Page 30 of Fergus

In the back.

Bullets they all knew, but so far no one had said out loud, had been meant for Thea.

If Declan hadn’t wrapped his arms and body about her so tightly half a second before the shots were fired, she would have been the person the bullets hit. Maybe fatally, as she was so much smaller than Declan, and the bullets that had penetrated high up on his back would have hit her in the head.

Even as the two of them fell to the ground, Declan had rolled so that he was the one to hit the pavement hard, and not her.

At first, Thea had believed that the hissing sound Declan made as he landed was because the air had been knocked from his lungs on impact. It was only after Fergus helped her to stand and Declan rolled over onto his side, obviously in pain, that they realized he had been shot in the back.

She had seen people supposedly shot in TV programs, but reality was something else entirely. There was so much blood for one thing, soaking into the back of his blue suit jacket. The strained expression on Declan’s pale and previously stoic face had told her how much pain he was really in.

Thea had been in shock ever since, barely aware of the speedy drive to the hospital with Declan lying in the back of the SUV. Or the long hours since as they waited here for the news that he had survived the surgery.

She had been vaguely aware of meeting two other men during that time. Men who looked a lot like Fergus. He’d introduced one of them as his twin, Magnus, and the other as his cousin, Rufus. The two men had taken it in turns to stay with them for several hours, bringing coffee and food to anyone who wanted it.

Declan’s team had waited with them, waiting for news of their friend and colleague, and refusing to leave until they knew Declan was out of danger. In fact, several other Wynter Security employees had turned up at the hospital too, all wanting news of Declan.

Those employees had now all filed out of the room with Fergus, but several had commented that they would be coming back in the morning.

Fergus had tried talking to Thea several times during the past six hours, as had the police when they arrived to take their statements on the incident. But she was feeling too numb to respond to any of them.

That numbness was starting to fade now that she knew Declan was going to live. Exhaustion from the overload of adrenaline and emotion was quickly taking its place.

Random drive-by shootings, which the police seemed to be classing this incident as, and Fergus hadn’t contradicted them, didn’t occur in the UK. Well…they happened more nowadays than they used to, as did knife attacks, but still…

Declan had been shot.Twice.

No matter how many times Thea said that to herself, she still couldn’t quite believe it. Bullets she had no doubt had been meant for her. The shooter had been waiting outsideherapartment building, after all.

“Ready to go?” Fergus prompted gently, having come back into the waiting room without Thea realizing.

He looked as tired as she felt after spending all these long hours at the hospital. There were dark shadows under his eyes, his face was pale, and his hair looked as if he had been running his fingers through it for hours. Which Thea knew he had.

“Is Declan going to…to be okay?” Tears blurred her vision at the possibility he might not be.

“Yes,” Fergus assured.

“But—”

“I’ve instructed some of our men to remain here overnight as a precaution.”

Except—there was that elephant in the room again—they all knew those two bullets hadn’t been meant for Declan.

Who hated her so much that they had been willing to shoot her in broad daylight?

Thea had absolutely no idea. None.

She stood up and immediately dismissed how stiff and aching she felt after sitting on the hard chair for hours. Declan had been shot protecting her, so a little discomfort on her part was totally irrelevant.

“How was he?” she questioned as Fergus helped her on with her jacket.

“A bit groggy, but otherwise glad to have the bullets removed.”

“Was there a reason he needed to see you so urgently?” she prompted as he held the door open for her to go out into the hospital corridor.

Fergus nodded. “He wanted to give me a description of the shooter as well as the distinctive tattoos he saw on the other man’s neck.”

Her eyes widened. “He had time to notice something like that?”

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