Page 109 of Poison and Wine
“If you do, I want the nicest suite along with the finest champagne.”
Callum threw back his head with a laugh. “Now you care about the finer things?”
“Since I’ve waited twenty-one years to have sex, I think I deserve it. Especially since I didn’t get a honeymoon.”
His hands came to cup my face. “Kitten, you deserve the world.”
After propping the broom against the table, I undid my apron. Slinging it to a chair, I said, “Let’s go.”
Callum quickly abandoned the mop and bucket and took me by the hand. “If this is the reward I’m going to get for volunteering, I’m going to have to do it more often.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop talking before you ruin this for me.”
As we stepped into the sunshine, he grinned down at me. “Once I have you naked beneath me, I plan to do a lot of talking. I plan to tell you each and every pleasurable thing I’m going to do to you and how hot it makes me feel. Then I’m going to tell you what I want you to do to me.”
A jolt of lust shot through me. “Maybe I’ll have to gag you.”
Callum jerked me against him. “Damn, Kitten, I didn’t know you had a kinky side.” While he nodded at Owen to open the SUV’s backdoor, he brought his lips to mine. Although I should’ve objected to making out on the sidewalk in front of St. Francis’s, I couldn’t bring myself to put up a fight.
The sound of my moan echoing through my ears was overtaken by a cracking noise. Before I could register it, Callum’s body pulsed like he’d been touched by a live wire. As he slammed against me, the crackling noises started up again. Horror whirled through me as I recognized what those noises were.
They were bullets.
Someone was shooting at us.
Instead of trying to make it the car, Callum slung my body to the ground before covering it with his. “Stay down!” he croaked as a shaky hand reached into his jacket for his gun. When I turned my head on the pavement, Owen and Shane crouched by the SUV returning fire. Screams and shouts of panic sliced through the air around me.
When the gunfire silenced, Shane stayed behind the SUV while Owen ran over to us. “Are you alright?” he asked.
Ignoring him, Callum’s panicked gaze searched my face and body. “Caterina, were you hit?”
Trembling, I couldn’t speak so I resorted to shaking my head. “But there’s blood,” Callum stated.
“Oh fuck,” Owen muttured.
Callum and I both followed his gaze to the blood gushing from the left side of Callum’s chest. In that moment, the adrenaline depleted, and Callum’s eyes rolled back in his head. With a shriek, I sat up to catch his head as he pitched to the side.
“Callum? Callum, stay with me!” I cried.
“We have to get him out of here!” Owen called over his shoulder.
Shane abandoned the SUV to rush to our side. I shouted in protest when Shane knocked me away to help Owen lift up Callum. “Grab the door!” Owen instructed.
Considering the hard shakes running through my body, I didn’t know if I could stand, least of all move. But I pressed forward to rise to my feet. Lunging, I made my way over to the SUV and threw open the door.
After climbing inside, I slid across the bench seat before turning back in anticipation of Callum. Once they lifted him inside, I once again cradled his head against me. Owen stripped out of his jacket and pressed it onto Callum’s wound. Shame filled me that with all my medical training I hadn’t thought to do it. The SUV gunned forward and began racing through the streets. We sped past the flashing red and blue lights of the police as their sirens screamed into the area.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped onto Callum’s face. I reached back into my days as a sister and called out to St. Raphael–the patron saint of healing. “Please, please heal my husband,” I murmured as I ran my hands through his hair.
I couldn’t have come this far and experienced such life and love just to have it taken from me.
Chapter Thirty: Callum
As I wavered between consciousness, I began to hear my name being called faintly. My eyelids fluttered. “He’s coming around,” a strong voice related.
It took me a minute to realize that I was the one being referenced. When I opened my eyes, I met Quinn and Dare’s frantic faces. “There you are, brother,” Quinn said with a smile.
Everything came rushing back at me so fast I shuddered. We’d been ambushed on the street outside of St. Francis’s. “C-Caterina?” I choked out.