Keeping Quinn: The Next Generation

by Edwards, Riley

  I looked over Mike’s shoulder. Kendall shifted to pull something from an open med kit and I froze.

  From one beat of my heart to the next, the organ seized.

  A shock of black hair blanketed the dirty concrete.

  Impossible.

  I pushed past Mike and was in a dead sprint before either man could stop me.

  It couldn’t be her.

  There was a flurry of commotion as Lance, Joanne, and Kendall worked diligently to resuscitate the victim.

  Bile rose fast and furious.

  Not the victim—Quinn.

  “Step back, son, let them work.” Cap’s hand grabbed my bicep and I wrenched free. I took the last two steps and went to my knees.

  “Quinn, baby,” I choked.

  Words were spoken, hands were moving, clothes were being torn away, leads were being connected. Not a goddamn thing penetrated I was so focused on processing that it was Quinn with a hole in her chest, blood oozing, leaking onto the sidewalk. It bubbled from her mouth, down her chin, staining her beautiful flesh.

  Impossible.

  “No breath sounds…”

  Fuck. Jesus fuck.

  “Come on, Quinn, stay with me, baby,” I demanded.

  “…move her now.”

  No, no, fuck, no.

  “Fight, Quinn!”

  Then she was up, the gurney squealed as they extended it, and Lance was on the move.

  I however was staring at my woman’s blood—too much blood—so much blood I was in shock.

  “Let’s go!” Kendall shook me out of my stupor. “Now, Brice!”

  They loaded the ambulance and I barely made it in time to jump in before Lance slammed the door. A second later, the rig shot forward and Kendall went back to work.

  “I need you to put a line in, are you steady enough?”

  “No,” I answered honestly.

  Kendall’s blue eyes snapped to mine and I wished I was looking in emerald ones.

  “You need to be, right now, Brice. Snap the fuck out of it. We have no choice. She needs you, right damn now, to get your shit sorted and help me.”

  I took the gloves she offered and shoved all my fear, all the panic, every ounce of emotion I was feeling aside and got to work.

  The next five minutes were a blur as we worked on Quinn. Machines beeped, Kendall called in our ETA, my hands stanched the flow of blood.

  There was not one hole, there were two.

  Two fucking holes in my woman’s chest.

  Two angry, puckered holes threatening to take her away from me.

  Tears formed and spilled down my cheeks, rolled off my chin, and fell, mixing with the blood drying on Quinn’s chest.

  Then there was silence—deafening, soul-crushing silence.

  “Goddammit. Start compressions,” Kendall ordered.

  “Come on, baby. Fight, Quinn!” I clenched my jaw and I counted aloud with each downward push.

  I hadn’t made it to ten before the back door to the rig flew open and Lance was pulling the stretcher out. My feet went to the roller platform, not stopping my bone-crushing attempt to force much-needed oxygen into Quinn’s lungs.

  I heard nothing until I felt someone shoving me aside to take over. Then Kendall was yelling at me to move.

  I didn’t. I couldn’t. Not until I was forcibly pulled away.

  Then the ache in my soul turned into more—terror—as I helplessly watched Quinn being rushed down the hall surrounded by a team of doctors and nurses. When I took a step to follow, Captain Casey was there shoving me against the wall.

  “Best chance she has is going up now. You do not want to slow that, son.”

  Best chance.

  The gravity hit. All of the weight I pushed aside in the ambulance bore down, so much weight I was dizzy with it. So heavy I couldn’t bear it.

  My ass landed on the floor, my head went between my bent knees, and part of me died.

  “Someone call in Jackson,” Captain ordered, and my head popped up.

  “No! I need to call him.”

  “Don’t think you’re—”

  “It has to be me. I need a phone.”

  Joanne was there pushing a phone into my hand and I woodenly dialed to make a call I never in my life thought I’d make.

  “Hello?” Jackson greeted, sounding upbeat.

  Fucking shit.

  “Hello?” he repeated.

  “Brother,” I croaked.

  “Brice?”

