Page 62 of The Perfect Accomplice

“Are you okay, ma’am?” someone asked from over her shoulder.

She looked up to see the officer who had been directing traffic at the intersection behind them. He was holding his service pistol.

“My fiancé needs an ambulance,” she said, noting that her voice sounded strangely disembodied.

“I’m calling for one now,” he said. “Let me assist you.”

He knelt down and helped her roll Mitch onto his back as he called in their location to dispatch.

The first thing Kat saw was that Mitch had a hole in his gut, just to the right of his belly button. It was big. He was breathing quickly, and his eyes were squeezed shut in pain.

“Mitch,” Kat said, “Can you hear me?”

Her voice made his eyes pop open.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said, looking at the bleed seeping rapidly out of his wound. “You?”

“I’ve been better,” he told her, gritting his teeth as he answered.

“Just hold on,” she said, unzipping her jacket, taking it off, and pressing it against his wound. He groaned, but she didn't let up. “I know this hurts but I have to put pressure on it to stem the bleeding.”

He nodded weakly and Kat noticed that he was horribly pale. She put her hand on his forehead. It was clammy.

“The ambulance will be here soon,” she said, “just stay with me. Remember, you owe me an ice cream.”

He smiled thinly at the crack before wincing.

“It hurts,” he said.

“I know it does, babe,” she replied. “But the ambulance will be here really soon. They’ll give you some meds for the pain and patch you up. Just hold on.”

“Kat,” he said, suddenly looking at her with eyes more intense than she’d ever seen, “it really hurts.”

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

“We’re almost there,” Jessie assured her, hoping that keeping her own voice calm would help Kat do the same. “Now explain what happened.”

Over the phone, she heard Kat take several deep breaths as she tried to get control of herself. All Jessie knew was that Mitch had been shot and that the ambulance had taken them to Cedars-Sinai, the same hospital that she and Ryan just left a few minutes ago.

“Some kid pulled out a gun on the street where Mitch and I were walking,” she said, talking extremely fast. “He was aiming at me, but Mitch jumped in the way and got hit in the stomach. A nearby officer took the guy out.”

Kat paused to catch her breath. Jessie considered saying something to help focus her, but before she could, her friend dived back in. "Before he pulled out the gun, he shouted something about being the chosen one and completing someone else’s mission. Jessie, he specifically said that he was the assassin now. I think he might have somehow been in contact with Ash Pierce and that she put him up to this, to take over for her. We both know she’s just pretending to have amnesia. But she’s probably been secretly planning this as payback. I wouldn’t be surprised if this kid is an orderly or nursing aide here at the hospital and that she brainwashed him over the last few weeks.”

Jessie would never put anything past Ash Pierce, but Kat seemed to be jumping to a pretty specific conclusion without much evidence. Still, she didn’t feel like this was the time to make that point.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said instead. “How is Mitch?”

“He’s lost some blood and is in real pain, but he’s alert,” Kat said. “They’re working on him now. I think he’s going to be all right.”

“Good. Where are you exactly?”

“In the emergency room, bed fourteen,” Kat told her. “Hold on—something’s happening. I have to go.”

“Okay, we’ll be there in a minute,” Jessie promised, but Kat had already hung up.

She gripped the dashboard as Ryan swerved in and out of traffic at nearly triple the speed limit. Right now, she didn’t mind. He shouted to be heard over the siren.

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