Page 90 of Under My Skin

“No, don’t do that!” I choked out, gripping the side of her neck as I tried to bring her focus back to me. “Donotsay your goodbyes! This isn’t over, baby. You’re going to be okay. Youhaveto be okay! I’m not done. I’m not done loving you. You hear me?”

“P-promise…promise me,” she garbled, a sob bubbling out of her throat. “P-please.”

“Fuck!” I bawled. “I promise, beautiful. I’ll take care of him. But so will you. We’re going to be a family. He’s going to have brothers and sisters, you’re going to be a doctor, and we’re goingto grow old together. You just have to hold on. Please hold on, baby! PLEASE!”

“T-trying,” she stammered, letting out a pained groan. “I…I love…”

“Stop it, Dani,” I begged. “This isn’t goodbye! Itcan’tbe goodbye!”

Fuck, I couldn’t do this. I didn’t knowhowto do this.

A sob wracked my body, and I used every ounce of strength I had to keep pressure on the wound as I struggled to keep my wits about me so she wouldn’t bleed out before help got here.

Desperate to find something to keep her grounded and focused, I tried like hell to remember the lyrics of “Snow on the Beach,” a song I’d listened to over and over again in the past few weeks, and started to softly sing to her in my awful, out-of-key voice about our weird, but fucking beautiful love – the most real and honest connection I’d ever known.

“Sir, I need you to back away from her,” a man said as a hand landed on my shoulder.

My head jolted in the direction the voice had come from, and I found a man wearing an EMT uniform standing above me, while another knelt on Dani’s other side and started to open his kit bag.

When the fuck had they gotten here? How come I hadn’t heard the sirens?

“We’ve got it from here,” he said in a calm, even voice. “You did great keeping pressure on her wound until we got here, but now I need you to move and let us help her. Okay?”

Everything in me was telling me to stay right where I was, to keep putting pressure on Dani’s wound. The thought of leaving her side was too agonizing to even consider.

But I wasn’t a doctor. I wasn’t even a medic. My entire knowledge of what to do with gunshot wounds began and ended with keeping pressure on them until help arrived. And help washere now. So I needed to let them do their jobs and save the woman I loved.

Defying every instinct in my body, I released my hold on the scarlet bundle I’d been clutching like a lifeline and forced myself to my feet.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

BRADEN

“What the fuckis taking so long?!” I wailed, yanking at my hair as I sat, helpless, in the hospital waiting room. “Why won’t they tell me something?Anything?!”

I’d been here for fuckinghours, and no one had told me a damn thing about Dani. The police had come and gone, getting a statement from me and informing me that the shot Leo had fired had ripped through Vicki’s aorta and killed her within less than a minute. And now all I could do was stare at the ugly-ass flowery wallpaper and disgusting carpet as I waited to hear whether the love of my life was alive or dead.

I should have felt something hearing the news about Vicki. Shock. Sadness. Anger.Something. But I didn’t feel anything at all. I was just numb. A robot. Unable to think about anything at all other than the soul-crushing terror over the very real possibility that I might lose the only woman I’d ever loved.

Kyler sat down next to me and slid her arm around me, giving me a squeeze.

“I know this is terrifying,” she sniffled quietly. “But she’s alive. If she wasn’t, the doctor would have come out and told you.”

“You don’t know that,” I choked out. “Maybe they just haven’t said anything because I’m not her family. Maybe they won’t release information to me.”

“They will,” Ian murmured, taking a seat on my other side and putting a hand on my shoulder. “They gave me information about Ky when she was in the hospital after Max hurt her. She’s gonna be okay, man. She has to be.”

“He’s right. Dani’s too damn stubborn to die on us,” Morgan said, letting out a weak, watery chuckle as she and Malachi sat down on a bench chair across from me.

I tried to focus on that. Tried to focus on anything other than the vision of Dani’s blood seeping through my fingers, her unfocused eyes trying to find me while she made me promise to care for our son.

I thought about this morning. Waking up next to her. The way she’d felt beneath my fingers as I’d worshiped every single inch of her. How our bodies just seemed to meld together perfectly, like we were made for each other. Her cries of pleasure as we’d reached that pinnacle and tumbled into oblivion together.

What if that was all I would get? What if I never got to see her again? Never got to kiss her? Never got to make love to her? Never got to tell her how much I loved her and how much she’d changed me?

What if I had to raise Isaac alone, living with a constant reminder of the best fucking three weeks of my life? Constantly wondering if I was doing it right, if I was caring for him the waybothof his mothers would have wanted?

“Fuck!” A strangled sob forced its way out of my throat.

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