Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(4)

“No. She said she didn’t know who she was or how she’d even gotten here. All she knew for certain was that she didn’t want me to call the police and that she wanted to be buried out back.” Dylan picked up the pail and handed his mother the towels. “She’s probably some hit man for the mob and her target fought back.”

He’d had time to watch her when he and Khan had been waiting. She had on heavy boots with a thick tread. He could see there were knives in both of them, in pockets he’d bet were made for them. Her pants were black, as were the boots. The tight material molded to her legs like skin. The shirt, too, was black and long-sleeved, with small hooks on them to hang over her thumbs. He knew, too, that those were specially made for her. The black cap she had on covered her head so that all he could see was the blood that had dried on her, and the fairness of her skin. He knew that her eyes were gray, as gray as the sky when it stormed, and that the gun she carried was a Glock, just like the one he had in his own house.

“She has been shot. Five times it looks like, and the one that hit her head is more than likely why she can’t remember anything. The one in her forearm is a clean shot, and I’ll just have to stitch it closed. The one here, in her arm, is bad, and the bullet is still in there. I’ll have to operate to dig it out. But it’s the two in her back that worry me. One entered here….” Walker pointed to her left side high on her body. “This one hit a rib or two, and I won’t know until I go in whether or not the rib has penetrated her lung. But this one in her back is the worst. It looks like someone shot her in a downward angle, like she was well below them. If the shooter had better aim, he would have killed her. I honestly don’t know how she’s made it this far.”

“Can you save her?” Dylan’s dad asked. “And if you do, will her memory return?” Dylan shot him a glance, as he was wondering the same thing.

“I don’t know, Dad. I honestly don’t know.” Walker stood up and picked up his bag. “We’re going to have to have a table set up so I can operate. I would like it to be in the kitchen, but I know that you’ve only just started remodeling the rest of the house and I can’t have saw dust—”

“It’s done. The cabinets were hung yesterday. I had a crew clean it up last night. We can use a few of the old doors for a longer table in there. I have them on the back deck still.” Dylan moved through the house, glad for something to do. When he brought the door in through the kitchen, his mother was standing there with clean sheets and a few of his older blankets. Together they made a makeshift operating table, then went out to help bring her in.

As soon as Dylan leaned down to help roll her to her back so they could get a sheet under her to carry her in, he knew what she was to him and it frightened him just a little. He tried not to stumble with her when they picked her up, but he tripped anyway. He looked at his dad when he tripped up as well.

“Watch it, son. You don’t want to drop her this close to getting her all fixed up.” Dylan nodded blindly and helped lay her on the table. He looked at his brother Walker and realized he’d been speaking to him.

“Dylan? Are you all right?” He nodded. “You’ll have to leave. I need all the room I can get to—”

“I can’t. I can’t leave you in here alone with her.” He tried to look away from him, but he was like a deer in headlights. “I can’t do it.”

Walker looked at the woman, then up at him. He nodded once and didn’t ask him why. “You’ll have to have a mask on and wash up. I don’t think you’ll touch her, but if you try to hurt me, I’ll sedate you. Understand?”

Dylan nodded and went to the sink. When his mom came in to be Walker’s assistant, Walker told her that they had it under control and that Dylan was helping. When they began, Dylan had to fight his beast for several minutes before he could see that Walker wasn’t hurting her but helping. Walker looked at him.

“I won’t hurt you. We won’t. He understands that you’re only here to save her.” Walker helped him put on a pair of gloves and Dylan returned the favor, but grabbed his hands at the last second. “I don’t want her to die. I know there’s a good possibility that she’s in trouble, but I can’t let her die.”

“I won’t let her.” And when he pulled out his knife to cut into her, Dylan looked away. He was going to stay with her if it killed him.





Chapter Two


“Anything yet?” Kirby sat behind his desk and waited for the man in front of him to answer. He didn’t have a clue what his f*cking name was, just some ass that worked for him. “She can’t have gotten far. Hell, she was shot nearly a dozen times from what I saw.”

“Nothing, sir. We’ve checked with all the hospitals in the area, as well as all the clinics and veterinaries. She’s not shown up at any of them.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe she found a hole and died in it. There was a lot of blood over that fence.”

Kirby didn’t answer but dismissed the man with orders to keep looking. The f*cking bitch couldn’t have simply done what he’d told her to do and entered the house from the front, where they’d been waiting for her. And she’d been nearly two hours early. The f*cking cunt couldn’t follow orders, and that’s why he wanted her dead.