𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖒𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖘𝖎𝖓 • 𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖗𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖓𝖘

38.

Chloe
I started opening my eyes and glanced over at Joe; who was asleep at my bedside and intertwined his hand with mine. With the look of his eyes as they were closed, it looked like he barely slept and his beard started to look ruffled.

"J-Joe?" I said with a soft voice.

"Hmm?" He replied as he continued to sleep.

He quickly noticed that I was responsive and his eyes shot open almost immediately.

"Chloe, you're finally awake!"

"I missed you, Joe."

"I missed you too, baby." He replied with a warm smile, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling okay. I'm still feeling some pain but..." I paused, "Wh-What happened?"

After asking the question, Joe's head lowered in defeat.

"You almost died on me, babe."

"I did?"

"Yeah. Dante was about to pull the trigger on me and then suddenly, you jumped in front of me and took the bullet. Then, I seen your body hit the floor and there was blood all over the floor and I panicked."

"I guess the saying is true. If you truly love somebody, you'd take a bullet for them, huh?"

"Definitely. I would've done the same."

"Also, D-Did Dante get arrested?" I asked.

Joe
I shied away at the question. I was anxious about telling her the truth because she might become afraid of me if I told her I killed Dante with his own gun that night. Looking down at the floor and staring at my pair of Air Jordan shoes, Chloe gently tugged at my hand.

"Joe, was he arrested?"

"Not exactly, I..."

I paused.

"Joe, I need you to be honest with me. What happened to Dante?"

"I'll tell you the truth and please don't be scared of me when I tell you this, alright?"

"I'm not going to be scared of you, babe."

I looked over at her and deeply sighed, exhaling slowly.

"Alright." I knelt down and brought my mouth closer to her ear, "I killed him."

"You did what?"

"Yeah. And please keep this on the low, but he was about to kill me and I somehow managed to take his gun out from his hand and pressed the frame of the revolver to his forehead; pulling the trigger and killing him instantly to where it went right through his skull. You see, babe, I thought you died right in front of me and I lost it. I was terrified, angry, shocked; you name it. I'm just thankful that you're alive, baby."

Before I knew it, I started feeling the tears welling up in my eyes and I started to cry in front of Chloe for the first time.

"Joe..."

"Fuck, I'm sorry for crying, Chloe." I sniffled, "I just love you so fucking much and I thought he killed you with the way he shot you like that. He almost shot you in the heart and I seen so much blood shed to where it scared me and I..."

Chloe tried her hardest to raise up from the bed and press her lips against mine but fell back into the bed as she groaned in pain. I leaned over and kissed her lips with passion as I continued to shed tears once more. I've never been the one to show emotion in that matter towards anyone. Not my blood, my friends or even Chloe; but all of that changed today.

"Joe. I promise you that it's okay to cry in front of me. I'm not going to judge you like most women would. You're a human with human emotion and there's nothing to be ashamed of and no, it doesn't make you look weak or feel less of a man for shedding tears." She replied with a warm smile, "If anything, it just shows that you truly love me."

"Of course I love you baby." I sighed, "I'm just relieved that you're okay and alive. I don't wanna lose you because if I ever did, I don't know what I'd do. You've made my life so much better than how it used to be."

"And you made my life better as well. Honestly, my life used to be boring and dull until Emma convinced me to attend that WWE show for her and that's how it all started. I'm so thankful for you, Joe. And soon, I should be out of this hospital and we can go back to doing what we used to do."

"I'd love that a lot, Chloe."

Even though I was excited to see that Chloe was awake again, I knew I had to find Joshua and Galina and take them down before they tried to come after us. The police had no idea what they were doing and I wasn't going to allow them or anyone else to hurt Chloe. After what unfolded awhile ago, I couldn't bare to see her like that again; bloodied, bruised and watching how that bullet flew into her body.

"Chloe, would you wanna see Emma, Colby and Rebecca?" I asked, "They've been worried sick about you for awhile now and they'd be relieved to see you awake and doing much better than before."

"Yeah, sure! I'd love to see them."

I sent them all a message in our mini group chat and they stormed in here with smiles on their faces. Even they were excited to see Chloe finally awake after what happened a few nights ago and it brought them nothing but joy to see her making progress.

"Hey, Kiddo. We was worried about you!"

"You're such a fighter, Chloe. I was breaking down into tears when Joe told me what happened. Please don't ever do that again!"

"I won't." She shook her head, "But all I was doing was protecting Joe."

"I know, girl, but I thought I lost my best friend because of some hitman and I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you, you know?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Emma, and neither is Joe."

"That's a relief!"

"Chloe, I know that we haven't talked as much before, but I'm so glad to see you're awake." Rebecca said, reeling Chloe into a hug, "I was so worried about you!"

"I was worried as well. You're like a sister to all of us." Colby replied.

Chloe looked around and seen the four of us worried about her. She was truly loved and we were going to get to the bottom of all of this; finding out where Galina and Joshua were hiding and how we could put a stop to their schemes before they can bother us again. I'll be damned if I'm gonna almost lose Chloe like that again.

I leaned down and pressed my lips against Chloe's and looked at her with another warm smile written all over my face. I was blessed to see that she was finally awake and making more progress as time went on.

Later in the day, the doctors came in and checked her vitals, blood pressure and everything. Although she had to stay for another week, I was thankful that she was in good hands for awhile and thankfully Hunter was going to give me a week off to take care of her before returning to the ring.