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Her scent faintly hits my nose, and she lays her head on my chest and cups my cheek. “I love you,” her sweet voice cries. “Stay with me, Hudson. Please, don’t leave me here alone.”
Even though I know it’s wrong and I’ve fought it off for weeks, I want to tell her that there’s nothing more I’d love in this world than to stay with her. Forever. I want to say I love you too. That way, she knows. Because I’ve never gotten the chance to tell her. I’ve known it for a while now, but I was too fucking scared to say the words out loud. Too ashamed because I felt guilty about loving another woman who wasn’t my wife. Now that I want to yell out the words, everything fades to darkness, and I know I won’t get the chance.
She will never know.
And just like my first go-around with love, I’ve failed. It’s all I seem to do.
I never wanted our love story to end like this, yet here we are. And if I could go back and change it all … I wouldn’t. If protecting her means dying, I’d do it. Every. Fucking. Time.
I can’t stop screaming. My brain feels like it’s spinning, and I have no idea how to stop it. He’s dying. Hudson is dying, and I don’t know what to do besides sit here and scream.
“Rossi!” I screech a bloodcurdling scream at the top of my lungs, trying to catch my breath as my vision blurs through tear-soaked lashes. “We need to get him out of here!”
I cry harder. Long, deep sobs come from my body as I press my hands to the blood-soaked shirt on Hudson’s chest.
“Please,” I sob, “stay with me.”
If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t be here. He would have gone straight to Vittoria Island, and he wouldn’t have gotten shot.
“I love you.” My voice barely croaks the words out as I wheeze. “Please. Just stay with me.”
Taking his phone out, he kneels by Hudson and brings it to his ear. “Hale is down! Hale is down!” he yells into the phone. “Send help! Now!” He puts one hand on Hudson’s wrist, and his eyebrows pull together. He fights back a sob. “I’m losing him! You need to fucking hurry!”
The smoke grows thicker as the fire Enzo set overtakes more of the house.
“Shit!” Rossi curses, looking down at his friend and at me. “We need to get out of here! This whole place is going to be up in flames in a few minutes.”
“I can’t leave him!” I scream. “I won’t!”
“I’m not asking you to, Briar!” he hisses before he goes behind Hudson and slides his hands beneath his armpits. “You get his feet!”
I rush to his feet. Strength comes from somewhere deep inside me, and I lift his legs. His lips rest in a straight line, and his face is getting paler by the second.
He’s going to die. I know it.
Each step we take is a struggle, but we push through down the hallway. The closer we get to the exit, the thicker the smoke gets, and the harder it becomes to breathe.
I cough a few times, my throat and lungs burn, and I start to panic. “Rossi,” I bark out.
“We’re … so … close,” he says back, barely getting the words out himself.
The smoke becomes impossible to navigate through; we run into the wall and stumble over our own feet as we carry Hudson. But both of us refuse to leave him behind. I think we’d both die before we did that.
My vision begins to fade, and black dances at the corner of my eyes before growing bigger and bigger.
Just push through, I tell myself over and over.
But my brain grows fuzzy, and my body feels weak. If I’m going to die, if this is how it ends, at least I’ll die with this man. A man I’ve come to love more than anything else.
We could have been so good together. If only this world wasn’t so fucked up and cruel.
I stand in my tuxedo in front of the archway that’s carefully strung with flowers. Cami strategically placed each one and then moved it ten more times until she thought it was right. I think she spent an entire day decorating the thing.
I look around. This isn’t where I remember us choosing to have the wedding, but it’s beautiful. And if she likes it, I’m happy.
“Hey, stranger.”
I hear Cami’s sweet voice, and I turn to see her walking toward me. I want to run toward her, but I keep my feet planted right where I’m supposed to be. This is our wedding day after all.
