Sebastian (The Beck Brothers #2) (9 page)

"Did Julian leave you?" he
asked.

Victoria flinched. "Yes, but that
has nothing..."

"It has everything to do with it.
You don't want to be alone. Well, don't come crawling back to me. We're
divorced. Done. Never again will I want to be with you. You broke my heart
once, Victoria. You damn well better believe that I won't let that happen
again," Sebastian said bitterly.

"You won't give me a second
chance?" she asked quietly.

"Nope. So you might as well go back
to California," he said.

Victoria closed her eyes and tears
started down her face. Sebastian could care less.

  The bell chimed as the shop door
opened. Sebastian could see a couple of guys walk in out of his peripheral. He
didn't think anything of it really, but he tore his eyes away from Victoria,
and glanced at the two men. They were both Hispanic, and the hair on the back
of his neck stood up. Dread twisted his gut. The first guy was only a foot away
from Victoria by the time Sebastian realized he had a gun in his hand. Before
he could do or say anything, the man lifted his arm, and pulled the trigger.

  Sebastian shouted in horror as Victoria
dropped to the ground, dead, from a bullet to the temple. He flicked his eyes
up to the man who just murdered his ex-wife. The man’s dark eyes were cold,
hard, and dead. He had no qualms about killing people, that much was clear.
Sebastian’s heart stuttered when he heard Bill's office door open. His stomach
rolled violently when he saw Bill rushing down the hall toward them.

"What the hell was that?" Bill
shouted then stopped dead when he spotted Victoria lying on the floor in a pool
of blood.

The guy in front of Sebastian turned and
pointed his gun at Bill, while the older man wasn’t paying attention.

"NO!" Sebastian screamed,
throwing out a useless hand in Bill’s direction, just as the guy pulled the
trigger.

  Bill stumbled back clutching his
lower stomach. He bumped into the shelves behind him, bringing down everything
on them, as he sunk to the floor. Bill’s eyes were wide, and his mouth was open
in shock. He blinked at Sebastian in confusion. It took everything Sebastian
had not to throw up at that moment. Sebastian did at least have enough sense to
hit the silent alarm button while the guys’ backs were turned. It was under the
counter right next to him, thank god.

  Sebastian took a couple deep
breaths. He needed to focus. He needed to think. He needed to get out of this
alive, for Bill, for his brothers, for his parents, and for his nephews.
Sebastian had his gun in a holster at the small of his back. His shirt tucked
into his pants at his back, so there was nothing obstructing him from getting
to it quickly. But could he draw it fast enough to pop the guy in front of him,
and
the second guy
who was standing closer to the door? The second guy would have plenty of time
to raise his weapon and fire, if Sebastian took out the first guy.

The guy in front of him swung back
around, gun raised and pointing at Sebastian's face. "You killed my
brother, you motherfucker!" he snarled hatefully.

"And you broke into
my
brother’s house," Sebastian replied
calmly. He now knew that he was talking to Hector Marquez.

"I don't give a fuck! All I fucking
care about is making you pay!" Hector yelled. The gun pointed at
Sebastian's face shook slightly from the man's anger.

  It was now or never. Do or Die.
Sebastian was about to kill two more people. Could he do it? He wanted to live,
so...yes. His decision made, Sebastian felt the world slow, just like it did at
the break in. He reached behind him...

Pop...pop-pop!

  Sebastian stood frozen. His gun
was still pointed one-handed at where the second guy had been standing. He did
it. He shot Hector in the head - killing him instantly - then he turned his gun
on the second guy, shooting him twice in the chest. Sebastian let go of the
breath he'd been holding and lowered his arm.

"Sebastian," Bill's pained plea
snapped him back into reality.

"Oh, Jesus! Bill!" Sebastian
cried, scrambling over the counter to get to him as fast as possible.

  Sebastian skidded to a stop and
dropped to his knees next to his boss. He dropped his gun to the floor and
yanked his shirt over his head. He moved Bill's hands aside and pressed his
shirt to the oozing wound. Bill yelped in pain but covered Sebastian's hands
with his own, putting more pressure.

Bill looked up at Sebastian with glassy
eyes. "That was amazing what you did, Son. I thought you were going to be
murdered, right in front of my eyes." He panted, grimacing in pain.

"Shh…don't talk. Save your
strength," Sebastian whispered, not trusting his voice.

  As the minutes passed, Bill grew
paler and paler. Sebastian was now kneeling in Bill’s blood, his hands covered
with it. Bill's breathing became ragged and shallow. Where the fuck were the
police? Bill wasn't going to make it if they didn't hurry the hell up. Bill's
hands slowly slipped from Sebastian's. His eyes snapped up to look at his boss’
face; his eyes were closed, and his head was hanging to the side.

"Bill? Bill? Bill? Wake up!"
Sebastian yelled. Bill didn't move, and he couldn't tell if he was breathing or
not. He didn't want to move his hands and risk him bleeding out any more than
he already was
. Fuck!

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"
Sebastian screamed at the top of his lungs. He ended with a ragged sob. "Oh
Jesus...someone help me...Bill...hang on man, you gotta hang on."

  Sebastian rocked back and forth,
as he sobbed. He cried for Bill, and he cried for Victoria. He might not have
liked her, but she had been his wife at one time. He had loved her. She may
have betrayed him, but he didn't want her dead.
He didn't want her
dead
.

