Page 39 of Engaging with Her Enemy

He leaned down but didn't lower his voice much as he kissed the side of her neck, careful to keep his bloody shirt from touching her. “See if you get to keep those handcuffs.”

Her lips parted.

Dewey's hand wrapped around her arm, hauling her away with a gentle pull.

“But...”

Dewey led her out of the office, keeping his body between her and Barry's. Hudson appreciated that.

“You can bail her out after you get seen about.” Cameron walked ahead of Hudson and out the door just as Dewey pulled away.

The horizon shifted.

Hudson stopped. Blinked. The trees swirled. That wasn’t good. Maybe it was coming down off the adrenaline rush. The pulsing through his body had finally subsided.

Cameron paused with him. “You alright? God, Hudson, you look white as a sheet.”

He looked down at his shirt, soaked with Barry's blood. His feet look far away for some reason. He tried to wiggle his fingers. Completely numb now. Without hiding the grimace, he held up his hand. The same steady stream of blood as before dripped off his elbow and onto the dirt.

“Damn it, Hudson.” Cameron wrapped his hand around Hudson’s wound, applying pressure to his shoulder despite Hudson’s curse of pain. Cameron gripped his good elbow to guide him along. “You've been bleeding like a stuck pig this whole damn time. Why didn't you say something?”

A fuzzy feeling buzzed in his head. “I figured it would stop.” The buzzing intensified, and Cameron’s words seemed like they came from a distance.

“Now, you're a doctor?”

He shook his head, but the fuzzy feeling didn't disappear. His vision darkened around the edge, and his skin felt cold. He knew what that meant.

“Where do you want me to pass out, Cam?”

“The hell if it will be right here.” Cameron guided him across to a gurney set out beside the ambulance. He stumbled once. Cameron held him tighter. The pain from the pressure of Cameron’s hand on his shoulder had dulled.

A paramedic started to wave him away. “This is for the unconscious man.”

“You're about to have two of them. Do you want to haul his ass off the ground?” Cameron pushed Hudson to sit as the paramedic helped pull him on the gurney. “Becky is going to kill us both.” The paramedic took over, pressing both her hands onto his wound and passed a towel to Cameron.

Blood covered Cameron’s hands.

Hudson tried to agree with him about Becky killing them both, but the words wouldn't form. A rush of people around him was the last thing he saw before he gave up and let his eyes close.

* * *

“I hate that sound.”Becky paced the waiting area of the hospital, a cold cup of coffee in her hand. “All the beeps and the low murmur of voices. How can people stand hearing it all day?” She took a sip, not tasting the liquid. It gave her something to do. Earlier, she'd hurled the first cup of coffee at Dewey the moment he’d stepped into the waiting area.

That one hadn't been quite as cold judging by his expletives.

Eliza had given her a second one after exacting a promise that she'd refrain from throwing it again.

Apparently, Eliza didn’t trust Becky’s word because she cautiously took the cup from Becky's hand as Cameron walked in. Good thing since she'd been saving that one for him. Her eyes zeroed in on him, along with all her anger and fear. “Cameron Dempsey—”

He held up his hands. “Don't even start on me. I've already had it from my mom, Addie, and Eliza.”

Becky cut her eyes at Eliza. Eliza smiled innocently. “I called him as many names as I could think of when I came to get you from the jail. A few, I’m sure you’d approve of.”

Cameron stepped a little closer. “I'm sorry, Becky. Really. We had no idea he'd been bleeding that entire time. You saw Barry. The blood on Hudson shirt was from Barry.” He grimaced and added, “the puddle of blood behind the desk Hudson sat on while we talked was not Barry's. When I notice how much he’d bled, Hudson calmly said that he thought it'd stopped.”

Becky shook her head and continued to pace. “They won't let me back there. Said since I'm not a relative, I have to wait until regular visiting hours, and they won’t give me an update on his surgery.” She slapped her hand on the wall that joined with the nurse's station two hard times and shouted, “Dumbass rules!”

“You're going to get kicked out.” Eliza slipped her arm around Becky's waist. “Again.”

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