I bite down on my lips and refuse to look at him. I know if I look at him, I’ll be lost.
“Put the gun down and we can leave right now,” Stephanie tells Melinda.
There’s a few feet separating Dallas and me right now and his gun is even farther away. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him slowly inching his way closer to where he kicked the gun.
Melinda suddenly looks over at him and the smile falls from her face.
“Were you going for your gun?” she asks.
Dallas just shrugs.
And then everything happens all at once. Melinda raises her gun, Dallas crouches down to spring across the floor to his own weapon, and I throw myself toward Dallas right as the thundering boom of a gun going off fills the quiet room.
My body slams into him and in his crouched position, he falls to the ground with me on top of him. Pain radiates through my body when we hit the floor and I know I must have jarred something loose from my scuffle with Melinda last night.
Dallas wraps his arms protectively around my body and rolls me onto my back, cradling me close to him as shouts fill the air and a stampede of police officers with guns drawn comes flying into the house.
Dallas lifts his head away from me and we both watch as Melinda and Stephanie are taken to the ground and handcuffed.
“You guys okay?” Ted asks as he flies into the room with his gun in front of him, heading over to the chaos across from us.
“Yep, we’re good. Lorelei here just saved my ass. I’m pretty sure that proves she loves me too,” Dallas tells him as he looks down at me and smiles.
I try to smile back, but I feel a little woozy. I must have slammed into Dallas a little too hard. The room is starting to spin and I blink quickly a few times to try and settle everything.
Dallas pulls away from me a little bit and I stare in shock at his shoulder.
“Oh, my God, you’re bleeding. You’ve been shot,” I mutter.
His face scrunches up in confusion and he looks down at himself. His gaze slowly makes its way back to me.
“That’s not my blood,” he whispers.
I watch as he quickly pushes himself off of me and his eyes widen in horror.
“TED! Get an ambulance here NOW!”
Dallas presses his hands to my shoulder and I yelp in pain.
“Ouch! Not so hard,” I complain, closing my eyes.
“No, no, no. Lorelei, open your eyes, baby. Stay with me.”
This feels like déjà vu. Hasn’t he said this to me before? It suddenly strikes me as funny and I start to laugh. I feel drunk again. But I’m pretty sure I’m not drunk.
“I’m right here; I’m not going anywhere,” I laugh. “I’m so tired. And my shoulder really hurts.”
I close my eyes again and hear a flurry of activity all around me. People shouting, footsteps pounding on the floor by my head, and Dallas whispering close to my ear.
“Come on, open your eyes and tell me I’m a pompous asshole. Tell me I’m a pigheaded jerk. I don’t care what you say, just talk to me. The ambulance is on its way.”
I don’t know what the ambulance is for, but Dallas makes me laugh.
“You’re so silly. I love you. You’re not that much of a pompous asshole,” I tell him.
I struggle to open my eyes and look up at him. The smile he gives me is tinged with sadness.
Shame on him for being sad when I just told him I love him.
CHAPTER 21
Wake up, sleepyhead.”
The voice breaks into my dream and I groan in frustration. I was having the most amazing dream. I solved the murder case and Dallas told me he loved me.
“Don’t wake her up. She’s going to be pissed when she finds out the hospital threw away her Jimmy Choo boots because they had blood on them.”
I groan again and try to roll over to go back to the dream but I can’t move. There’s something on my face that’s tickling my nose, and my arms feel like they’re tangled with rope.
“I’m pretty sure the hospital has already borne enough of your wrath for that oversight. I can’t believe you told that orderly he was a waste of space that wouldn’t know good shoes if they were shoved up his ass.”
I want to laugh at the absurdity of the conversation happening around me, but I feel like it would hurt to laugh, for some reason.
“He said those boots were ugly and the blood enhanced them. He’s lucky I didn’t shove my own foot up his ass. Jimmy Choos are never ugly.”
Figuring I may as well get it over with, I slowly blink open my eyes and wince at the bright light. Turning my head to the side, I see Kennedy and Paige sitting on chairs next to my bed. What are they doing in my room? And why is my room so bright?
“Where am I?”
The raspy groan of my own voice shocks me and I cough to try and clear it.
Paige immediately jumps up from her chair and rushes to the side of my bed. “I knew shoe talk would perk you right up. How do you feel?”
I swallow and clear my throat, pressing my palms down on the bed to push myself up. I yelp in pain as soon as I put weight on my left arm.