Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(81)

Len sidled up to him then and whispered, “Havoc and I will divert him. When we start making a din, you get in there.” Isaac nodded. It was a good plan.

But they didn’t get a chance to put it in play, because just then Ray shouted, loud enough to be clear to the Horde’s ears, “Scream, you f*cking cunt! Scream!”

All plans evaporated, and Isaac just ran.

He charged up the steps and slammed through the door; the dry-rotted wood gave way almost instantly, and Isaac nearly lost his footing. He caught himself, aimed, and shot twice before Ray could get his own gun up. Ray went down, two bullets in his chest. He didn’t move at all.

Except to kick Ray’s gun away, Isaac ignored him and went straight for Lilli. She was lying on the floor, her hands bound with Ray’s belt, her clothes badly torn, as if—Isaac stopped that thought. There was blood everywhere, pulsing slowly in a dark ooze from her neck, where a soaked bandana was tied. Except where it was doused in her blood, or bruised, her skin was waxy white, almost blue. But she was conscious and looking at him. She seemed . . . calm. He dropped to his knees, undid the binding around her wrists, and gathered her up. She was cold. Jesus.

“Baby—God, baby.” She blinked up at him. There was so much f*cking blood. She smiled a little and tried to lift her arm, but it only came up a couple of inches, and then she let it drop back to the floor with a thud. Her eyes fluttered shut. “Lilli!” He shook her, and a wrinkle crossed her brow, but she didn’t open her eyes.

He checked her pulse. Thin and fast. Turning to Dan, who was standing at the door—somehow they’d pulled Ray’s body out already—Isaac said, “We have to get her help! NOW!”

Dan nodded and called out the door. “We need the van up here—close as you can get!”

Isaac was frantic; he couldn’t push it off any longer. “She’s bleeding out. It’s too much—it’s too f*cking much!” Dan knelt next to him and put his hand on his shoulder. He reached out and checked Lilli’s pulse, gently holding her wrist.

“She’s in shock, Isaac. Nobody’s got cell service out here, so we need to take her in the van.” He pulled his kutte off and shrugged out of his grey cotton button-down, leaving him in nothing but a wife-beater t-shirt. He put his kutte back on and fashioned a bandage with his shirt, wrapping it around her neck. “We need to get her in the van and get her legs up, keep the blood to her organs. You carry her, I’ll apply pressure, boss. She’s already lost too much blood. She’s got to keep what she still has.”

Isaac heard the van coming fast through the brush. He stood, Lilli’s limp body in his arms. Dan walked backwards down the steps, his hand pressing into Lilli’s neck. They climbed into the back of the van, leaving Len and Havoc to clean up and rid the world of Ray Hobson’s remains.

The hospital was 20 miles away. Sitting on the floor of the van, Dan sitting in front of him, keeping pressure on her wound, Isaac bent over the still body of his old lady and, for the first time since his sister left him alone with their father, he prayed.

oOo

He told the people at the hospital she was his wife. He didn’t hesitate at all. He knew they wouldn’t question him, and he needed to make sure they gave him access to her. But they’d whisked her away from him almost immediately, and now he and Dan were in the waiting room. Waiting. Isaac was losing his f*cking mind.

He had been wearing a rut in the waiting room floor for almost three hours, with no word whatsoever, when Show and Len turned up. Show caught him in the middle of his circuit and pulled him aside.

“Ray’s handled, the site is clean, and your bike is at the clubhouse. I know this is a shitty time, but we need to talk about Wyatt.”

Isaac had only one thing to say about Wyatt. “That motherf*cker is dead. Leave him for me.”

Show shook his head. “Not without a vote, boss. You need to think clearly.”

The taut wire of control holding Isaac together snapped, and he grabbed Show by his kutte and slammed him against the nearest wall. “Do you see the blood? There was so much blood! She could die— she could be dead already!—and Wyatt did it. I will tear him apart with my bare f*cking hands. I will gut him.”

Dan was at his back, pulling him away. He released Show and stormed to the far end of the room. He couldn’t think about this shit now. He could only think of Lilli. What was happening? Why wouldn’t they tell him anything? He dropped to a chair and put his head in his hands.

Steady as ever, Show came back up to him and sat down. “Focus on her for now, boss. I’ll make sure Wyatt’s held until you’re ready. I got the rest. You focus on your old lady.”

Isaac nodded and went back to waiting.

oOo

When a doctor finally came out and called, “Lilli’s family?” Isaac was so tightly wrapped in his own hell of worry and guilt that Dan had to nudge him. He stood, and the doctor, a woman who looked too f*cking young to be entrusted with his old lady, gestured to a small grouping of chairs in a corner.

When he brought her in, he’d said only that he’d found her bleeding out, which was true. Now, the doctor, whose name, R. Ingleton, was embroidered on the right side of her coat, asked him, “Is there nothing else you can tell us about what happened?”

Isaac shook his head. “Sorry, Doc. She was lying on the floor, bleeding. She was conscious, but barely.