Rome: A Marked Men Novel (37 page)

again and again. I had to succumb to the impatient hands of the female paramedic that pulled me away from

him. I couldn’t take my eyes off his deathly-still face and his unmoving chest.

“We got him, honey.”

I shot my gaze to hers. “He has to be okay.”

“We’ll do everything in our power to make that possible. The blond hottie said you’re pregnant and that

you might be hurt. We need you to get checked out.”

I shook my head vehemently. “No. Just worry about him.”

The medic opened her mouth to argue, when there was suddenly a gasp and Rome’s bright blue eyes

shot open only to flutter immediately closed again.

“Cora …” My name was just a whisper of sound, but it was enough to have me screaming his name

again and to have everyone moving twice as fast as they had before. The paramedics had him on a stretcher

and in the back of the ambulance in no time flat.

They didn’t say a word when I scrambled in after them. I wasn’t going to let him out of my sight until I

knew for sure he was going to be okay. There was just so much blood and it wouldn’t stop flowing out of

the holes that decorated his entire right side.

The female paramedic was all business as she went about hooking an IV into him and started to cut his

clothes off so that she could work on getting all that blood to stop pouring out of him. She kept talking to

him, telling him over and over that he had to fight, that he couldn’t leave me and the baby. She was rattling

off info about the shooter and the bikers, but all of it was a dull buzz. I just wanted him to open his eyes

and look at me. She told me to hold his hand, to let him know I was there. Once again the thing I was best

at, talking, using words, had fled. All I could do was stare at him and cry. He was my entire world, he was

everything I ever wanted, and it was going to turn my heart to stone if I didn’t get the opportunity to tell

him that.

Suddenly the paramedic swore and started moving around frantically. Her sharp tone cut through my

haze of despair. She told me I had better convince Rome to stay with us because my stubborn soldier

wasn’t listening to her. I squeezed his hand, leaned over him and kissed that scar on his forehead. I told

him everything, begged him to open his eyes. I told him that he had done his job and fought for me and the

baby; now it was time to fight for himself. I would pull him back from the brink of death over and over

again if that was what it took to keep him with me. I didn’t think it was doing any good, but when the

ambulance rolled to a stop outside the hospital, I saw his eyes flutter open again. He didn’t look good and it

didn’t take a medical professional to see that he had lost way too much blood, but those eyes were bright

and looking right at me, so I made sure that if it was the last time he saw me, the last thing I ever got to say

to him, I would make it matter. There was no way Rome Archer was going to fade away again without me

telling him I loved him and needed him.

CHAPTER 18

Rome

“There’s those pretty baby blues. Keep fighting, big man, we’re almost to the hospital.”

I didn’t recognize the voice or the girl who spoke them. She was hovering over my head and I was

having a hard time tracking her. I hurt all over and I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to suck air in and out but

it didn’t seem to be working. I vaguely heard the sirens overhead blaring and the radio in the ambulance

squawking. I couldn’t feel anything other than the hot blaze of pain from the top of my head to wherever

my toes were.

“You have some pretty powerful friends. The guy that pulled the trigger already got picked up. I guess

he was so scared of what the Sons of Sorrow would do when they found out he shot you, he took his

happy ass to the station and turned himself in. Idiot. I guess he doesn’t know how many Sons are doing

time.”

She prattled on and on while moving all around me. I didn’t care about the guy that shot me, I cared

about Cora. I didn’t know if one of the bullets had gone through me and hit her, didn’t know how hard I

had taken her to the ground, didn’t know if the baby was okay … The thoughts ran around and around and

I couldn’t hold on to any of it anymore. The pain was too much. I couldn’t get any air and I was tired. So

tired, and I felt some of the fire licking across my skin start to dull.

“Hey now, soldier, none of that.” The girl’s voice rose and slapped across me. I thought I heard another

sound, a whimper or something that sounded like a wounded animal, but I couldn’t turn my head or even

move my eyes to track the noise. They wouldn’t even open when I commanded them to. Something

clamped on my hands and squeezed. I was surprised I could feel it amid the living fire that was scorching

me up from the inside out.

“You didn’t make it all the way home to have some punk take you out. You need to fight. You got too

much riding on coming out of this battle a winner. Fight.”

This chick was good at her job. Had I not been on the brink of death, I would have admired her a lot

more. I didn’t know how she knew what I had to lose—my girl, my baby, a future and a family that I was

finally, at the worst possible time, starting to understand that I deserved. It was all beyond worth fighting

for, but I was so tired and I needed air. It was so much easier to just close my eyes and let the pain and fire

take me.

“Shit, he’s crashing.” The stranger’s voice rose and everything around me started to fade away once

again. I could hear Remy screaming at me to stop being an idiot, could hear my heart starting to slow down,

and felt the pain start to drag me under and the fire shift from hot to freezing cold. “Honey, you better

convince your man to stay with us, because he isn’t listening to me.”

Something jabbed into my side and into my arm and the stranger’s voice vanished to be replaced with

the one I think I had been searching for all along.

“Rome.” She sounded like she was crying but I couldn’t pry my eyes open to look at her. “Come on,

Captain No-Fun, I need you to look at me.” She sounded so sad, so scared, and it pissed me off there was

nothing I could do to make her feel any better. I wanted to look at her, but it was hard. My eyes were so

heavy. I felt soft hands stroke along my jaw, across my forehead and trace the scar that was there. “I can’t

tell you thank you for saving my life while you aren’t looking at me, big guy. You saved us, me and the

baby. Now I need you to save yourself. Come on, Rome, you can’t leave us now. You need to wake up so I

can tell you how much I love you.”

