Limitless Love (Lotus House #4)(87)

Clayton took the opportunity with the commotion I’d made to move on Kyle.

He went for him with hands out front. Out of the corner of my eye I could see he had no choice but to release Lily or he’d have Clayton’s hands wrapped around his neck. Knowing my man, he’d never let go until Kyle passed out or was dead.

Clayton grunted and pushed Kyle into the wall, breaking the glass mirror behind his head. The glass shattered to the floor in big chunky pieces.

I scrambled with my sister, shoving and pushing, trying to get a better position. We rolled back and forth, ripping at one another.

Lily stood in the corner of the room crying, her hands by her face.

“Run outside, Lily!” Clayton yelled, and my girl did what she was told. Unfortunately, she stopped when she got to me, seeing me down with Matisse on top.

“Mommy…” She reached her hands toward us.

“Go!” I screamed and grappled with my sister, the gun on the floor somewhere I couldn’t see. I prayed it would stay hidden and neither of us would find it before the cops arrived.

Lifting my arms, I got a good lock on Matisse’s head and wiggled my thumbs into position. I pressed them right into Matisse’s eye sockets and pushed as hard as I could. She let go, wailing like a banshee. I took a half second, pushed her over, and took my stance on top of her just as I was taught to get out of the rape hold. Her hands came up to protect herself, but she must not have gotten the same training I did, because she did all the moves Nicholas warned me not to do if I was caught under someone. As the good student I am, I took to heart everything Nick taught me and fisted my hands and wailed on my sister’s face until she stopped fighting and her face was a bloody mess. My hands were no better.

Pushing off her, I found Clayton holding one of Kyle’s arms up above his head. The other hand was wrapped around his jaw, where he pounded Kyle’s skull against the wall. But Clayton made one crucial mistake: he forgot about the knife.

I watched in utter horror as Kyle’s right hand came up from behind him and plunged the knife right into Clayton’s side near his ribcage. My man roared in pain, his body bowing powerfully, the knife wedged in his side. Kyle pushed him back enough to get his hands off him.

“Police! Hands up!” came a cluster of voices behind me. I raised my hands on instinct.

I watched everything happening around me take place in slow motion.

There was no sound.

Clayton fell to his knees.

His powerful arms going to his side.

His fingers split between the knife still lodged inside him.

Blood poured out around his fingers.

He lifted his head, his eyes a startling navy as I watched the light in my man’s eyes go dark and fade out as he fell to his back.

Finally, my ability to move returned, and the sounds of sirens and people yelling orders entered my consciousness. I ran to Clayton and fell to my knees at his side. “Clayton! Baby, hold on. Hold on!” I heard myself demanding. I placed my hands over and around his wound, attempting to stabilize the knife and stop the bleeding. The weapon was buried to the hilt. I was sure that he’d been stabbed with the same knife used on me.

Clayton’s eyes flicked and his mouth opened and closed. “L-Love you. L-Lovvve Lilyyyy,” he stuttered around a cough, and then his powerful bulk went completely slack in my arms.

“No, no, no, no!” I screamed. “Help! I need help!”

Paramedics with a stretcher appeared out of nowhere and pushed me back. “We’ve got him, ma’am. We’ve got him. Back up so we can help him.”

Help him. Yes. Help him.

Someone put their hand on my shoulder. A woman with kind brown eyes and curly blond hair. “Ma’am. Come with me.”

I nodded, following numbly until all that had occurred rushed back to the surface. “My daughter! Where is she? She ran outside.” I was panicked but continued to watch Clay as the men worked on him.

“He’s got a pulse,” one said.

“Oxygen!” another called out.

“Lift,” I heard before seeing his bulk being placed on the stretcher.

The woman tapped on my shoulder. “She’s outside with the neighbor. She needs her mommy. She’s really scared.”

I nodded. “Need him to be okay.” She led me out the door. “Need him okay. I love him.”

“Got that. We’ll get you guys off to the hospital where he’s being taken. Let’s get your daughter.”

As the cop led me outside, I watched as Matisse’s head was shoved down as she was placed into a patrol car. Kyle had been handcuffed and was being led to a different one.

My neighborhood looked like something out of murder mystery. Neighbors stood at the edge of the sidewalk watching the train wreck that was my life unfold for all to see.

Kyle’s pipsqueak voice entered my haze. “I’ll get out,” he mocked. “They can’t hold me forever, and when I do…I’m coming after you,” he sneered at me as the cop shuffled him past me and toward the patrol car.

The big burly cop leading him “accidently” pushed him so he ended up tripping over the curb and falling against the front of the cop car. “Shut the fuck up,” he growled.

“Don’t be afraid,” the nice blond woman encouraged. “He’s going to get at least forty-five years to life for two counts of attempted murder with special circumstances. He’s never getting out of jail in your lifetime.”