  “Fuck—”

  “Where are you?”

  “County,” I choked. “I need you here now. Call your dad, tell him to get Levi and Lenox and lock down Jasper.”

  “The fuck?”

  “It’s Quinn, brother. You need to get here but Jasper needs to be locked down first.”

  “How bad?”

  “Ba…bad.”

  “Motherfuck! Was she in an accident?”

  “I’ll explain when you get here.” My head dropped and my eyes closed. “Might not.. might not…”

  Jesus fuck, I couldn’t say the words. Couldn’t think them.

  “Brice,” Jackson whispered, and there was no missing the anguish.

  “Just…get here.”

  Joanne reached down and peeled the phone out of my hands. The soft murmur of her voice did nothing to soothe my ravished soul.

  * * *

  It could’ve been ten minutes, it could’ve been ten hours. I’d lost track of time as I sat on the floor of the ER. Not a single person dared to tell me to move.

  Even with all of my focus on the bloody gloves I still hadn’t removed, I felt his presence. Pain that matched my own—so thick, so heavy, it was crippling.

  My head came up, our eyes locked, and then there were no words necessary.

  “No!” Jasper roared.

  Levi and Lenox flanked him when his knees gave way.

  There were only a few things in this life that would bring Jasper Walker to his knees, all of those things revolved around his family.

  I had nothing left inside of me to give.

  No reassurances.

  No words.

  Nothing.

  I was hollow.

  And with every second that passed I died a little more.

  Clark stood next to Jackson, both looking at me wide-eyed.

  Jackson broke away and crouched in front of me.

  “Brother?”

  “Two GSWs to the chest.”

  Jackson sucked in a breath and I forged on, needing to purge the images of a lifeless Quinn being wheeled away.

  “We…um…fuck.” I swallowed a sob but couldn’t stop the wetness from pooling in my eyes. “We lost her right before we pulled in,” I whispered. “We started CPR, then she was wheeled up to the OR.”

  Jackson shot to his feet and I went back to ignoring everything and everyone. I knew I needed to get up off my ass and talk to Jasper. Offer him something, fuck if I knew what that something was, and fuck if I had anything in me.

  I was debating how I was going to stand—and once I got to my feet, if I’d be able to stay upright—when Jasper stepped in front of me offering me his hand.

  I shook my head, not wanting to transfer his daughter’s blood but also not wanting to take off my gloves.

  It was morbid but I had to keep something of hers with me.

  He yanked me to my feet, then Jasper’s arms went around me and pounded my back with an earthshaking thud.

  “I…fuck…”

  Nothing, I had no words.

  I felt Jasper’s body convulse and his breath hitch.

  Jesus fuck.

  27

  Two hours later, I walked out of the restroom. Cap had gone to the station, grabbed me a change of clothes, then perched his ass in the waiting room along with the rest of Quinn’s family. The rest of the crew had been in and out, offering what they could—soft words to Emily and Jasper. Checking on Jackson and staring at me with concern.

  I shoved my hand in my pocket, feeling the inside-out bal
led-up pair of gloves I was still keeping ahold of.

  Two hours of pure torture.

  I was turning the corner when Kendall stepped in front of me and stopped.

  “I asked a lot of you in the ambulance and I wasn’t very kind about it,” she started.

  Pure Kendall. Tough as nails when she was in work mode, soft as a kitten when she wasn’t.

  “I fucked up,” I admitted. “Totally froze and couldn’t see past that the victim was Quinn.”

  “Not Quinn,” she whispered. “The woman you love. I just wanted you to know I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

  I noticed she offered no platitudes—she didn’t tell me not to worry, or that Quinn would pull through. Kendall may’ve been soft and kind but she was no liar.

  It would be a miracle if Quinn survived.

  “’Preciate everything you did for her.”

  She nodded and gave me a tight smile. “I won’t keep you from your family. Lance and I are heading back. You stay strong.”

  Strong? Right.

  If nothing else, today had proved just how weak I was. There was not a damn thing strong about me, not when it came to Quinn.

