I Do the Boss (Managing the Bosses Series, #5)(27)

Suddenly it felt as if the world was in slow motion. Jamie saw Stephen’s loss of control of the situation, the realization that he hated her more than anything. It was almost as if she knew he was going to shoot her, and it came as no surprise when the loud bang of the gun went off.

Jamie cringed and prepared for the worst. She thought about how much she loved Alex. She hoped she’d told him that enough. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.

Mark rounded the corner in a full sprint and tackled Stephen to the floor. The gun skittered across the floor and under Kirsten’s desk.

He was a second too late.

Stephen had aimed to hit her, but miraculously missed. Jamie stared down at her body, expecting to see red leaking from somewhere and shock to knock her senseless. It didn’t happen.

Until suddenly Alex fell to the floor, curled up, with blood oozing from his chest.

Jamie stared down in horror, her body dropping beside him as a different kind of terror settled into her chest. "Nooo! No! No! Please no!! Call 9-1-1 now!" Full-blown panic set in as she frantically pressed her hands to his chest, tears burning her eyes. "Help. Help!"

She watched as blood seemed to pour through her fingers as she pressed against the hole. “Don’t you dare die on me, Alex Reid.”

Several employees raced up and moved to the floor, working to press their hands to Alex's wound as he glanced weakly up at Jamie.

"It's okay. I'll be okay. Just a nick." He let out a shaky breath as his face visibly paled, scaring Jamie to death.

Moments later, but what felt like forever, EMS arrived and pushed everyone back as Jamie tried to stay close to Alex. Security had dragged Stephen out of the room to wait for the police. Or maybe the police had come. Jamie didn’t know, as she’d been too focused on Alex.

"Please, Miss. Go down to the street level and you can ride in the ambulance with us. Just back up for now." The guy told her before moving back to help Alex.

Mark reached out and pulled her into a tight hug. "It's going to be okay. They'll patch up Alex and we can probably take him home tonight." He looked terrified.

He was lying to make her feel better, but she couldn't blame him for trying. He was shaken up too. Alex wasn't moving by the time they took him downstairs, or not from what she could tell. Terror raced through her and she let a few tears go to relieve some of the pressure building up inside of her.

She pressed her teeth into her bottom lip before walking with Mark down the stairs to the bottom level. There might not have been any physical damage done, but watching him go down moments before jacked her up emotionally in ways she wasn't prepared to deal with. She had no idea if he was alright or not. She’d never been more petrified than this moment.

Losing him wasn't something she would survive. The truth of that left her feeling heavy, exhausted, lost.

She couldn’t lose him.

Ever.

This was all her fault.





Chapter 11


There was only room for one of them in the back of the ambulance. Mark had to explain it twice to Jamie as he helped her get up in the back. He offered a tight smile. "I'll meet you there." He moved back as they closed the door.

Jamie shifted up to the other side of Alex as the paramedics moved quickly, barking orders back and forth to each other. Tears dripped down her face as she waited to move up and make sure he was okay for herself. From the sound of things, he was doing better than expected. The bulled entered the front of his chest on the right side, which apparently was a good thing. She tried to listen to their medical garble but she was in shock and it all sounded foreign.

"Alright. Move up here, but if something happens, you shift back the minute I tell you to, okay?" The paramedic looked back at her. “You going to be okay?”

She nodded and scooted up, wanting to say a million things, but her voice was lost behind the fear that compressed her lungs. She took Alex's hand and brushed her fingers down the side of his face where the oxygen mask wasn't.

"Why isn't he awake?" Her voice was nothing more than the whisper of a scared child.

"We need him in a restful state, trying to keep him calm. His blood pressure was through the roof, which is quite expected, but we don't want to cause the heart to pump any more blood than necessary until we get him patched up." He patted her back. "I think it's going to be okay. Just hang in there. Alex Reid is a fighter. I’ve read the papers. He’s tough."

The raced through the city as Jamie tried to keep herself together. Had she been alone, she would have been an absolute mess of sobs and tears. There was no room for that in the small box they were being tossed around in.

"We're two minutes from the hospital. Jump out the minute we stop the truck and open the door. You'll need to stand back and when the doctors are through working on him, they'll come get you."

The other EMS barked something, and Jamie shifted back as Alex let out a long groan and convulsed.

"Oh shit," she murmured and pressed her fingers to her mouth.

"We're here. Out. Now!" the first guy yelled at her, and she half fell out of the truck, but stumbled backwards to clear the space for them. They pulled Alex out of the back and ran full speed toward the hospital as Jamie tried to collect herself.

Everything was happening so quickly and yet somehow it all felt in slow motion at the same time.