Page 64 of Bitter Arrangement

A car engine roars right as I slam into the chain link. I grip and look back over my shoulder.

Alexan’s car rams straight into the guard chasing after me. The man’s body ragdolls over the hood and smashes into the windshield with a sickening crack. Blood splatters as he rolls over the roof and bounces down the back, crunching onto the pavement. His limbs land at impossible angles, and he’s not moving.

I stare in stunned disbelief.

Alexan’s car spins to a sudden stop. Smoke drifts up from the wheels as he kicks open the door and gets out. “Riley!” he yells and comes toward me.

I open my mouth to say something—anything—I don’t know what—but words fail.

Because the other guard, the one with the mace-covered face, is aiming a gun at me from across the parking lot.

He squeezes off three shots. They sound like fireworks. Alexan reacts on instinct and throws himself on top of me, tackling me down to the ground. I feel something wet and warm cover my chest.

“I got you,” he snarls before pulling away. He’s up on his knees, his own gun in his hand, and he squeezes off a shot.

It hits the second guard in the skull. His head snaps backward, blood spraying out behind him.

Everything’s numb. Sickness spreads into my limbs. I want to throw up, but I can’t even bring myself to do that. Something red’s covering the front of me, and when I touch it, my fingers come away sticky.

It’s fresh blood.

“Alexan,” I say, heart hammering. I touch myself, looking for a bullet wound, but there’s no pain.

“You’re okay.” He gets to his feet slowly, hand pressed against his shoulder. Blood wells up from between his fingers.

Oh fuck. I’m not shot.

But he is.

“You’re bleeding.” I get to my feet, the dead guards forgotten.

“I’m okay, baby.” He shoves the gun away and takes my arm. “Come on, I got you. Get in the car.”

“But you’re shot. We need a doctor.”

“No time for that. I know a guy; we just need to get home. Get in, baby.”

I want to argue, but what’s the point? One guard’s lying in the middle of the parking lot, his body twisted and broken. The other’s near the back door, his skull blown to pieces.

Blood’s covering the pavement.

What a fucking mess.

“I got you,” Alexan says again, even though he’s the one that’s shot. He helps me get into the car. “Hold on. We’re going to be okay.”

I don’t know what makes me believe him. Maybe it’s his completely calm demeanor or the fact that he saved me. Whatever it is, right now, I’d do anything he told me to.

Once he’s behind the wheel, he hits the gas, and we speed away.

Chapter24

Riley

Alexan barely reacts as the young doctor stitches him up. There’s blood all over the tile on the bathroom floor, but nobody seems all that concerned.

“Baby,” Alexan says, frowning at me. “Your pacing’s making me nervous.”

I stop walking back and forth. “Oh, sorry mywalkingis getting to you. I guess the fact that this guy pulled a bullet from your shoulder—” I wave a hand at the doctor. “That doesn’t faze you at all.”

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