The Psycho (The Soldiers of Anarchy 1)

Chapter Forty-Two

Liv

I love you, Olivia.

Those words slayed me. No one had ever told me they loved me before and it ripped my heart out that it was ending like this. He couldn’t go. He couldn’t leave me with nothing but a whisper of a memory of what it felt like to be loved and a hollow heart that’d never recover.

Everything happened in slow motion. Time stood still as I screamed out his name, begged him to fight. Pain seared through me but I didn’t stop to think, I just acted, launching myself forward and jumping on the guy who was taking everything away from me, forcing him down as the gunshot went off. I could see Adam fall to the ground out of the corner of my eye, but I stayed strong. I had to fight this man with everything I had. I couldn’t let Adam’s death be for nothing. I owed him everything.

The gun had fallen away, and it lay a few feet from us, just out of reach as we fought, but he was too powerful, and he managed to roll me onto my back with ease, straddling me and then grinning down at me.

“Looks like it’s your turn now,” he said.

And I kept my focus right on him, my eyes boring into his as Devon leant down slowly to pick up the gun from the floor and then he lifted his arm and with deadly precision, he shot Cheslin in the back of head.

Cheslin fell forward onto me, but I pushed him off, crying as I crawled over to Adam and pulled him into my lap. His shirt was soaked with blood, and I felt it seep through onto my sundress, but I didn’t care. I clung to him, rocking with him in my arms as he lay there limp and lifeless. There was a huge gash on the side of his forehead pouring blood down his face, but I still kissed him and whispered in his ear, begging him not to leave me.

“Get a photo of his body then get Gaz over here. We need to get Ad back in the van.”

I didn’t know who was talking and I didn’t care. I just sat there, holding my whole world in my arms and praying this wasn’t happening. I felt someone put their arms around me and say gently, “We need to get him out of here. He’s gonna be fine, but we have to take him home.”

But I shook my head, refusing to let go. He wasn’t theirs to take anywhere. He was mine.

“You’re not taking him,” I cried, sobbing so hard the tears began to distort my vision. “Please. Make him come back to me.”

I felt one of them kneel down next to me and then he placed his fingers on Adam’s neck.

“He’s still alive,” he said, and my heart lurched inside my chest.

“Liv, you need to let go. We need to move him.” Another voice spoke frantically, but I refused to let go. I couldn’t.

“He needs a hospital,” I begged, knowing they’d disagree. It wasn’t how they worked, but I couldn’t give a rat’s ass what their soldier protocol was right now. All I cared about was getting Adam the medical attention he needed. I needed him to come back to me.

“She’s right,” another voice said. “If we wait any longer, he could bleed out.”

“Okay, I agree with you, but you do know we’ll have police crawling all over us. It’s a fucking gunshot wound and he’s wearing handcuffs.”

“And we’ll deal with that when we have to. We have enough strings to pull behind the scenes. Jesus, this is Adam we’re talking about, for fuck’s sake.”

“You’re right. Let’s get him up, get him in the van and get him to the fucking hospital.”

My head was reeling with the whole back and forth between them all, but when they circled me and started to lift Adam out of my arms, I cried and let him go.

One of them put his arms around me and spoke gently, saying, “He’s gonna be okay, Liv. He wouldn’t ever leave you. He loves you too much.” And I wiped my eyes and turned to look at Devon, who was leading me towards the stairwell.

He held me up as we went down the staircase, following the soldiers who were taking each step as fast as they could with Adam in their arms. I don’t think I would have been able to stand if it wasn’t for Devon, and I used him, took comfort from him as he held onto me.

“You’ve changed him,” Devon whispered, trying to soothe me with his words. “You’ve made him a better man. We’ve all noticed. He loves you more than anything.”

I nodded, sniffling–“I love him too”–as we came to the ground floor.

The others barrelled through the doors, forcing it open with their backs as they protected Adam, and Devon hesitated but let go of me to run over and help them, then he darted across to the van parked out the front to open the doors.

“Not in the back,” Devon snapped as they went to place him on the floor of the van. “Put him up front, with Liv. I’ll drive. You lot can go in the back.” And they nodded their agreement without arguing one word.

I got into the van, and they draped Adam’s body over the front seat and partially over me.

“Didn’t want to squash you,” Colton said, then closed the door and ran around to get into the back.

“I’ll drive fast,” Devon told me as he got into the driver’s seat, and then he started the engine and sped off.

“Hold on,” I whispered into Adam’s ear. “It’s gonna be all right. Please, just hold on.”