Page 49 of Lone Star Secrets

Birdie kept on sobbing, and she clutched her hands to her injured side. “Don’t kill me,” she muttered. “Please don’t kill me.”

Did Birdie know who was doing this? Maybe. Maybe these two were men she’d hired, but then why had one of them turned against Birdie and shot her? Or had that been a mistake?

Had he been aiming for Angel instead?

Mia didn’t have time to even consider that question because another shot came at them. This one smacking into the side door. The next shot came even closer to them, and Mia could have sworn she felt the heat coming off the bullet.

Cursing, Angel shoved her up underneath the van, following her so that his body was nearest the shooter. And the shooter must have decided this was his best chance because that’s where the next bullet came. It smacked into the metal just above Angel’s head.

“Enough of this shit,” Angel growled.

He rolled to his stomach, automatically bringing up his gun and firing. The shot screamed out, nonstop, tearing into the van and arrowing into the concrete floor. Angel fired two more shots.

And then everything stopped.

It just stopped.

Mia had no choice but to release the breath she’d been holding because her lungs felt ready to explode. And the fear came. A horrible flood of fear that Angel had been shot.

She turned to him. No blood. Not on him anyway.

But she couldn’t say the same for Presley. Clutching his shoulder, Presley staggered forward and dropped to the ground in front of them.

----- ? ----

Chapter Nineteen

----- ? ----

With RJ on one side of him and Mia on the other, Angel stood at the back of the hospital room as a petite blonde nurse checked the IV in Presley’s arm. Presley was flirting with her, so Angel took that as a very good sign.

There were a lot of good signs.

And Angel was thankful for each and every one of them.

Mia had managed to donate the blood that Melanie needed, the blood that might give her a chance to survive. Along with that, Mia and he were alive and unscathed.

For the most part anyway.

Just a few scrapes and bruises. Of course, they’d have to deal with the mental aftermath, but for now, that was on the back burner while they still had so much on the front burner to handle.

Presley hadn’t gotten the unscathed diagnosis what with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. And Birdie had topped him in the injury department by taking a bullet to her side. In both cases, nothing vital had been hit, and the shots had been a clean through and through. Both of them were expected to make a full recovery.

That didn’t apply to the two gunmen who’d been in the parking garage.

No recovery for them. They were yet to be IDed, but they were both dead. And Melanie was still in the ICU, and her chances of survival were touch and go at the moment.

The nurse finished with the IV, flashed Presley a smile that practically yelled “Call me,” and she walked out, easing the door shut behind her.

If she hadn’t closed it, Angel would have because even now, he couldn’t be sure that they weren’t in danger. Yes, the two gunmen were dead, and it appeared that Birdie had been behind the attacks, and she was restrained in a hospital bed just up the hall. But there were still a whole lot of unanswered questions. Until Angel had those answers, he wasn’t letting Mia out of his sight.

Maybe he wouldn’t even after that.

Soon, he’d need to figure out a way to keep her in his life. Now that they’d found their way back to each other, he didn’t want to lose her.

Correction: he couldn’t lose her.

And, yeah, this was about that l-word. He’d need to tell her how he felt about her and let the cards fall where they may.

---