I never wanted to leave her, not even when I was mad at her and acting like an idiot. I wanted to

apologize for flying off the handle like a hothead, wanted to make sure that if I didn’t make it, my last

words to her were words of love, words that expressed how important she had been in bringing me back to

myself. I wanted her to know that I thought she was as close to perfect as I was ever going to get. I just

couldn’t do it. My eyes wouldn’t open. My limbs wouldn’t work and I still needed air and felt like I was in

a vacuum where there was none.

Something wet and warm slid across my face. I thought it was just more blood, but then it dripped

more, slow and steady, and I heard Cora’s soft sob. I didn’t want her to be sad about anything. I wanted her

to be happy and safe, to know that I loved her. It took every ounce of strength I had left, every morsel of

fight I possessed, to pry my eyes open to look at her, and when I did the pain slammed back into me full

force, enough to make me gasp and to have moisture flooding my eyes. I had never felt anything like this. I

was turned inside out and losing my grasp on reality fast. I was sinking in pain and suffocating on lack of

air.

Her eyes were liquid blue and brown. She was crying and her blond hair was stained pink with what

had to be my blood. She was pale as a ghost and her hands were shaking where she was touching my face.

Our gazes locked and her mouth broke into a trembling grin.

“Please be okay. You have to be okay. I love you so much, Rome.” She was pleading with me but there

was nothing I could do to reassure her.

The movement of the ambulance stopped and the strange voice was back.

“We’re here. We gotta get him into surgery.”

I wanted to scream when Cora’s unusual eyes were replaced with the stranger’s. I was moving but I

wanted my girl. The sky flashed overhead for a brief second and then all I could see was white ceiling tiles

and industrial lights, what I didn’t see anymore was Cora and she was all I wanted.

“I thought I told you to stop messing around with angry bikers.” The pretty nurse with the gray eyes

was now hovering over my bedside. She was more familiar but she still wasn’t who I wanted. “They’re

ready for him in the OR; just take him back. We need to prep and get him under like yesterday.”

I wanted to scream that I needed my girl, that she had to know I was going to be okay, but I was poked

and prodded some more and then there was no more fire, no more ice, there was just darkness, and I was

gone.

“Rome Archer, if you don’t wake up right this second so I can tell you that I love you, I swear I’m

going to name this baby something ridiculous like Daffodil or Rover and I’m going to let your brother be in

charge of haircuts until he or she is old enough to complain.”

I could breathe again. It hurt, I mean really, really hurt, but my lungs seemed to be inflating and

deflating on their own. I cracked an eye open and immediately wished I hadn’t because the light behind

Cora’s head made me nauseous. I tried to say something back to her but there was something shoved in my

mouth, so all I could do was look up at her and blink. She was really just a colorful blur against a bunch of

stuff shifting in and out of focus.

She was still crying, or maybe crying again, but I was pretty sure she had told me that she loved me, so

it didn’t matter. I felt her hand on mine and then the redheaded nurse was next to her checking out the

machine that was beeping somewhere over my head.

“There he is. You have more lives than a cat, Mr. Archer. You sure are one lucky guy. Not a lot of

people could lose that much blood and still be with us. I told your girlfriend to go buy as many lottery

tickets as she could.”

I sure was lucky, but it didn’t have anything to do with getting shot and surviving. It had everything to

do with the woman holding on to my hand and looking at me like I was some kind of miracle. The nurse

turned to Cora and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Honey, he’s awake. You need to go take care of yourself and that baby. This is a huge hurdle crossed.

We can’t take him off the ventilator until we know that lung is stable, so he won’t be able to talk to you for

a while still. Go home. Take a nap. He’s in good hands. Plus there is a waiting room full of people out there

waiting to see him. He won’t be alone. I promise you.”

I saw Cora blink. She looked awful … well, she looked wonderful and she had said she loved me.

Even if it was just the painkillers I was sure they were pumping into me that made me think she said it, it

was good enough. She smiled at the pretty nurse and bent over to kiss my temple.

“But he’s mine.” Her voice broke and I managed just barely to move my fingers under her death grip.

The nurse offered up a very kind smile. She really was a stunningly pretty girl and her genuine kindness

just seemed to pour out of those soft gray eyes. When Cora mumbled her name in aggravation, I thought

that Saint really was a fitting name for her. She seemed blessed with infinite patience.

“I know, sweetheart, but you aren’t doing him or your baby any favors by not taking care of yourself.

It’s been a couple days, hon. This is all good news, trust me. He didn’t save your life just to have you pass

out on us and end up in a bed next to his. Trust me. It’s not every woman who can actually say her man

took a bullet for her.” There was a strain of envy in the nurse’s tone. “You’re just as lucky as he is. Now go

take a breather. I got your fella.”

I couldn’t agree or disagree, but then Cora was hanging over my face and all I could see was her

different-colored eyes. The turquoise one was glowing so bright I could see her heart in it, the brown one

was all velvety and warm and I could see my future plain as day. She leaned over and kissed me on the

plastic machine helping me breathe in and out. I think that made me jealous of some kind of medical

machinery. She brushed a thumb over my eyebrow and smiled at me. Remy was right: actions were

important. I needed to pay closer attention.

“I was so mad that you kept getting the last word in every argument we seem to have, but this—good

Lord, Rome, this is an extreme way to win a fight.” I would have laughed if I was capable of it. “I love you.