Page 335 of Secret Shifters Next Door

I had a flashback of Liam lying on my floor, his face slowly going slack as his life bled away. Blayne looked exactly like his brother had all those years ago.

As the gurney vanished around the corner, what little strength I had left vanished. All that was left was sorrow and an agony so deep I didn’t know if I could ever come back from it. The two men I loved more than anything in the world were dying.

I slid to the ground, slipping from Tate’s grip. I bit into the skin on my hand as tears streamed down my cheeks. Then Iscreamed. A long wailing screech that sounded like I’d already lost both of them.

Five days.The hardest five days of my entire life. Dad and Blayne had been fighting for their lives for almost a week.

I was sitting beside Dad’s bed, holding his hand while he slept. He’d finally been released from critical care the day before and I’d been allowed to visit him. I was sitting there, crying. I didn’t know how I had any tears left. It seemed like that was all I’d done for the last week.

As bad as Dad had been injured, Blayne’s injuries were more severe. His heart had stopped four times. The knife had punctured his intestines and clipped his liver. The bullet had hit a major artery in his chest. He’d lost seven pints of blood. The doctors seemed almost confused, not understanding how he had survived. Tate and Steff had told me it was probably due to his being a shifter. They didn’t heal like superheroes in comics, but they did heal faster than humans and were much harder to kill.

Still, it was touch and go. They couldn’t give us an estimate on when or evenifhe would wake up. He was in the ICU, intubated and in a medically induced coma so his body could recover.

Miles had already been discharged. His leg wound hadn’t been serious. The shoulder injury had been superficial, but he did have a concussion. He’d been knocked out when he’d fallen from the gunshots. He would be fine.

I was happy, but also a little bitter. Why couldn’t Blayne be fine, too? Why did this have to happen?

The sound of my father's heart monitor sped up. I looked over at his face and saw he was awake—awake for the first time since he’d been admitted. He looked tired, but also sad.

I stood and faced him. I wanted to hide my sadness, but he was my father. Who else could I be honest with?

“Baby girl? Are you okay?” he whispered, his voice still weak.

I lost it. Tears and sobs burst out of me, and I leaned down to rest my head on his shoulder. I told him how scared I was that he was going to die.

He ran a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Taking his hand in mine, I kissed his knuckles. “You came back. That’s all that matters. You came back to me. You didn’t leave me by myself.”

“How long?” he croaked.

Gripping his hand tighter, I said, “Five days.”

“Jesus.” He shook his head slightly.

A few minutes later, the doctor came in to check his vitals. I moved to the side. After consulting the chart, the doctor nodded. “Mr. Francis, it looks like you are a very lucky man. As long as everything looks good and continues on this path, I think we can discharge you in a couple of days.”

“Sounds great, Doc,” Dad rasped.

Once he was gone, Dad’s eyes slid over to me. “Cops?”

I sighed. “They’ve come a few times. They wanted to know what happened. Lilly Valley doesn’t typically have three gunshot victims come in one day. Your brothers did a good job spinning a tall tale. Some of them don’t believe a word of it, but your friends in the department got the gist. I think we’ll all be fine.”

He nodded. “And you said it was immoral to pay off cops.”

“Just because it works doesn’t mean it’s not immoral.”

He shrugged. “Say what you want. But it’s much more fun out of jail than in jail.” His face went serious. “What’s been going on while I was playing Sleeping Beauty?”

Sam walked in at that moment. I didn’t think I had the strength to talk about Blayne. I nodded toward my uncle. “Sam can tell you.”

Sam’s eyes brightened when he saw Dad was awake. “You old asshole. You’re too tough to die.”

“Enough flattery. How are things looking?”

“Cops are taken care of for the most part,” Sam said. “There’s a few questions still, but I think we’re in the clear. We were able to clean up the house and the lily field. Lots of bodies. We dumped the hunters up in the woods behind the house. I rented a backhoe and dug a big pit. Tossed their asses in there. Our own guys? Well…we had to hide their bodies. We’re gonna pay off their families. All we can tell them is that they died at work. We’re gonna take care of them. Pay off a few houses, college funds, stuff like that.”

“Tell me about the boy,” Dad said gruffly.

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