Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(68)
The pain that followed those brief glances was indescribable. And always took weeks to heal from.
And still…life went on.
Eventually two years had passed, during which I continued on with school, and made a concerted effort at spending more time with my family, or alone with ZZ, and less time at the club.
And then, three weeks after I turned twenty-one, during one of the many Horsemen summer barbeques, life came crashing to a stop.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Ripper stared at Danny. Stared at ZZ kneeling on the grass in front of her, asking her to marry him.
He was going to flip his shit.
These *s all around him didn’t realize it, but they were about to get sprayed with blood, bone, and brain when his head decided to explode, which was in about five motherf*cking seconds.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
Fuck him.
Married.
ZZ was asking Danny to marry him.
Ah, f*ck. What was happening to him? Everything inside of him suddenly felt all f*cked-up and wrong. His heart started beating faster and his skin began to tingle irritably. The air around him grew thick, stuffy, making it hard to breathe. He felt lightheaded, his nose stung, and his stomach clenched painfully.
Before he began shredding his own body to pieces, just to make all these damn uncomfortable and unwanted feelings go away, he grabbed Anabeth and yanked her up against him. She responded immediately and curled seductively around his body.
Feeling like ten times an *, he kept his gaze on Danny as he groped Anabeth’s ass.
Danny’s beautiful blue eyes filled with pain and her gaze dropped back to ZZ.
He stopped breathing. She was going to say yes.
Say something, his brain screamed. STOP HER!
FUCKING STOP HER!
But he didn’t.
He never did.
Because he was a useless *, who would never f*cking deserve her.
So he just stood there like an *, manhandling her friend, and watching in horrified fascination as her lips parted and—
FUCK THIS SHIT.
Fuck the club and the code, and f*ck brotherhood.
He would give it all up for her. For his woman. Because she sure as shit was his, and he’d go to hell and back ten times over before he lost her forever.
He shoved Anabeth aside, his right foot moved, and…
“DANNY!” he bellowed. “BABY!”
But no one heard him. His words had been drowned out by the cracking boom of a bullet being discharged and the horrified screams that followed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I stared across the lawn, unable to move despite the hectic flow of traffic, people arguing, police officers running back and forth, children crying…
I just stood there and stared at the spot where not long ago Dorothy had been lying on the grass. Shot.
In the head.
There was so much blood.
And all I could think about was her swollen belly, her innocent baby inside.
What would happen to the baby?
Feeling sick, I placed my hand over my own flat stomach and dug my fingertips into my skin. Was this really happening?
Was Dorothy going to die? Her baby?
The bullet hadn’t killed her, at least not yet, and she’d since been taken to the hospital and her shooter, Jase’s wife Chrissy, had been carted off to jail, still screaming incoherently at Jase. I didn’t know where Jase was. Either at the hospital or the jail.
I hoped he was at the hospital.
There was so much blood.
“Danny?”
Recognizing Ripper’s voice, I didn’t bother turning. “Yes?” I whispered.
“Everyone’s either leavin’ or leavin’ for the hospital,” he said quietly. “You comin’?”
“Where’s ZZ?” I asked.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Ripper stiffen. “Hospital,” he said tightly. “With Jase. He told you he was goin’, yeah?”
I nodded distractedly. Yeah, he had. I think. God…there was so much blood. And I was freezing.
Glancing up, I noted the sun still shining bright and high in the sky and frowned. Why was I so cold?
“Danny.” Ripper stepped in front of me, blocking out both the sun and the blood on the grass.
I glanced up at him. “What do you want?” I whispered. What did he want? Shouldn’t he be on his way to the hospital or out of town, whatever…?
“You’re shakin’,” he gritted out. “I’m tryin’ to get you to stop starin’ at the motherf*ckin’ blood and go inside.”
I blinked. “I’m no stranger to blood, Ripper,” I said softly. “Or bullets,” I added.
“Or…dead babies.”
He visibly flinched and I immediately felt bad. I shouldn’t have said it, I don’t even know why I had, but I didn’t seem to be in control of myself. I was in shock and shaking.
And selfishly thinking about my own tragedies in place of the one that had just occurred right in front of me. During my marriage proposal…
Oh my god.
I glanced down at my left hand, at my ring finger. The ring was simple yet elegant, a band made of white gold with what I guessed was a two-carat diamond, princess cut, and circled by a thin line of diamond chips.
It was beautiful.