Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(78)

She reached out and grabbed his shoulders. Morgan. Morgan was in there! “Archer, we have to get to her—”

“I know. Stay here,” he demanded in her ear and then he was gone.

She was wholly on board with that. She stared down at her shaking hands and gasped in horror.

One of them was covered in bright red blood. Blood that wasn’t hers.

“Elle.” It was Spence, kneeling beside her.

She looked up at him. “Archer was hit.”





Chapter 24





#Crickets



Elle tried to control her crazy breathing but couldn’t. Spence had her by the hand, probably to keep her from running into the house more than for comfort. They couldn’t see much. There’d been no more gunfire and the odd silence scared her more than the shots had. She pulled out the knife Archer had given her all those years ago, the one she tucked into her pocket every morning out of habit, and slowly peeked around the tree.

“Holy shit, Elle,” Spence said, looking impressed at the sight of the knife.

Reyes and Lucas burst out the back door from inside, guns drawn. Morgan was between them, looking unharmed. They located Elle with unerring ease, so either she wasn’t all that well hidden or Archer had told them to come find her.

“Thank God,” Elle whispered as she hugged Morgan fiercely. Then she turned to Reyes. “Archer,” she demanded, fisting her hand in his shirt. “Where’s Archer?”

He looked down at the knife in her other hand and arched a brow like Spence had. “He’s right behind us.”

“He’s been hit,” she said, heart in her throat.

“Shit,” Reyes said, turning back to the house just as Archer pushed through the doorway, shoving Lars in front of him.

Reyes and Lucas rushed up to detain Lars as sirens wailed in the background.

When Archer was relieved of his burden, he hesitated, weaved, and then dropped to his knees.

Elle rushed to his side, gathering him against her as he started to slump over. “I’ve got you,” she said, clutching him to her. She had him and she wasn’t letting go no matter what his stubborn ass said. She tore at his shirt to see how bad it was.

“You’re carrying my knife again.”

“Still,” she corrected.

He let out a tight smile. “Better than diamonds any day.”

Her vision got hazy when she realized he’d been hit in the groove between his chest and shoulder and that he was losing way too much blood way too quickly. His face was pale and he was cool to the touch as she lowered him down and carefully placed his head in her lap so she could apply pressure and try to slow the bleeding.

“Elle,” he gritted out, peering up at her intensely as the paramedics began to cut away his shirt. “Are you—”

“Fine,” she promised, letting out a sob as he closed his eyes. She could scarcely breathe. “Archer—”

He got his eyes halfway open again. “You’re so pretty, Elle. Both of you.”

One of the paramedics was working at staunching the free flowing blood, the other checking vitals and speaking into a cell phone. Spence was at Elle’s side. “Don’t worry. They’ll put a Band-Aid on it and he’ll be fine.”

Archer weakly flipped him off and then grabbed Elle’s hand. “You really okay?”

“Yes.” She ducked around the paramedics working over him and clutched his hand to her chest. It was utter chaos around them and yet it somehow felt like they were all alone. “And so are you, dammit,” she said fiercely.

A tight smile twitched at his lips. “Yelling at me even when I’m flat on my back.” His eyes drifted shut and he muttered something that sounded a whole lot like, “Christ, woman, I love you . . .”

The words reverberated through her, rocking her to the very foundation. “What?” she whispered. “What did you just say?”

He didn’t respond. Or move. She whirled to Spence. “What did he just say?”

Spence, who’d been watching the paramedics, gave her his worried look. “I didn’t hear him say anything.”

“But he did. He said—” She whirled back to Archer, leaning over him. “Say it again!”

“I’m sorry,” the paramedic said. “He’s unconscious.”

Elle put her face close to Archer’s. “If that was some kind of goodbye, Archer Hunt, I swear I’ll follow you and bring you back myself. Do you hear me?”

“Lady, the people in China can hear you,” the paramedic said. “Aliens can hear you. Everyone can hear you except him. Now I’m going to have to ask you to step back.”

Spence pulled Elle back. “Easy, tiger. There’s a bunch of cops here. No sense in getting arrested with the actual bad guy, right? I mean I’d bail you out of course, but you might have to spend a few hours in lockup in an orange jumpsuit first, and I know how you feel about orange.”

“He was shot.” God. Shot. Because of her. “He has to make it, Spence.”

“He will out of sheer orneriness, trust me.”

All around them was wild pandemonium. First responders were everywhere. Reyes and Lucas had been separated and were answering questions. As was Morgan. Elle gasped in horror when they clicked handcuffs on her sister, and she ran over there.