Page 66 of Captivated

“Hey, is everything okay?” The man asks as he takes in Piper lying on the ground and the blood covering both of us at this point. “Oh, shit…”

“What is the address?” The dispatcher continues, but I can’t speak, which is ironic seeing as I’m trained to act calmly and rationally in instances like these.

But this isn’t some random person in a textbook scene that I walked up to.

No.

This is the woman that I have fallen in love with, and she’s dying in front of me.

I’m frozen, lost in time even though flashing blue and red lights make themselves known in the distance and the man that drove up on us has taken my cell and filled in the details to the dispatcher for me.

Because reality is setting in. Because Piper is bleeding profusely and I can’t do anything to save her. Because I have no idea how we got here, or why we’re here.

This isn’t real. This can’t be happening.

“Piper… baby. Listen to me,” I break out of my trance as moisture clouds my eyes and my voice begins to choke. “You have to hold on, okay? The ambulance is coming… you… you can’t leave me, baby.”

Piper attempts to move, but I settle her once more in my lap, linking my arms around her so I can hold her closer to me, rocking her body back and forth against me and attempting to apply pressure to her stomach with my stomach.

“Don’t move. Just hold on, babe… please!” My hands are trembling and I’m choking back tears, but I’ve never been so terrified in my life.

“Mmmm…” she mumbles before growing colder in my arms and her eyes flutter shut.

“No! Piper… stay awake! You can’t leave me! I… I love you!” I shout as I pull her up further into my chest, pressing her against the hardness of my body and kissing her cheek, but the clamminess of her skin tells me we’re running out of time.

The first time I told her I love her may be the only time she ever hears it.

“Cash,” she whispers, and then everything around me goes silent even though medical personnel and deputies arrive on scene around us.

But the only noise I can hear is the pounding of my heart as the physical extension of it goes limp in my arms.

Chapter 26

Cash

“Fuck! What is taking them so long?” My voice is booming in the waiting room of the ER, a place I was in just twenty-four hours ago. But this time it’s for the second woman I love fighting for her life.

Don’t get me wrong, Birdie’s fall scared me, but nothing like what I’m feeling right now, peering down at the blood covering my sweater, and jeans—the blood that I’m sure they’re replenishing right now as she makes her way into surgery to save her life.

“Sir, we’re going to need you to calm down,” a voice comes behind me, making me turn to give them a death glare. “Oh. You’re Piper’s man, aren’t you?” I’ve seen this lady before, but where I can’t place right now.

“Yes. I just need to know what’s going on. Please, give me something.”

Her shoulders fall and then she pulls me off to the side, away from other people waiting, and lowers her voice. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this since you’re not family, but she’s in surgery. She lost a lot of blood, but she’s stable right now. That’s all I know.” She steps back and gives me a sympathetic look. “She’s part of our family around here too, so we’re pulling for her. It sucks when one of your own is in the bed instead of helping on the side. But she’s strong and we will do everything we can, alright?”

It’s not the best news, but it’s definitely not the worst. “Thank you.”

The nurse walks away from me just as Luke comes barreling through the automatic doors. “Fuck man, you look like you were in a horror movie.” His eyes shift up and down my body, taking in the blood and my disheveled look.

“Don’t come at me with jokes right now, fucker. Did you catch the guy? Please tell me you caught the mother fucker that shot her!”

“Lower your voice, man.” Luke pulls me outside into the freezing cold around the side of the building, but my adrenaline is running so high, I’m sweating. “We caught him, alright? The guy who stopped to help you guys was able to give a description of the car that took off right after she was shot. A black sedan. The man was scary looking—bald head, beady eyes, black beard…”

“Son of a bitch!” That guy that ran into her in the hospital that day—it had to be him.

“What?”

“I think we’ve seen that guy before. He’s been in town for a while. You said he was in a black sedan?”

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