CHAPTER 14: THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

ATHENA'S POV

Pain flashes through my left arm hotly and I stumble, feeling totally disoriented by the deafening loud screams and camera flashes.

I don’t even realize I’ve been hit until I see the blood pouring out of my wound and soaking my dress.

It's not a lot of blood, but it's enough to turn my champagne colored gown into a literal bloody nightmare.

Xander is on me instantly, shoving me down behind an overturned table with his body pressed over mine.

“Don’t move,” he breathes harshly. “You’re bleeding.”

I look up at him, feeling dazed. “Did I— was that…?”

“A bullet.”

His eyes are literally on fire when he says that and I’ve honestly never seen him this… furious---- not even during our worst fights.

There’s blood on his knuckles and I think it’s mine.

“I’m okay,” I whisper.

“You’re not.”

I try to sit up, but he pushes me back down, and not gently too. “You stay right here.”

Then he stands up, shouting something to his bodyguards who then rush all around us, forming a barrier as we’re rushed toward the service elevators to go out of this venue entirely.

I touch my arm, already feeling the warm throb from my bullet wound.

The bullet grazed me---- as in just a graze but I know that it was meant to do more.

I know it was me and not any of the other rich folks there.

Someone really tried to kill me again, just like Xander had thought would happen.

The ride in the armored car back to Xander’s penthouse is silent and right now his jaw is clenched while his fists have turned white around the steering wheel.

He had insisted on driving himself, even though security had offered to do that.

The only sound I could hear right now was the loud sound of my heartbeat in my chest.

I touch the bandage one of the guards had wrapped around my arm with my right hand and immediately pull my hand away; it burns.

“Are you going to say something?” I finally ask.

His eyes move toward me. “You almost died tonight, and you want small talk?”

“I want to know what happens now.”

Xander doesn’t answer and just keeps driving till we reach the penthouse.

Then he barely even gives the poor valet the time to open the car door before dragging me up in his arms, carrying me bridal style.

“I can walk--------”

“You’re not walking anywhere,” he growls, walking through the private elevator. “Not until I know that every inch of you is safe.”

The door closes behind us and the elevator rides us upward---- now I feel like I’m suffocating.

“You don’t have to carry me like I'm some broken doll, Xander.”

“You were bleeding.”

“It’s a scratch.”

His jaw ticks. “A bullet doesn’t scratch a person unless it was aimed wrongly.”

I blink up at him. “You think it was meant to kill me?”

“I know it was.”

Of course I know that it was meant to kill me, it's just that as he talked about being aimed wrongly, I thought I heard anger in his voice.

Shouldn't he be scared?

Because that's what I'm feeling now.

When we're out of the elevator, he takes me to my room and places me gently on the bed and then starts pacing back and forth in the room.

I sit up, slowly and he immediately rushes to help me.

“Can we talk now?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer or look at me.

“I’ll find them.”

“Who?”

“Whoever pulled that trigger, whoever gave the order, and whoever looked at you and thought they could get away with it.”

I stand. “Xander------”

“I swear to God, Athena-------” He growls and stands up as well.

“------ if you had died tonight…”

His voice cracks then and he doesn't finish the sentence so I say softly,

“You think you can control everything, but what if you can’t?”

“I can control this,” he whispers, brushing my injured arm with feather light touches from his fingers.

“I can protect you. That’s all that matters.”

“And what about my choice in any of it?”

“You lost the luxury of choice the second someone tried to assassinate you carrying my child.”

I jerk back, pulling away from his touch. “I’m not your property, Xander.”

“No,” he says, tilting his head. “We've discussed this before. You’re mine.”

The way he says it makes goosebumps rise across my skin but I wave it off as him being the arrogant man he is but caring for his unborn child.

I guess thinking about Xander being arrogant is better than thinking again of my near death experience.

----------

It's night now, and I can’t sleep.

The wound on my arm is still pulsing, but it’s not what’s keeping me up.

It’s the way he looked at me like he would burn the entire world down just to keep me breathing.

... And the baby of course.

I slip out of bed quietly and wander toward his study,

He's always working late night, even during scandals so I think he should be there.

The door is closed when I get there, but when I'm about to knock I hear something that makes me freeze.

“…I don’t care what it costs,” he says coldly. “Find them. I want names, addresses and blood types if necessary.”

“I don’t want them arrested,” he continues.

“I want them erased.”

My blood runs cold.

Wait,... he’s not investigating----- he’s ordering a hit.

I step back too quickly then and the floor creaks.

"Who's there?" Xander growls, and I run, all the way to my room despite my baby bump before he can see me.