  I made my way back to the waiting room and forced myself to swallow down the ugly shit churning in my gut.

  Before I could take two steps into the room, Jackson was there pushing me back out, his dad right behind him.

  Fuck.

  “Jack, I’m not in the mood—”

  “Enough,” Jackson snapped.

  “Enough? What the fuck does that mean?”

  “I know you.” He leaned in and barked straight into my face. “I know you so well, I know you’re beating yourself up for something. Stop. Quinn doesn’t need this—”

  “Quinn’s not fucking here!” I bit out.

  “She sure as shit is. Right fucking here.” Jackson balled his fist and socked me in the chest. I stumbled backward, but before I could punch the asshole back, his dad stepped into the way.

  “What happened to Quinn isn’t your fault. Fuck! None of us saw it coming. Ethan was keeping his ear to the ground. Jason called in every favor he had keeping tabs on everyone in Allen’s gang.”

  I rocked back. This information was new to me.

  “Come again?”

  “What I’m telling you is, they were smart. They kept their shit tight and carried out the hit internally.”

  Christ, a hit.

  “I shouldn’t’ve—”

  “This is not on you,” Clark semi-repeated.

  I closed my eyes thinking about the ways today would’ve gone different if I’d just called in more vacation days. Or if I’d asked Quinn to go stay with her parents. Or if I’d—

  “She needs you,” Jackson growled. “She needs you to believe she’s gonna make it. Fuck, brother, I need you to believe it.”

  My eyes opened and I stared at my friend, Quinn’s cousin. Quinn’s childhood playmate. The agony shone clear as day. His eyes blazed with it.

  “I fucked up,” I admitted.

  “You—”

  “I did. I fucked up so bad. I couldn’t fucking breathe. I saw her. First thing I saw was all that beautiful black hair. Christ. Then when I got to her, so much blood.” I let out a strangled grunt but I was so lost in my grief I didn’t stop. “Fuck, it was pourin’ out of her. My woman’s blood was seeping from her body and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. I left her in bed this morning smiling at me then she’s bleeding out on a goddamned sidewalk. I froze. So damn paralyzed with fear I couldn’t move. Weak, goddamned weak. The woman I love was dying and all I could do was fucking stare at her. Who the fuck does that? Jesus Christ.”

  “A man who left the woman he loves lying in bed smiling,” Jasper said. “A man who went to work thinking his woman was safe. A man who loves her down to his soul and was dying right along with my daughter.”

  Jasper’s words sounded choked as he of all people tried to console me. “Remember the day Jason was taken like it was yesterday. I was so fuckin’ scared I couldn’t see straight. That’s something a man never forgets. He also never forgets walking into a hospital room after his daughter’s been kidnapped and beaten. Delaney’s battered face is seared into my brain, the fear of Jason being taken forever tattooed on my soul. Both of those times my life crashed around me. But neither of those times did I witness what you did. We’re all feeling this, Brice, and when I say that, I’m telling you terror like I’ve never known is eating at my gut while I’m praying my daughter pulls through. But none of us saw it. None of us were stopping the flow of blood. None of us were in that ambulance saving her life. That was you. Only you. I’ll say this once—if I walked up on that, no way I’d be able to do what you did. So get that shit out of your head.”

  “Jasper—”

  “Quinn Walker’s family?” A doctor walked to us.

  “Yes,” Jasper returned.

  Clark crowded Jasper and I felt Jackson doing the same to me.

  “Quinn’s out of surgery. Both gunshot wounds were through and through. We repaired the lung and we performed a procedure called a thoracostomy. What that means is, we inserted a chest tube to drain the blood from the pleural cavity.” The doctor stopped, his Adam’s apple visibly bobbing before his forehead furrowed and my heart nearly stopped. “I won’t lie to you, Quinn’s condition is grave. When she arrived she was in hypovolemic shock. That’s a forty percent loss of blood. Right now, the hemothorax is the least of our concerns and the next hour will be crucial. From there, we’ll go hour to hour.”

