me that she, too, while paralyzed with fear and shock, was relatively unharmed.

  That left two people, both of whom were motionless in a blossoming pool of scarlet blood.

  Fear struck again, this time more intense than anything I'd ever felt. My mind whirled in a thousand different directions, all of them ending in Reece bleeding out on the lawn while Jack rose from the ground, a demon determined to haunt me for the rest of my life. I felt sick, and the bile that rose in the back of my throat was too strong to stop as I emptied my stomach on the lawn. The vile content of stomach acid and bile landed with a sickening sound, mixing hideously with the blood that had managed to snake its way toward me.

  I raised a tremor-stricken hand to wipe my mouth, removing the lingering acidic waste that had just left my throat before I stumbled forward. My stomach heaved in my abdomen when my bare foot landed in a sticky, hot river of blood weaving through the patchy grass. A heavy sob choked from my throat as I fought off the urge to run away from the carnage forever, too much of a coward to face what I feared the most and discover if the man I loved so desperately was even alive.

  Somehow, miraculously, my feet managed to carry me forward, landing over and over again in the sickly warm blood. I could hardly breathe between the ragged breaths that tore from my lungs and the impossibly heavy pounding of my heart. My entire limbs shook, every step growing shakier and shakier while my arms positively quivered by my sides.

  They were feet away now and I still couldn't tell what had happened. The darkness of the night blanketed them, hiding any possible clues from me. Vaguely, I could hear Emily's sobs echoing around the yard as she watched me inch forward, too terrified to move any further. A trembling arm rose out in front of me, my fingers splayed awkwardly as they reached into the vulnerable night air.

  Jack was hunched over Reece still, pinning him to the ground
as he had been before the gun had gone off. His shoulders, from what I could see, were still, but there was no movement from beneath him, either. I opened my jaw to speak, to call out to Reece, to say anything, but my body refused to cooperate. Terror had taken complete control.

  I was inches away now, close enough to reach out and touch Jack's terrifyingly still frame that pinned Reece to the ground. I couldn't see any part of Reece other than his legs, which were still. Jack's body hovered limply over Reece's covering his chest and face and making it impossible to decipher anything in the dark.

  My attempt at swallowing failed and got stuck in my throat as I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, giving myself one tiny moment before the rest of my life was decided. If it was Reece's blood I was standing in... if it was Reece who had gotten shot...

  My life would be completely, without a doubt, over.

  I couldn't live a life without Reece.

  My hand was shaking so bad I could hardly control it as I reached farther into the darkness toward Jack. I watched in detached shock as the space closed between my fingers and his shoulder while my heart attempted to hammer its way out of my chest. Closer, closer. With a sudden uncoordinated lunge forward, my hand collided with Jack's shoulder, shoving firmly to the side in a hastened push.

  I might have been screaming, but I couldn't tell. His body fell to the ground and a solid thunk sounded as his weight collided with the earth. Blood, red and terrifying covered both of the bodies lying before me. It seeped into their clothes staining the fabric a bright crimson that seemed to burn into my eyes. The source of the blood continued to spew the liquid onto the dirt, the dark red trails streaking down his chest before dripping to the ground. The ragged hole of torn flesh and ripped skin that was the source of everything stared me in the face, multiplying the thousands of feelings I was already fighting by a hundred.

  The ragged hole in the chest of the man I did not love.

  Jack.

  A strangled gasp erupted from my throat before echoing in my ears. With it, the sounds of the world returned to me as if all my sense had come back to life the moment my eyes found the source of the blood, the wound that was not inflicted on Reece. My Reece.

  I fell to my knees instantly, smearing the blood further on my skin without care. My body dropped next to Reece's, my hands clutching at his chest, feeling for holes that should not be there but finding none. He was, predictably, absolutely covered in blood, his body getting the full blast of Jack's wound before the blood had landed on the ground around them.

  "Reece!!" I shouted hysterically. Tears flooded down my cheeks and dropped to mix with the other fluids on his chest as I leaned over him.

  He was alive. His chest rose and fell softly beneath my hands, the movement so shallow it was impossible to see. He didn't seem to be conscious, though I didn't know why. As far as I could see, he hadn't been shot. Besides, I'd only heard two shots go off- the first had missed completely, and the other was, very obviously lodged deep into Jack's chest.

  My hands, which were still shaking violently, drifted over his chest to hold his face. My thumbs tried in vain to wipe the blood away, but it was nearly impossible. The crimson stain only smeared further, already coagulating in the night air.

  "Reece!" I shouted again. My voice sounded absolutely mad. "Reece!"

  His eyelids twitched slightly at the sound of my voice but didn't open. My heart nearly leapt into my skull.

  "Reece, please wake up! I need you to wake up!" I sobbed frantically. Tears continued to gush over my eyelids while the sobs wracked my body, interrupting my words while I tried to talk through them, but to no avail. My words remained hysterical and disjointed.

  "Reece!!"

  My hands pushed his hair out of his face. I was horrified to see the extensive amounts of blood covering his skin and melted into his hair because I knew a vast majority of it wasn't his. I shuddered as my hands groped at his skin in an attempt to rouse him. Why was he not responding?

