Page 71 of Mob Princess

“I’m all right. Are you?”

“No. Call Seamus and Cormac.”

I try to roll off her, but I’m lightheaded already. This isn’t just the initial pain that comes from being shot or being winded from falling with her elbow in my gut.

“Sean!”

I moved enough for her to scramble out from beneath me, but it’s like I’m listening to her underwater. I’m going to pass out. I watch her run to her purse and grab her phone before she tugs my suit coat off. I can’t even groan from the pain as she jostles me. Things are blurring as she presses my wadded-up suit coat against my wound.

I hear her speak, but none of it makes sense.

“Seamus, it hit his lung. Get up here.”

I’m either taking a nap or dead.

Chapter Fourteen

Lina

I look up when the pounding on the door registers as more than just my heart pounding. I don’t want to let go of the pressure on Sean’s wound, but I can’t let his cousins in to help if I don’t.

“I’ll be right back.” I know he can’t hear me. There’s so much fucking blood.

I race to the door, training ingrained in me to check the peephole first, then fling it open. I barely step back as Seamus and Cormac barrel forward, guns drawn. If I didn’t know they’d never hurt me, I’d fear them trampling me. One of them is impressive. Both of them is fucking terrifying as they look ready to murder someone with their bare hands as their gazes scan the suite. They make a beeline to Sean, and I’m right on their heels.

“What happened?” Cormac’s voice is deceptively low. It’s not soft, just quiet.

“We were talking beside the window. I don’t know what made him do it, but he spun me around and pushed me to the floor. Then the window shattered. He asked if I was all right, and I am. Then he said he wasn’t, and I needed to get you.”

Seamus is pressing Sean’s suit jacket to his wound as Cormac raises his gun and looks out the window where there is nothing to see. At least nothing I notice, but perhaps he’ll see more. I look back at Seamus and Sean, and Sean's face is so pale it makes me wonder if he's still alive. But the blood continues to flow from him. Corpses don't bleed.

“Did he say anything else?”

I can only shake my head at Seamus’s question. I kneel beside Sean, opposite Seamus to stay out of his way. I take Sean’s hand, and it’s already so cold. I squeeze as hard as I dare. His fingers curl around mine and return the squeeze. It’s hardly strong for a man like him, but it’s something.

“I’m not dying, cailín. But this fecking hurts. Damn it, Seamus. Don’t shove my jacket into the wound, just onto it.”

“Don’t whine.”

I glance back and forth between the cousins, entirely bewildered by the exchange. Even in his condition, Sean won’t swear in front of me. Seamus acts as though this is a paper cut even though blood covers his hands.

“You could at least take some pity on me in front of my girlfriend.”

I stare down at Sean, wondering if he truly understands what he's saying. He called me little girl and his girlfriend in front of his cousins. I don't think he would normally do that if he were in the right state of mind, but I refuse to be embarrassed since I want nothing more than to be his girlfriend. I want that title. It's mine.

Cormac moves away from the window, his gun still poised and ready to fire, but he comes to stand beside his brother, glancing down at Sean in between scanning outside.

“What do we do? Can we take him to the hospital? I thought you guys would avoid that, but do you know any doctors here? I don't know anyone.”

“We will have to take him somewhere. This is too serious to avoid a hospital, and we don't have time to take him back to Boston, where we know somebody who can patch him up. If we can get him stable, then we might be able to transport him there. But right now, he's losing a lot of blood. It's not his lung like you thought, but it is very close.” Seamus peels back the jacket enough to look at the wound. He reapplies the pressure.

“Should I call an ambulance? Are we wasting too much time? What do you need me to do?”

I feel like I'm peppering them with questions, but I don't know what to do in a situation like this. I’ve never been in a place where I’ve seen someone get shot. Well, I didn’t see Sean get shot, but now I’m dealing with the fact that he was. That he shielded me, and there was just as much likelihood I was the target as him. He saved my life one way or another. And now I need to know what to do to save his.

It’s Cormac who answers me this time. “Call the ambulance. You stay with him while we get the car. You’ll ride in the ambulance with him. Pretend to be his wife.”

I nod as I dial 911. My hands are shaking as I wait for the dispatcher to answer. Then I’m telling him my husband’s been shot. I’m about to tell the man the hotel name and room number, but Seamus shakes his head.

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