Page 130 of Vengeful Vows

Three gunshots ring out, and Jimmy cries out. I turn to him, and he’s been hit high up in the upper thigh and blood is flowing down his pants.

“Fuck!” If we don’t do something fast, Paige will be taken, and Jimmy will die of blood loss. “Are you good, Gray? Are you hit?”

“Good.” He advances toward the men, shooting one in the throat and the other in the kneecap. The third man gets away, sprinting toward the van where Paige is still fighting hard not to be hauled into.

I chase him down, tackling him around the waist and his chin hits the ground, making him spit blood.

I kick him in the ribs before shooting him in the upper thigh.

He screams, and I contemplate shooting him again. “That’s where you got my friend, you sonofabitch.” I kick him in the ribs. “If you survive, tell Niall Murphy he just signed his death warrant.”

I run toward Paige. I need to save her. Now. She is already half inside the van.

Gray shoots Conan in the head.

I get to my sister and haul her up.

She wilts against me. “Is it safe?”

I look around. Gray is already getting Jimmy back to the car, trusting me to take care of Paige.

“Let’s not wait to find out.”

We jog to where Gray and Jimmy are and get inside the car, Paige in the back with Jimmy before we rush him to Doc.

Doc lives downtown, and it'll be quicker to get Jimmy there instead of waiting for Doc to show up at home. Jimmy’s hit close to his femoral artery, and I’m terrified that he’s going to bleed out before we get there.

Paige has her small hand clamped around Jimmy’s thigh, and he seems in and out of consciousness.

I double park on the street, and we file out of the car, with me and Gray carrying Jimmy inside and Paige trembling, still holding his thigh to try and slow down his bleeding.

I bang on Doc’s door, and he opens it with his dark, curly hair all mussed, his brown eyes wide.

“Oh, fuck me sideways,” he mutters and helps us get Jimmy to the couch. He cuts off Jimmy’s jeans leg with a pocketknife, cursing under his breath.

“How bad is it, Doc?” Gray asks.

“Shut up and let me work. Hand me my bag,” Doc barks to Paige, and she picks it up, but it falls to the floor because she’s trembling so much.

I pick it up, handing it to Doc, and turn to comfort Paige, pulling her into my arms. She sobs against my chest, and I stroke her hair.

“Come on, let’s sit down for a second, okay?”

I lead her to the couch and sit beside her before releasing her and taking a couple of alcohol swabs from Liam’s bag to start cleaning up her bloody knees. She winces, still crying.

Her eye is turning purple, so I stop for a second, get her some ice for it before I continue taking care of her knees.

Doc is still working on Jimmy, and I watch with a grimace as he dives a pair of small tweezers into Jimmy’s flesh.

“The bullet’s still in there,” Doc mutters. “Hold him down, Gray.”

“Sorry about this, Jim.” Gray’s face almost a testament to his name as he holds Jimmy down.

Jimmy starts jerking around and I reach out to do my part to help hold Jimmy’s leg as still as I can as Doc does his thing.

“Got it.”

The bullet clinks on the glass coffee table as Doc discards it, and then he starts to stitch Jimmy up.

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