  Sebastian distantly heard the bell
chime and voices filled the air. He heard some shouting and hands roughly
grabbed him. They tried to drag him away from Bill, but he fought back. He bellowed
and fought against the hands pulling him away. It wasn't until he heard
Raelynn's voice yell for whoever had him, to let him go, did the grabbing stop.
Sebastian sat on his ass, hands and pants covered in blood, watching as the
paramedics worked on Bill.

  An arm slipped gently around his
neck, while a hand smoothed over his hair. He knew it was Raelynn touching him
when Honeysuckle filled his nose. His hands rested on the tops of his thighs,
palms up. Raelynn kept stroking his hair, whispering gentle words in his ear.
The words didn’t even matter. He was so numb now that nothing mattered. Once
the paramedics got Bill out of there, Raelynn helped him up and took him into
the bathroom.

  Sebastian stared blankly at his
hands as Raelynn scrubbed away the blood. She was silent and tense. He had
nothing reassuring to say to her either. He was still completely numb. He just
let her do whatever she wanted to him. He didn't care. He didn't care about
anything at the moment. Once Raelynn got his hands clean, she dried them with a
paper towel. She flipped down the toilet seat and guided him down onto it. She
cupped his face and tilted it up toward her, standing between his legs, her
thumbs stroking his cheeks.

"Sebastian?" she asked softly.

"Hmm?" he replied, staring at
nothing.

"Can you look at me?" Raelynn
asked, ducking her head to put her eyes level with his.

Sebastian blinked slowly before lifting
his eyes to hers.

"Are you injured? Is any of this
blood yours?" she asked, the worry and fear sharp in her blue eyes.

"No." He swallowed.

Raelynn nodded. "Okay, good,"
she said, letting out a breath she had been apparently holding.

  Raelynn leaned down and kissed him
softly on the lips. It was short and sweet and said that she had been scared to
death that he might have been hurt. After she pulled back, she helped him to
his feet and led him out of the bathroom. Sebastian barely paid attention to
what was going on or where she was taking him. The next thing he knew, he was
in her car, sitting in the front passenger seat. He vaguely heard her tell
someone that she was taking him home to get a change of clothes or something.

Chapter
6

  Raelynn watched as Sebastian
walked stiffly into his apartment. She had to dig his keys out of his pocket.
When they stopped in front of his door, he just stood there staring at the
floor. Raelynn had never been so scared in her life. When she got the call that
there had been a shooting at Bill's, she almost had a panic attack. She swore that
she was going to find Sebastian dead on the floor. Instead, she found a woman
and two men dead, and one man seriously injured.

  The way it looked was that the two
men had walked in and shot the woman and Bill before Sebastian took them out.
But she wanted to hear it from him before she jumped to conclusions. Sebastian,
though, was in no condition to talk, he was a walking zombie. Barely anything
she said got through to him. He was staring off into space most of the time,
and she knew he was in some kind of shock. His skin was cool to the touch, and
his pulse was elevated when she checked it in the car. She took his wrist in
her hand, and he didn't even flinch. She was really starting to worry about
him.

  Raelynn shut and locked the door
then took Sebastian's hand and led him into the bathroom. Raelynn turned on the
shower and let the water get hot. She knew Sebastian wasn't going to wash
himself, so she stripped out of her clothes before getting him out of his blood
soaked jeans. His knees and shins caked with dry blood, and his jeans were
toast; she would throw them in the trash when she was done.

  Raelynn got in the shower and
pulled Sebastian in. She backed him up under the hot spray and grabbed his
soap. Raelynn bent down, scrubbed his legs clean, and stood when she was
finished. After placing the soap back, she reached up and cupped his face in
her hands. Sebastian lifted his eyes to hers. Devastation. That was the only
word to describe what was in his eyes.

"Is Bill alive?" he whispered.

"Yes, he made it to surgery and
should make a full recovery," Raelynn said softly.

  Sebastian closed his eyes and
dropped his forehead to hers. Raelynn sighed and closed her eyes, too. His
hands snaked around her waist and hugged her to him, and then his mouth dropped
to hers. He kissed her slowly at first, but it seemed to grow more desperate
and needy. He turned and pressed her against the tile under the showerhead.
With his body pressed against hers, she could feel his growing erection rubbing
against her stomach.

"Sebastian?" Raelynn gasped,
unsure of where this was going.

"Please Rae...I need this...I need
you..." Sebastian said in a broken whisper against her lips. "I need
to feel you to make sure I’m alive."

  Raelynn’s heart broke for him. He
has been through so much in such a short amount of time. How could she deny him
the one thing that could take away the pain, even if it was only briefly?

"Okay," Raelynn whispered in
agreement.

  Sebastian groaned low in his
throat in response, and then picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his
waist and her arms around his neck. He kissed her hard. His chest was smashed
against hers, pressing her more firmly against the wall. The water beat down on
Sebastian's back. She clutched the back of his neck as he hitched her a little
higher, so that he was positioned right at her core. Sebastian's hips surged
forward, completely sheathing himself in one thrust.

"Fuck," Sebastian choked out,
his mouth hovering over hers, as he started to rock his hips.

  Sebastian moved slowly. He seemed
intent on making it last as long as possible. They moaned, cried out, and
gripped each other hard. Raelynn didn’t plan on ever sleeping with Sebastian
again, but there was no way she could deny him or herself. She needed this as
much as he did, just to make sure he was alive, too. Raelynn's orgasm hit her
out of nowhere. She cried out against Sebastian's lips, as her whole body
seized up. He came just after her with a guttural shout that echoed in the
small bathroom. They panted against each other for a moment before Sebastian
set her down.