by Riley Ashby
“Blanca!” Gunner’s voice broke through the noise, and it was the prompting they needed. They were downstairs in a second and had a grip on Vin in the next. He roared and thrashed as fresh blood spurted from their bites. He waved his arms wildly, but they could not be shaken off. I jumped up, knife at the ready.
Another gunshot rang out.
Vin hit the ground.
Gunner slammed back against the wall.
I was on my feet, moving so fast I almost didn’t feel the ground, and I kicked Vin in the head so hard I tripped and nearly fell on my own blade. I rolled over and looked at him, panting, but he was still. Regardless, across the room, Jonah cursed as the dogs descended on him, teeth bared, not even giving him a chance to draw his gun even if he wanted to let Colby bleed out.
“It doesn’t matter.” He laughed. “It’ll be over in minutes.” He nodded at Gunner
He had slid down the wall and was sitting, holding his side with both hands while he panted.
I dropped the knife on the ground and ran to Gunner.
“Let me see.”
“It’s fine.”
“I said, let me see.”
“No.” He was breathing too hard, making his blood rush too fast. I could see it seeping between his fingers. He looked at Jonah. “You have to go now. You still have time.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” the man growled. Colby was breathing too rapidly. How much did Jonah care about his life? “The rest of the Disciples are on their way.”
“Then they’ll get slaughtered just like you.”
“By who?” He barked out a laugh. “You’re in no condition to take on anyone else.”
Gunner rolled his head back toward me. “Did you press it?”
“Six times.”
We both looked at Jonah.
“Press what?”
“That little button she pushed is bringing the cavalry. SWAT teams, copters, emergency care for your friend there”—he nodded at Colby— “if you want to leave him.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Stick around and find out.”
Gunner’s breath was coming too fast. “You’re going to pass out.” I reached around him and felt blood on his back. He groaned at the same time my fingers met the raw meat of his open wound. “It looks like it went all the way through.” I pulled my shirt over my head and tucked it behind him. “Try to push back into this. You need pressure on both sides.” I placed my hands over his and pushed back, trying to force him against the wall. His face was pale.
“Nice,” he said. “Got your top off.”
“That’s not fucking funny.”
He ignored me and looked at Jonah. “Last chance. You run now, you might be able to get out of the country.”
The three of us stared at each other for a long time. Jonah swore and stood, bringing Colby with him. “I’m going to kill you.”
“I look forward to meeting you again.”
Colby was as pale as Gunner, but at least his bleeding seemed to have slowed. He held one hand against his side, the other arm around Jonah’s shoulders. “You’d better hide good, rat. We won’t let this go.”
Gunner laughed. “Get out now, and I won’t tell Vin you left him.” Jonah opened his mouth to argue more, but Gunner interjected. “You don’t have time. Run.”
No one spoke again, but the message in the room was clear. This isn’t over.
I held my hands against Gunner’s, pressing hard into his wound until the door slammed upstairs. Blanca and Nicky pushed against my side, trying to get closer to their master, begging for a command that would allow them to correct the situation.
“You’re going to be okay.”
“Parker will explain everything.”
“You’ll explain everything.”
He smiled, but it was lopsided as if he didn’t have the energy to use his whole mouth. “This wasn’t how I wanted this to end.”
“Then don’t let it end now. Do you understand? They’ll be here soon.”
He didn’t respond. His hands went slack beneath mine, and his chin fell forward onto his chest.
“Gunner? Gunner. Come back.” This wasn’t happening. What was the point of it, of any of it, if it ended like this? I wanted to shake him awake, but I didn’t dare take my hands off his wound. Was the blood flowing slower? Did that mean it was clotting, or was he just running out? How long would I be able to keep him alive on my own while we waited for help?
“Gunner.” I dared to remove one hand to tilt up his chin. His eyes were shuttered but not completely closed. I shook his face. “Please. Say something.”
“You’ll be okay.” His words were slurred, but at least he was talking.
“I know I will. What about you?”
“Probably not, sugar.”
“That’s not fair. Do you hear me? You’re not allowed to do that to me. You can’t make me love you and then leave.”
He smiled. His lips barely moved, and his eyes were still closed, but it was unmistakable. “I knew it. I knew it.”
I sniffed back tears. I couldn’t fall apart right now. “But it doesn’t matter if you die.”
“Of course it matters, baby. It means everything.”
I couldn’t respond. My tongue was too swollen, and I could barely see anymore through the tears in my eyes.
“Gunner. Please. We have to finish the book.”
Upstairs, there was a loud bang like something hitting a wall. Was it help? Or was it more of Vin’s men coming to finish the job?
I wasn’t sure it mattered anymore.
Gunner’s lips were blue, and his head hung entirely lifeless while I held the last part of him together, trying to keep him whole for just a few more heartbeats.
When I looked back at what happened later, the details escaped me like one of my dreams. It seemed like the silence was the only thing around me for so long, and then the dogs went wild as glass shattered on the main level above us. It’s more of the Disciples, I thought as multiple sets of feet trampled above us, tracking in dirt and snow across the clean floors. The footsteps from stairs, then right behind me. I pressed harder on the wound.
