My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

45. Frozen

Coda POV

There's a loud gun shot and the hair behind my neck rises.

Without a word, Aurelio and I run towards the back door where we had sent Hazel and Jeremy.

We round the corner and I see Jeremy, lying in a puddle of his own blood and my heart stutters, my breathing accelerating.

My vision wavers from my injuries and I can't think, my mind spinning.

Fragmented memories mix with the present and instead of seeing the concrete walls and Hazel's broken body, I'm out in the middle of the road, holding Ridge's bleeding body in my arms.

Hitting the ground, my eyes scan over Hazel's body.

"Stand out the door and direct the ambulance," I tell Aurelio, my voice wavering.

I curse loudly, hesitantly pressing my hand against her bleeding wound on her torso.

"Coda, Cordero—"

"Forget him!" I yell hoarsely, her blood on my hands like a familiar stain that I can't erase from my mind.

Aurelio scrambles to his feet, bolting for the back door. He throws the door open and the sound of police are near.

There's a large cut on her head and I don't know where to put my hands. She's bleeding to death right in front of me.

"Stay with me baby. Please," I say fervently, her blood soaking into my clothes and smearing across my skin. "Stay with me Cuore."
When they pull me from her body, I feel like I'm out of my body, looking in at the scene.

I blink and my hands are pressed against Ridge, trying to cover the holes in his body and in the next moment, I am staring down at Hazel, her head rolling to the side when they pick her limp body up.

In the ambulance, a swarm of paramedics are trying to work on both Hazel and I.

Someone tugs my hand from her to try to fix my gash and impulsively, I shove them away.

"Work on her!" I growl. "Don't waste your time on me."
"Sit," one of the paramedics commands me.

I look her in the eye and I wonder what she must see.

The man in the reflection of her eyes sure as hell can't be me.

She forces me to sit and I don't fight back, directing my attention back to the girl on the stretchers.

There is a loud prolonged beeping and the voices are frantic.

All the sounds blur together in my head and before I know it, I'm lying down. I feel like throwing up.

Someone tugs my shirt open, accessing my wounds but when I try to sit up, someone holds me down.

The long prolonged beep is the only sound filling my head.

That damn sound.

"Clear," I hear someone yell.

I grunt, trying to hold onto her hand but they push my arm away.

In the moment that it takes for them to try to revive her, I've already lost a part of myself to the past.

Her body jolts from the electric paddles and I scream, feeling like I'm on the outside looking in.

I reach across, fighting to touch her one last time but they fling my body back.

Something sharp stings on my neck and I begin to grow drowsy.

I can't fight it.

The frantic beating of my heart monitor mixes in with the single prolonged beep of her heart machine.

Unable to fight the darkness coming over me, I grab the closet thing to me.

The nurse freezes, her eyes wide as I hold her hands in mine. I am choking, my chest heaving.

"Help her. Please. Please help her," I repeat over and over again. "help her."

She places her other hand over mine and squeezes tightly.

'I will, son. I will," she tells me as my head hits the bed behind me.

The lights above me blur together and then there's nothing.

~*~

The birds are chirping out in the trees.

Even though the wind howls softly across the dreary and grey sky, I don't move from my spot on the ground.

I stare at the headstone in front of me, my fingers digging into the ground.

For a majority of my life, I have been Coda Williams, the adopted son of a powerful and ruthless gang leader.

Now...

I don't even know what I am now.

I clutch her Rilke book of poems in one hand, keeping it close to my chest.

Things weren't supposed to be this complicated.

She wasn't supposed to get caught up with my past, with Cordero.

Her heart wasn't supposed to stop beating on that stretcher table.

I wasn't supposed to be the one siting here staring at the headstone in front of me.

My shoulders are shaking and I can't even say the words on the tip of my tongue as I run my fingers over the headstone letters.

Bring her back to me.

Bring her back to me and I'll never take her for granted again.

Bring her back to me and I'll never miss a day—a moment— to tell her that I love her.

Bring her back to me and I'll gladly take her place.

Just bring her back to me.

A/n: BEFORE YOU QUIT AND THROW YOUR PHONE AT THE WALL--take a deep breath. Proceed to the next chapter. All will be okay. Just click to the next chapter.