Page 73 of Life

The crosswalk signals beeping to cross on our side.

We’re getting closer to the car, but it’s still more than half a block down, and a nauseous spike digs into my gut. This is not good. Wrong. Bad. Danger.

From the distance, Jack glances up. His form gets taller before my eyes, and I pick up my pace, wanting to run at full speed, but I hold back the urge.

Maria, relax. You’re being irrational. Calm,chica.

“Ria, I can’t keep up with those long dancer’s legs. Slow down,” Gigi complains and yanks me to the side. I start to stumble and then catch us. “Oh no. Jack has seen us, and he’s storming our way. Wait a minute… What’s in his hand?” Gillian frowns and squints.

I focus my gaze on what Jack has in his right hand as he starts to run toward us. It’s a gun. What the fuck is going on?A gun?

“Down! Get down!” Jack roars, pointing his gun right at us.

Just as I’m about to glance over my shoulder, both Gigi and I are hit by something hard—a man, careening into us. The two of us plow forward, tumbling face first toward the concrete as a shot goes off. A searing pain rips through my back by my shoulder as I fall, my hands and knees hitting first.

Gillian screams, and that’s the last thing I hear before I black out.

“Wake up, Maria. Now! Wake the fuck up!” Jack is roaring, shaking my body and slapping my face a little too hard for my liking.

I shake my head and grab for my left shoulder. Blood is seeping down my back. Razor blades of agony tear through me as I come to. “Gillian!”

“She’s fine, in the limo already. Come on, now!” He lifts me up by my good arm and tosses me over his shoulder like a towel. He sets out at a dead run toward the car. He opens the back door and throws me inside like a sack of potatoes. Then he slams the door and is gone.

“Maria. Oh my God. I thought you’d been shot. I’m so glad you’re okay!” Gigi cries, tears slicing down her cheeks. Her hair is a mess with fly-aways poking out, and her silk blouse is matted with dirt and what looks like sprays of blood. Her knees are bleeding, and her hands look like they’ve gotten a heaping dose of road rash. As I was going down, I tried to break her fall, but the pain piercing my shoulder made me turn and land on the right side.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” I hug her close. Her body is shaking. “I wasn’t shot.”

“You’re bleeding. Why are you bleeding?” She grabs at my shoulder and turns me around so she can see my back. “You’ve been cut. It’s pretty deep.” She grabs for the bar towel and puts pressure on the wound.

“Ahhhjoderme!” I yell, not able to control the excruciating burning pain blistering down my arm from the wound.

Gigi presses a button above us, and the privacy window goes down.

Jack’s no-nonsense voice is barking responses into a cell phone. “Yes, sir, I’m bringing them to St. Mary’s Medical Center now. It’s the closest one. No, she seems banged up but fine. Mrs. Davis, are you bleeding?”

“Um, a little bit. On my knees.” She glances down and then looks at her hands.

“Between your legs?” His question and the way his voice dips is by far the meanest I’ve heard him speak to date.

I want to tell him to fuck off but realize who’s probably asking. What a total clusterfuck.

Her face turns pensive for a moment. “I don’t think so. I don’t feel pain in my abdomen. Just my knees and my hands,” she says. “But Maria has a huge laceration on her shoulder. She needs medical attention immediately.”

I blink back the tweety birds spinning around my vision. Gillian hands me a bottle of water. When I try to open it, it’s as if I’m shredding the tissue of my shoulder open like grating cheese. The blackness threatens to swallow me up when we reach the hospital.

The door to the limo bursts open and Eli is there. Beautiful, huge, with sexy tats and a kissable… Wait. No, an angry scowl on his handsome face.

“Do you ever take orders? I told you not to get into any trouble and to have fun with your friends, Spicy, not get knifed in the back and almost kidnapped in broad daylight.”

“Knifed?”

“Yeah, babe. Porter says the guy with the hoodie and sunglasses behind you ladies was holding a knife. He thinks he got him in the arm, but he couldn’t run after him and leave you and Gillian. What were you thinking leaving that building alone? I could spank the living shit out of you. But first we need to get you stitched up… Then all bets are off.” He holds the towel to my wound and picks me up in a cradle hold from the limo at the receiving dock of the hospital.

I hear a screech of tires and glance over my shoulder. I hold on to Eli, and he shelters me with his bulk. Chase bails from his gunmetal-gray Aston Martin, the door left open and the car still running. “Gillian!” he roars, storming to the limo.

She jumps out of the car, her arms up in the air. “Chase, baby, I’m fine.”

His eyes do what looks like an assessment of her entire body. His gaze locks on her bloody knees and torn up palms. Then he lifts her up into his arms and kisses her hard. I roll my eyes back to Eli. “Now that’s how you greet your woman. Not threaten to spank her.”

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