  Hour by hour.

  Christ.

  I could feel my will to live drain away.

  “Where is she now?” Clark asked.

  “Being moved to the cardiac care unit.”

  “When can her parents and fiancé see her?”

  Fiancé. Fuck, I wish that were true. I wished that when we were in Savannah I would’ve slipped my ring on her finger.

  “In about thirty minutes. One person at a time, for five minutes. She hasn’t regained consciousness and I don’t expect her to for a few days.”

  “Thank you,” Clark muttered.

  The doctor took that as his leave, but before any of us could recover from the news, Ethan and Brady approached. Ethan had been the only family not to stay at the hospital, and that was on orders from his father, Lenox, to go to the station and find out what had happened.

  “That the doctor?” Ethan asked.

  Clark quickly ran down what the doctor had told us and I silently watched as Ethan’s features turned to stone.

  “Update,” Clark demanded, still the only one capable of speech.

  Ethan glanced at Jasper before he began.

  “Nine-one-one call came in that shots were fired at the apartment complex. Five minutes after that, another nine-one-one call came in from a woman saying a body was thrown out of a moving vehicle. The caller pulled over and when she saw Quinn was bleeding she immediately started life-saving measures. A bloody miracle our good Samaritan is a vet, only thing better would’ve been a doctor. But she was not afraid to step in and help, and by the sound of it, her medical knowledge assisted in saving Quinn’s life. The vet is being questioned at the station. She had a vehicle description and a partial plate, but didn’t see who was in the car.”

  “Find. Them.” Jasper’s hate-filled demand wasn’t directed to his nephew who was a police officer. Quinn’s father was staring at a former Delta Force operator.

  Brady said not a word, the only acknowledgement to the order was the jerk of his chin.

  “Uncle Jasper—”

  Ethan clamped his mouth shut when Jasper’s eyes sliced to him.

  “Need to talk to Em.” Jasper took two steps before he stopped and looked at me. “You get the first five minutes.”

  Fuck, that sounded painful but I’d take it.

  Then Jasper was gone.

  28

  “I swear, baby, you’d be laughing your ass off.” I hea
rd. The sounds were muffled and far away but I could still make out the words. “The nurses don’t know if they should run away every time they see your dad or if they should bow to him before they carry out his orders. If you don’t wake up soon, he might be banned for life.”

  Wake up?

  “Love you, baby. I can’t wait for you to open your pretty green eyes. I miss you.”

  * * *

  “Your sister is crazy. Today she brought the nurses cupcakes to bribe them into letting her bring in baby Emma. She swears you’ll wake up if you hear your niece babbling.”

  I am awake.

  “At this point I’m willing to try anything. Damn, I miss you so much.”

  * * *

  “Jackson is driving me up the wall. Baby, if you do not want me to strangle him before I throw him off the roof of the hospital you better open your eyes.”

  Jeez, what did Jackson do now? And why off a hospital roof?

  “Tuesday might be pissed if I kill her husband but I’m out of patience.”

  “Why? What’d he do?” I croaked.

  “Quinn?”

  “I feel like I’m floating.”

  “Jesus fuck. Quinn, baby, open your eyes!”

  I opened my eyes and everything was hazy and bright.

  “Fucking hell, I missed those pretty eyes.”

  Missed me? Why would Brice miss me?

  I squinted, trying to bring Brice into focus but the fog was too thick. I blinked and tried again. When I finally could see clearly I was shocked. Brice looked like hell. Tired eyes, messy hair, days’ worth of stubble on his face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He frowned and gave me a sad smile.

  “Quinn, do you know where you are?”

  What kind of question was that?

  “Baby,” he whispered. “You’re in the hospital. You were shot.”

  Then like a freight train everything came rushing back. Everything! The fear. The excruciating pain. The darkness. Only now I wasn’t feeling anything.

  “I can’t feel my legs,” I whispered.

  Brice’s gaze slid away from mine and looked at something over my shoulder. “She’s awake.”