Page 97 of Vengeful Guard

I need to get to Paige, need to get her to safety. And this motherfecker is in my way.

Twisting the second gunman’s arm hard enough to get his back turned to me, I apply a chokehold on the waste of space as I wrestle him to the ground.

Paige, please be hiding somewhere, please be safe.

This is all my fault. If I hadn’t gotten so fixated on her, on that fecking kiss that got me so fecking hard, I wouldn’t have had to calm down before following her.

Those gunshots and the fecking man grabbing Paige sure were quite the mood killer, though.

And they turned me into a killer too. The guy who dares put his hand on Paige is the first to go down. Three bullets to the head. Just one wasn’t enough. He needed to stay dead.

Everyone after that are just obstacles in my quest to find Paige.

If she’s hurt, I’ll never forgive myself. If she isn’t, this is proof enough that I was right keeping away from her. Away from everyone.

The first time I allow myself to be distracted by a woman, the whole world collapses on my head.

I failed. Failed Patrick, Failed Declan. Failed Paige.

A gun goes off too close to my ear, making it ring and making everything feel fuzzy and unreal, and I'm caught off balance for a moment.

Thinking fast, I push the man away from me with both hands, and he stumbles backward, his gunshots going wild, up into the ceiling.

It’s enough to allow me to draw my gun and shoot him twice in the chest.

He goes down after firing a few more bullets, but they all miss.

Shooting him between the eyes to make sure he stays down, I have one concern in mind. Whirling around, I try to locate Paige.

If I have to stay away from her to keep her safe, that’s what I have to do. That’s what I will do.

It will kill me, but better me than her.

Suddenly, there she is. She has blood on her. Straddling her father’s lap, she presses down on a bleeding wound that’s not stopping. And she’s screaming.

Still riding the adrenaline rush, I run over to them.

As soon as I’m able to assess the blood on her isn’t hers, relief sweeps through me, and my knees almost fail me. The guilt crushes me that it’s Patrick’s blood.

Feck.

I failed. I was so absorbed in her that I failed the whole family.

“The medic says—” one of Patrick’s men that I don’t know well says, looking pale with his phone at his ear.

“Fuck the medic!” Paige yells. “Call an ambulance.”

“But, Miss?—”

“Stop wasting time and do what I’m fucking telling you!”

I nod at the man, and he sighs, calling 911 instead.

Patrick has enough influence with the police and the hospital that it's the right thing to do.

“Paige.” I squat down next to her. My voice comes out weak and hoarse. “Paige, let someone else do that.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “No. I’ve got pressure on it. If I move, he could bleed out.”

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