Page 100 of Guarding the Singer

William turned his head toward Badger's voice, but Selene couldn't take her gaze away from him. Looking at his face and his chest, anywhere she could see.

He looked whole.

She put her hands on his chest and arms.

He felt whole.

Then she sat up, almost knocking him to the side. "Cooper! He's sick."

A voice called out from William's pocket. "Emergency Crews are just turning down the street."

William got up and offered her a hand.

She took it gratefully and started to get up, but her ankle took her down.

William started to reach for her and she waved him off. "Check Cooper, please. He's... he's sick."

Selene sat there on the floor, watching the room before her.

Badger had Mandy on her knees, holding tight to her hands that he'd trapped behind her back.

The gun that she'd aimed at them was on the hardwood floor.

Selene could see Mandy's manic gaze flicked back and forth between the gun and herself.

She didn't look to see where the bullet had landed. She didn't want to know how close she'd come to losing her future.

William was standing over Cooper, assessing him in a way that said he knew what he was doing.

Something Selene didn't have the skills to do.

It was horrifying. All the things that could have gone wrong. All the things that could have happened.

She was shaking with fear, or was it relief?

Then she decided that it didn't matter. She was alive.

There would be other days.

There would be a life ahead of her.

The police came in first and sorted through the scene.

They moved the gun out of the way and let the EMTs in to take a look at Cooper.

They weren't quite sure what to make of William and Badger, but Cooper's pull had some sway, as did his relationship with the Police Commissioner.

By the time Cooper was loaded onto the gurney, he was calling here over to talk.

William let her lean heavily on his arm. She had already agreed to let him take her to the nearest ER instead of waiting for an ambulance. She didn't want to wait around and William understood. What she'd been through in that house?

He wouldn't want to stick around either.

She wanted to get out of there and he was all for that option.

William stood beside her with her producer laid out on the gurney. He could keep an eye on them both, and he was close enough to hear their words, but he wasn't trying to crowd in on them.

Cooper peeled off his mask even as one of the EMTs argued with him to leave it on.

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