“Get away,” I growled as someone grabbed my wrists.
“Let me see how bad it is.” I tore my eyes away from Gunner’s face to find myself inches from Parker.
Thank God. “He’ll bleed out.”
“Not if I can help it. He owes me money.”
I couldn’t make myself move. What was she going to do to stop him from dying when he was already so close?
“Look.” She indicated behind me with her head, and I turned to see a paramedic placing a needle in Gunner’s arm. It was attached to a bag of dark red blood, as dark as the liquid coating my hands. “We’ll save him. Let me look at it.”
I took a deep breath and moved my hands.
She pushed me aside instantly, putting herself between us so I couldn’t see what she was doing. Aluminum foil crinkled as another pair of arms wrapped around me. No, not aluminum foil, a space blanket, like they give runners at the end of a marathon. I tried to pull it tighter around me, but my hands were too slick. I moved to the side so I could see what was going on. Parker secured a bandage over Gunner’s wound while the paramedic started the blood flowing, and two more strangers placed a yellow board next to him. I’d seen them use something like that to take snowboarders off the mountain when they broke their legs on the way downhill.
“I have to go with him,” I said over and over again, but no one was listening to me. Parker didn’t even look at me as they strapped into the stretcher and carried him out of the house. I tried to follow, but a man in black blocked my way.
“Let’s get you cleaned up enough to get you out of here. I know you want to see your family.”
I didn’t give a damn about my family, but it was clear I had no choice. I strained my ears to catch any type of conversation I could as a strange man removed the rest of my clothes, wiped my body, and handed me a set of sterile blue
scrubs to put on. Everything went into plastic bags and sealed with red tape that read EVIDENCE. I held on to the knife; they didn’t know yet that there had been two other people here. I wasn’t willing to let go of my only defense, especially now that Gunner was gone. Across the room, more medics revived Vin, then read him his rights and put him in handcuffs. He locked eyes with me, but I turned my back on him and walked up the stairs before he could say anything.
“What will happen to the dogs?” Blanca and Nicky hadn’t left my side since the rest of the people had arrived. The fur on their shoulders stood straight up, and their tails were still.
“Shit.” The man who’d taken my clothes frowned as he wrapped another blanket around me. “I don’t know. Guess someone will have to take them until your man recovers.”
“They can come with me,” I said immediately. I didn’t want the dogs who had saved our lives stuck in some stranger’s house.
“Well, you’re headed to the hospital, and they won’t be allowed there.”
“Can you have someone take them to my house? Please?” I grabbed his hands. “Gunner would be devastated if they disappeared with a stranger. I’ll take care of them until he’s … better.”
He nodded. “I’ll get them there. I promise.”
Some of the tension I was holding released. There, I’d done something for him. When he got out of the hospital, his dogs would be waiting for him.
I couldn’t hear the helicopter anymore by the time they got me out of the house, and then I was in the back of an ambulance with a strange woman placing sticky squares on my chest and head.
“Please, can’t anyone tell me what’s happening with him? There should be a woman, Parker, she’ll want to talk to me.”
“I don’t know anyone by that name. I’m sorry. Squeeze your fist.” I did, and she placed an IV in my arm. “This will help you feel better.”
“I want to know where Gunner is!”
She patted my hand. “I wish I could help you. But I don’t know where they took him.”
I was too worked up to sleep, so they must have given me something because all of a sudden I opened my eyes and I was lying in a hospital bed. The window across the room looked out across the parking lot. Thick clumps of wet snow fell in the light from the lamps. There were more tubes in my arms now, but they didn’t look like they were attached to anything important. I winced as I pulled the needles from my veins and clamped my hand over the punctures to stop the bleeding. I’d been changed once again, out of the scrubs and into a hospital gown that was tied at my side. I rummaged through the closet in the room and found new scrubs and pulled the shirt over my head as a nurse walked in.
“You’re awake.”
“Where am I? Where is Gunner?” Was anything of mine here? I didn’t even have a cell phone. “Has anyone contacted my parents?”
“I’m sorry, hon, I don’t know who Gunner is. Your parents are on their way. I’m going to need you to get back in bed so I can replace those lines.”
I brushed past her into the hallway, and she didn’t try to stop me. “Gunner?”
“Quinn!”
I turned on my heel. At the end of the hallway was my dad.
“Daddy!” I sprinted down the hall, ignoring the looks from the nurses and the people who jumped out of my way to avoid being knocked over. He met me halfway, catching me in his arms midstride and picking me up as if I were still only five years old, and this was simply the worst nightmare in the world.
“It’s okay, honey.”
I couldn’t stop crying. He hugged me tight, so tight I couldn’t breathe, but it didn’t matter because at least I was back with my family. I wasn’t a captive any longer. But mingled with that relief was the hollow sense of guilt. Where was Gunner right now? Where would he go after he was better? Would he get better? I needed to see him. I couldn’t let him be without me right now.
“Dad, you have to help me.” I wiggled until he set me down. “I have to find Gunner. No one will tell me where he is.”
