Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(3)

“I won’t hurt you.” He nodded at the woman sitting on his swing when she spoke softly. “I just need a minute. Then I’ll be on my way.”

Dylan set the boxes down and raised his hands. He looked at her and wondered if she thought that a minute was going to do her any good. The pool of blood beneath her and the swing was considerable. And the blood on her face looked like she’d gone a few rounds with someone who didn’t care for her overly much. When she spoke again he asked her to repeat herself.

“Do you think I can have a glass of water?” Dylan nodded and moved to the door, only to have her booted foot come out to stop the movement. “You call the police or any other type of law and you’ll never hear them crunch across your drive. Understand me?”

“Yes. I won’t call the police. I’ll simply get you some water.” When her foot moved back, he could see what it had cost her to do even that small gesture. Blood didn’t just drip now. It was a constant stream. He moved into this house and reached for his brother.

“Come to my house now. And have Walker bring his bag of tricks.” Khan asked him what happened. “I don’t know for sure right now, but there is a woman on my deck bleeding to death. Oh, and she has a gun, so come through the woods. I don’t need any more blood on my swing.”

Khan said he’d be there shortly, and Dylan grabbed a glass from the dish drainer and filled it with water and ice. He was about to leave his kitchen when he reached out to the windowsill and took down the bottle of pain reliever, only to put it back. Walker would want to work on her, and he didn’t know what those would do to her if he had to operate.

When he came back out to the deck she was slumped over, but when he shut the door, she straightened up and looked at him. He could hear her heart beating slower than when he’d left her.

“I don’t know where I am.” Dylan told her his address. “That’s pretty far, I guess.” She looked out toward the driveway and then back at him. She was fading quickly now, and he was about to go to her when she looked at him again.

“Do you know me?” He thought she was asking if she had previously met him, but before he could tell her no, she continued. “I don’t either. Know me, I mean. I can’t remember how I got here, either, or why I’m bleeding. I mean, I’ve figured out that I was shot, but I don’t know by who or why. I don’t suppose you do either, do you?”

“No. I’ve never seen you before. And as for someone shooting you, I don’t know about that, either. You have lost a great deal of blood, and you’re probably going to die if you don’t get some help soon.”

She nodded and then held her head, using the hand with the gun in it. He was so focused on it he nearly missed what she said next.

“I don’t know why, but I would prefer that you let me simply die, then bury me in the backyard.” She fell back against the seat and he knew that she’d lost whatever battle she’d been working on to stay awake.

Dylan had to sit and slid down the post that was holding up the roof of his deck. He realized as he sat down that he’d been relieved that she hadn’t shot him. When Khan entered his yard as his cat, Dylan couldn’t even stand, but instead pointed to her.

“She’s passed out. I don’t think she’s going to live.” Khan went to her and touched his fingers to her throat. Dylan knew she wasn’t dead but asked Khan anyway. He watched as his brother took her gun from her.

“It’s slow. Walker was at my house when you called to me. He’s coming in the truck. Should be here soon.” He looked at the girl. “You think we should move her into the house or let him see to her when he gets here?”

“I don’t know where she’s bleeding from, and if we move her it might make it worst. Her head must really be hurting.” Dylan shut up. It wasn’t like him to babble, and he was afraid that she’d shaken him more than he knew.

“Did she tell you who she was?” Dylan shook his head and told him what she’d said. “Probably because of the crease in her head. She’s going to have one hell of a headache when she wakes…if she wakes.”

Walker pulled into his drive a few minutes later. Dylan was feeling better, so he stood up and greeted him. His dad and mom poured out of the next vehicle that pulled up. Dylan glared at his brother.

“They were coming up the drive when I left. I told them I was coming here, and she took one look at my bag and followed. What would you have had me do, tell them no? Well, good luck with that.”

Walker came up to the girl slowly. Dylan didn’t blame him; even unarmed she still looked dangerous. Walker asked to have help moving her to the floor so he could look at her to see if he could have her moved to the hospital.

“We can’t take her there.” Everyone looked at him. “She said that if she died she wanted me to bury her in the backyard. I’m pretty sure she knew she was dying.”

Walker nodded once and started cutting away her clothing. Her moans made him want to go and tear Walker away from her, and that surprised him more than anything. Instead, he went into the house to get a pail of water and some towels for him. His mother came in behind him.

“Do you know her?” He shook his head. “Poor girl looks all done in. I wonder how we’d contact her family. Did she ask you to do that for her?”