Page 60 of All of Me

This was the connection Gray had meant.Tying up loose ends.

“Let me see if I have this correct,” Garcia said and I wondered if my dad could hear the lethal thread running through the purr in Garcia’s voice. “You got a girl pregnant. She in turn works hard to support herself,una enfermera.But instead of stepping up like a man with honor you deprive una niña of her mama because of a few dollars?”

The gun shot was only loud because of the accompanying shriek from Ryan. But I didn’t have even a few seconds to absorb my dad was dead before I heard Garcia chuckle. “Sí,” he said quietly. “Well, as satisfying as this has been, I’m afraid I am a busy man, and so—”

“Albert!” Drake yelled and before I’d registered that I knew they were going to shoot him, I moved and felt an odd breeze move through me a second before the sound registered. I had guns yanked out of hands before they were even aware of me taking them, and then I stilled. Before I got the chance to turn, I registered the sound of a familiar grunt and the noise of a body as it fell. The outside door burst open, and Gray, Jay, and Alec were there, wrestling the men to the ground.

But all I saw was the body on the floor, a rapidly widening crimson stain spreading over his chest, and I fell to my knees. Pain like nothing in my life ripped through me, but not because of my heart, because I knew I’d been darting so fast I’d moved faster than the bullet aimed for Albert. The one that had passed through me and hit Drake.

Diesel charged in and practically pushed me out of the way, snapping out orders, ripping open Drake’s shirt and pressing his palms over Drake’s chest.

But I knew he was dying. He wasdying.

“Where’s Danny?” Diesel boomed, as Danny rushed into the room and started tearing apart a bag he carried with huge gauze pads falling out. “He needs an ambulance,” Diesel shouted.

“He won’t fucking make it,” Danny snarled back, and something in me snapped. The speed was nothing, but I had no idea how I managed to lift Drake. Barely a few seconds later, I came to a stop in the ER and yelled my head off until we were both swarmed by white coats and then Drake was taken away.

I just stood, dazed, in the middle of what seemed like a bubble of agony away from the sound of running steps and shouted orders. People were backing away like I was poison, and I looked down, saw the blood covering my tee, my hands, mysoul.

All that blood. I’d thought I was clever and hadn’t waited for Diesel. I’d told Diesel only I could do this, even though he warned me.

I thought that my ability was mending my heart.

But in mending my own heart, I had broken his.

Chapter Twenty-One

Shae

“Sir?”

I came back to myself in a rush of noise and awareness that hurt so damn much.

“Sir?”

I focused on the woman standing in front of me. “I said, is any of that blood yours?” She took my arm and led me gently through a set of double doors. I didn’t need to know what I was looking at. There must have been about fifteen people surrounding the gurney I knew held Drake. “Is he going to be okay?” I whispered, knowing he wasn’t.

“They’re going to do their best.”

“It was my fault.” She stiffened. “The bullet,” I croaked out.

“Your fault?” she repeated. But I couldn’t seem to get words past my lips, and before I knew it, three security guards, all with drawn weapons, were pointing them at my head.

“Hands in the air,” one of them barked out, and I realized the nurse had gone. When had that happened? I could go if Iwanted, move before they could even react, but that was what had gotten Drake hurt, so I simply raised my arms.

They weren’t gentle, but I barely noticed. All I could hear was a sudden shout of“Code Blue. Code Blue,”and more running feet. I knew it was Drake, and I closed my eyes as the cops arrived and welcomed every yank of the handcuffs as they shoved me in the back of a squad car.

“Well, well.” I opened my eyes sometime later, probably hours later, because the voice caught my attention, and I raised my head so I could see a man in jeans and a shirt standing beyond the bars to my cell. I didn’t get up from sitting in the corner, chin on my knees, wrists and ankles chained and the chain shackled to the floor. The chain was long enough to reach the toilet in the corner, and that was it.

I knew who David Starr was and briefly wondered why he was here. Two fucked up dads in one day? Must be a record. The bastard hated his son, but surely he’d be at the hospital trying to throw his weight around? He must still be Drake’s next of kin.

Unless it was too late.

Of course it was.I rubbed my chest, and knew at that moment if it stopped all the pain I’d have gotten on that treadmill until I dropped dead.

“Heard you’re the fucker responsible for hurting my boy?” he snarled. I didn’t deny it because it was true. I was responsible. Even if it wasn’t me who pulled the trigger.

“Sarge?” I glanced over at another cop. He looked young, probably about the same age as me.

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