Lose Her

Playlist for this Chapter: The Great War by Taylor Swift, You're On Your Own Kid by Taylor Swift.

* NICHOLAS *

I watched the car leave the estate's gates when Dove waved at me as she hung out of the car's window and shouted she loved me. I shook my head chuckling and the men around me also chuckled.

I gave them a look and they all cleared their throats and went on with their duties.

"Your girl's crazy." Stuart said to me as he stood beside me and I hummed in response and went back inside and to my office. It was still hard to walk properly since I got shot but pain was good.

I saw Jake smoking when I walked into the office and my mood changed instantly. I glared at him and the smirk on his face was not hard to miss.

"So it turns out you girl is interested in me. She even called me handsome." Jake said grinning as I sat on my chair and heard a crack in my hands.

We all looked to my hand and saw I had cracked a pencil in half that was on my desk.

"That's going to be your neck next." I told Jake who gulped and looked away and Stuart snickered. I lit a cigarette and put it to my lips, inhaling deeply before exhaling, I relaxed into my chair.

"Everything for the wedding ceremony done?" I asked Stuart after a while who nodded and looked at me thoughtfully for a while.

"Sputalo fuori." (Spit it out) I told him and he hesitated before speaking.

"What are you thinking of Dove?" He said and I let out another puff of smoke and looked at him indifferently.

"She wears my ring already. That's enough for people to know what they need to know." I said and he nodded slowly.

"Any leads on Giovanni?" I asked Jake who shook his head.

"It's like he's disappeared all over again. Did Dove have any other nightmares?" He asked and I stayed silent for a moment before telling them the two dreams till now.

"We might be able to look for the place since she described it... and the housekeeper's name helps too." Jake said and started typing on his iPad while we Stuart and I smoked silently and discussed the security details of the ceremony and the guest list.

Four hours had passed and we were discussing plans to catch Giovanni when my phone rang. I ignored it and turned it off. Seconds later it ringed again so I turned it off again.

Just then Jake's and Stuart's rang too, along with mine and we all looked at each other before we I picked it and put it on speaker, and suddenly a loud bang was heard and I shot out of my seat.

"Gunshot." Jake said and I checked the contact. It was Valentino, and my heart dropped.

"Mr. King, we've been ambushed by Giovanni's men. We're at a restaurant and our men are not enough." I heard his breathless voice followed by screams and more gunshots.

Dove.

"Fuck!" I shouted and ran out of the office with Stuart and Jake hot on my heels.

"Jake grab more men NOW!" I shouted.

"Capo." He said and rushed in another direction as Start and I scrambled into one of my cars quickly and drove off at a ridiculous speed.

"Track Dove's phone, hurry." I gave Stuart my phone and he tracked it while I followed the map to the restaurant in question.

My car screeched to a stop and more cars came behind us and my men got out, guns in hand, shooting Giovanni's men down and protecting me.

I looked around the restaurant nd through a broken glass wall I saw her. My Dove. There were scratches on her beautiful face and my blood boiled.

Our eyes connected and I looked behind her and saw a man coming up from behind her with a gun pointing to me.

My eyes widened a fraction and I pulled out my gun, pointing at the man and I looked back at her for a brief glance but she turned suddenly and before I could do anything, I heard the shot.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

It was definitely aimed at me. But it didn't hit me. I looked up and saw the light blue sweater on her turning crimson, her hands clutched her chest and stomach as blood pooled out of her mouth.

She turned around to meet my eye and gave me a small smile. One glance at me I felt my soul drop out of my body when the life in her faded away and she fell to the ground.

No... It can't be.

I shouted her name but she didn't hear me and shot the man who hit her, and ran towards her.

I heard Stuart shout out to me and Adrianna's scream as she ran over to Dove. But everything suddenly became muffled as I ran to her. To my love.

The gunshots stopped as the remaining men retreated back. I went to her and saw her lying on the ground, blood pooling from her stomach and her chest, her eyes struggling to stay open.

"No, my love, look at me, look at me, stay with me, just stay with me!" I said as I pulled off my jacket and pressed on her wounds to stop the blood from flowing, but it didn't.

"Adrianna call an ambulance NOW!" Stuart shouted while they struggled to get a hold of a phone.

"Fuck, please stay with me. Please, my love, stay with me." I whispered and she gave me a faint smile, a stinging in my eyes as the tears blurred my vision and ran down my face.

"No Dove!" I shouted as I pressed on her wounds, pulling her to my chest as her eyes fluttered closed, and I bellowed loudly as I held her to my chest.

It can't be over... Not yet... Not now... Not ever...

I didn't know when I was pulled away from her by Jake and Stuart as she was carried away on a stretcher, and I struggled to get out of their hold and run to her.

They grabbed me along with the help of some other of my men and put me in a car. I stopped resisting after a while and just sat numb in place.

Jake and Stuart kept talking to me but I didn't hear them. My mind wasn't in the right lace. I felt nothing but my heart being stabbed again and again, and it fucking hurt.

When we reached the hospital, I came back to my senses and before they could park the car, I scrambled out and fell on the way, but got up and ran inside, stopping near the reception desk.

"Where is she? Is she alright?" I asked the man behind the desk who gave me a indifferent look and I grabbed him by the collar.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!" I shouted and that's when he recognized me and paled, trying to get out of my hold. Jake and Stuart grabbed me and pushed me off the man while Adrianna talked to the man.

"3rd floor, she's in surgery." She told Stuart and we ran up the stairs, not bothering to take the elevator and stopped outside large glass doors, where doctors were talking and nurses were running about.

"Dove King, is she still in surgery?" Stuart asked the doctors and they talked for a moment before he back to us with a dejected look on his face.

"What happened?" I asked him and looked at me.

"She's still in surgery... She... she might not make it... There isn't much chance Ace." He said, whispering the last part and it felt like the world had ended.

My world had ended.

"No... No it can't be. Not yet. We barely had any time. She can't just.. She can't just leave me like this. No." I said and fell to my knees as the tears started flowing out.

I couldn't stop them. I wouldn't stop them.

Jake held my arm and made me sit on the seats as Adrianna cried into Stuart's chest. I looked to Jake and saw the same broken expression on his face.

"Buy the hospital, buy the doctors, fly in the best people, I want everything here, I don't fucking care, get the best of everything. She has to live. She will live. Do it NOW Jake." I told him and he nodded, taking out his phone and started making calls.

Three hours passed, and no news from the doctors as Jake and Stuart paced the halls. I sat there numb, devoid of emotion. I looked at my bloody hands. It wasn't my blood. It was hers.

Her blood was on me. She gave her life for me.

Matteo came running in the hall followed by my uncles and some other cousins.

"Ace." Stefano came and I stood up. I held out my hand to him but he pulled me in for a hug. And I couldn't take it anymore. I cried, I cried into my uncle's shoulder like my life depended on it.

"It'll be alright. She'll be fine my boy. She needs you to be brave for her." He said as Salvatore rubbed my back.

I cried till I couldn't stand and my legs gave up and my eyes closed on their own as I fell to the floor.

If she wasn't in my life, there was no reason for me to live either.