“The man who was holding you?” Dad held me at arm’s length to look at me. “Why would you want to see him?”
I started crying all over again. “Please, Dad, I’ll explain later. I just need to see him. You don’t understand …” Everything came out at once, and I had to stop to take a heaving breath. Dad pulled me back against him and patted my head.
“That’s all right, honey. You can tell me later. But I don’t think we’ll be able to get to him. They’re going to have him under heavy guard. The Disciples will be out for blood now that they know he’s a cop.”
“He’s a cop?” I sniffed and wiped my face. That was new information. “I thought he was just working with the police.”
Dad shook his head. “Based on what I’m hearing, he was undercover for years. He’s been feeding information back to the police so they could take Vincent down. If Gunner survives his injuries, he’ll still have to worry about them coming after him.”
That sent me into another paroxysm. Would he ever be safe again? I’d been so concerned about him disappearing from my life intentionally, and now I faced the possibility of him being removed against his will.
“This is too much. Here, let’s sit down. Where’s your room?” He held my hand as we walked back to my room and helped me sit on the edge of the bed. He took his coat off and put it around my shoulders. The nurse started to walk over, probably to put the IVs back in my arm, but my dad shooed her away. He poked his head into the hallway.
“Excuse me? Is there an officer here I can talk to?”
A man in civilian clothes but holding a badge appeared in the doorway.
Dad didn’t wait for him to speak. “We need to leave.”
The man frowned. “I’m sorry, sir. She’s a witness. We still need to take her statement …”
“You can do that at our house just fine,” he snapped. “My daughter has been away from her family for too long. So unless you’re going to handcuff her to the bed, I’m taking her home.”
I blinked. Wow, that was assertive. But I was grateful for it. There was no way I was going to be able to rest in the hospital. At least Blanca and Nicky would be at home. Maybe they’d get into bed with me and keep me warm until Gunner could join us.
I leaned around my dad to look at the officer. “Do you know where Gunner is?” I wasn’t going to leave without seeing him, not if he was at the same hospital.
He shook his head as I slid my arms into my dad’s jacket. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know where he is. I don’t think anyone here does.”
“Will I be able to see him? Eventually?”
“I don’t know about that. There’s going to be some very dangerous people looking for him. You sure you can’t stay? It would be a lot easier if we could get your statement now …”
“We’re going,” my dad snapped. “Quinn, come on. Let’s get home. Your mom took a sleeping pill earlier in the night. I want you to be there when she wakes up.”
He wouldn’t know about Mom! Did the police know? Was that why they didn’t want me to leave? “Dad, I have to tell you something. It’s about Mom.”
“Let’s talk about it in the car. I think you’ve been through enough for today.”
I couldn’t argue with him on that. I paused and spoke to the detective on the way out. “Can you please ask Parker to get ahold of me? I want to know if Gunner is okay.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I haven’t seen her since I got here, but when I do, I’ll let her know.”
“Thank you.”
We blew past the nurses’ station and a dozen more police officers and took the stairs to the ground floor instead of the elevator. “I don’t want someone else who actually knows what they’re doing to try to stop us,” Dad muttered under his breath. “This whole thing has been a train wreck from the beginning.”
“Is Mom okay?”
We exited through the door and stepped into the icy rain on the side of the hospital. I could barely hear the door slam
shut behind us over the howling of the wind. I pulled the coat up around my face, but my legs were assaulted with icy pricks. Dad grabbed my upper arm and steered me toward the parking lot.
“She’s been so anxious. She’s basically on some sort of medicine twenty-four seven. Pills are the only way she can sleep, and when she takes them, she’s out for hours.”
“I understand. It’s not about that.” I saw his car across the parking lot, with a layer of ice already crusted over the windshield. I stepped toward it, but a black Range Rover pulled in front of us, splashing me with icy slush.
“What the—”
A moment later, the doors opened, and two hands reached out and yanked me inside.
There was no way I was alive. None. There was too much pain for one human to bear and still live. Every time I tried to open my eyes, agony pushed me under even deeper. My brain was burning, my body ached, and my fingers were numb. Even breathing, the expansion of my lungs caused me to grit my teeth. But despite my desire to stay asleep and ride out the last of this pain, there was no time to rest.
Not yet.
I opened my eyes one at a time, looking up at a tiled ceiling. There was a water stain on the tile to my left.
“There he is. Tell the doctor. Be quiet about it.”
I turned my head to the side. Fuck, that hurt. Did they break my neck? Parker took a step closer to me as our eyes met.
“How are you feeling? Are you in much pain?”
Fuck my pain. “Where is she?”
She pursed her lips. “You come out of surgery, and that’s your first question? Don’t you want to know if you’re going to survive?”
“I wouldn’t be in this much pain if I wasn’t.” Parker was my power of attorney—she would have had them sedate me until I died painlessly. The fact that I was awake meant everything was fine.
Well, relatively.
“Where’s Quinn?”
Parker pulled up a chair and sat next to my bed. “A couple of floors down. She’s under observation.”
“Is she hurt?”
“No. She was way more concerned about you. We had to get a lot of blood off her, though.”