Brutally Beautiful(73)

Tearing his shirt off, I scanned the wounds. Hunger and anger bubbled in my chest. Two bullets split through his skin. Slipping my hands beneath his back, I searched, no exit wound on his back, one ‘through and through’ on his right arm. I was not worried about his arm, because it wasn’t a life-threatening hit, but the one in his torso could be. It could be. The scent of fear and metal stung at my nose and the guttural sob that ripped from Kade’s throat was like a steel vise that wrenched around my chest, squeezing so hard I gasped for breath. I had to stop them, to calm them before their panic spread like frost against glass, freezing and paralyzing them both. I had to stop them from making everything worse. My hand shot out to Kade. I laid my bloodied fingers against his cheek and his eyes snapped to mine. I’ve done this before. “It feels like you can’t breathe, but you can. It feels like you’ll never get through this, but you will.” My own breathing regulated and I offered him an encouraging smile. “Kade,” I said evenly. I slammed my hands down hard on both of Dylan’s wounds, applying as mush pressure as I could. “Dylan is doing great. Let’s keep him talking and thinking about other things and we’re going to get him some help. Trust me.”

I could hear the men in the background of the bar. They had a cruiser and ambulance on the way. However, the hospital was at least a twenty-minute drive from there.

Dylan wasn’t going to make that. My throat thickened as visions of granite headstones stood like soldiers in a field of dead pressed up against the sky. I pressed the weight of my body against his punctures, smiling…calmly…always show them calmness…always be the comforting voice in the middle of madness.

Bree was next to me in a flash of panting sobs and cold winds, holding my aid bag. She had the zipper open and a torn Olaes pack in her hand before I could even ask her.

“What…What…What is that?” Dylan was asking.

“This is a tourniquet that’s going to save your life, sweetheart. This is called an Olaes Modular Bandage.” Calm him. Talk to him. “It’s named after a very brave soldier.”

“I…I…don’t want to…to die,” Dylan pleaded. His words sank in my belly, chilling my bones.

“Not on my watch you won’t,” I answered, wrapping and pressing, sealing and praying. It wasn’t even a battlefield. This was not his fault. We should have never stayed here. These people were innocent. Innocent and bleeding, spilling and splattering crimson sunsets across the floor.

Because of me.





Chapter 10





Someone shot the jukebox.

With a gun.

A gun.

Oh f*ck. Oh f*ck. I squeezed my eyes shut tight. This isn’t happening again. This can’t be happening AGAIN! Violent anger crashed in waves over me so powerfully that I couldn’t see straight. I grabbed for Lainey blindly. I needed her behind me, away from the danger. I wasn’t letting anyone hurt what was mine.

Mine?

That’s what I thought, wasn’t it? It was what I told her, wasn’t it? When we got out of the closet, I grabbed her and called her mine like a Neanderthal.

I’d have to revisit this moment after the shitstorm passes. I needed to hide Lainey under me and protect her from being hit. But, she was crawling away. Fuck, she was CRAWLING AWAY FROM ME! Crawling towards the gunman’s voice, towards Dylan standing with his hands raised at the far end of the bar, just crawling, slinking right into the danger on hands and knees. Panic gurgled, boiled frantically in the back of my throat. Then she stopped at the safe as I yanked on her leg, trying to place her body under mine. Shield her.