  "Reece, please," I cried. "I love you, please wake up!"

  His eyes flickered again, this time opening fully before closing halfway. I sucked in a gasp of a breath and shifted even closer to him.

  "Reece," I whispered, my face close to his.

  "Abigail," he murmured. His eyes flickered once more before opening fully. "You're okay."

  His statement held so much relief that it immediately flooded through me and lifted some of the weight I was feeling.

  "Yes, Reece, yes, I'm fine. Are you hurt?"

  "Ahh, no."

  "I'm serious, Reece, are you hurt? You were just unconscious," I said. My voice was weak and pitiful now that he had woken, the frantic tone from before lessening slightly.

  "Bastard was trying to strangle me," Reece said quietly. His voice was deeper and raspier than usual, the damage inflicted by Jack making his voice sound like it did in the morning. "No air."

  "But you're okay now?" I asked desperately. My eyes stayed locked on his while I hovered over him. His back was flat on the ground and he had yet to move but he was at least awake and speaking to me.

  "I'm fine, Abby. I'm okay."

  A different sob choked from my throat this time- a sob of pure, utter, blissful relief. My chest collapsed forward to his with complete disregard for the blood staining his clothes while my arms locked around his neck. He winced instantly at the contact and I tried to pull back, but his arms snaked around me and held me to him tightly.

  I could feel the tears leaking down my face still and the way my body shook, but the contact from Reece and the confirmation that he was alive and unbroken was doing wonders for calming me down. I clung to him, my body cramped and wet with blood that wasn't mine, and refused to let go.

  "He's dead."

  My heart lurched in my chest at Emily's words. I lifted my head from Reece's neck but didn't release him from my grasp as I turned to look at her. She was knelt beside Jack, her finger pressed to the inside of his wrist as she felt for a pulse that wasn't there. Her face was white as a sheet, and I could tell from the ginger way that she touched him that he was already starting to grow cold. The wound on his chest had stopped the gushing blood, and a gray pallor had already started to settle over his skin.

  There was no doubt in my mind.

  Jack was dead, and Reece had killed him.

  Before this realization could even sink in, another voice sounded out into the night air.

  "What the fuck have you done?"

  I didn't think it was possible to experience any more fear in such a short time, but I was proven wrong as terror ripped through me yet again. I recognized this voice, but it did little to comfort me. My head whipped in the direction of the voice and saw him standing a few feet away, completing the triangle between Reece and I, Emily and Jack's body, and himself.

  Samuel.

  "What the fuck did you do?!"

  He looked absolutely livid. Red tinged his face as blood flushed beneath his skin, and the veins stood out in sharp relief in his neck as he shifted his harsh gaze back and forth between the carnage on display.

  "Is he fucking dead? Did you fucking kill him?!" he roared, taking a menacing step toward us. His eyes locked on Jack's body, which had grown even paler in the few short moments since I'd looked away. Emily had backed away wisely, raising her hands slowly by her side in surrender. My arms stayed locked around Reece's neck as he shifted beneath me, pushing himself off the ground to sit up in front of me and block me from Samuel.

  "I didn't mean to, man," Reece said calmly. I knew he was anything but calm on the inside, but he needed to be to avoid another situation exactly like what we'd just gone through.

  "You didn't mean to? You didn't fucking mean to?" Samuel spit in rage.

  "He pulled the gun on me," Reece defended. He managed to push himself to his feet, tugging me with him and tucking me behind him in a slow yet strong action. If he was in any pain, he showed no signs of it.

  "So you took i
t and shot him?!"

  "No, I tackled him and knocked it out of his hand but he got it back. He had it against my head until I managed to move it," Reece explained. Unlike with Jack, Reece didn't move forward. Maybe it was because Samuel hadn't pulled a gun on Reece, or maybe it was to try a different tactic after the last one had failed so spectacularly.

  "So how'd he get shot then, huh? Drive by shooting in this small ass town?" he growled sarcastically. His eyes were bulging in a very similar way that Jack's had. I shuddered behind Reece and tried to fight off the mounting terror, petrified of a repeat show.

  "He tried to strangle me and almost did. I had no choice. He was going to kill me any way he could," Reece said slowly. My heart already ached for him, certain his calm words were positively shredding him inside. No matter what he said, I knew he was not okay with just having killed someone, even if it was someone like Jack. He would surely be absolutely devastated and destroyed inside.

  "You had the choice not to fucking kill him!" Samuel shouted. His eyes twitched slightly in a deranged way as if deciding something. In a split second, he reached behind him and pulled something from the back of his jeans before straightening his arms out in front of him again.

  For the second time in less than thirty minutes, I was staring straight down the barrel of a gun. Reece took a step back, his hands finding me behind him as he held me behind the shield of his body.

  "I should have done this ages ago. You've always been selfish and a shitty person," Samuel whispered in a deadly quiet tone. Unlike Jack, who had been solid and firm when he'd aimed the gun at us, Samuel shook unsteadily. It was clear he was unsettled by what he'd discovered here, and it had unhinged him.

  "No, Samuel, don't," Reece said evenly, backing up further.