Page 151 of Commander in Briefs

“Dammit, Theo! You fucking moron! If you don’t open your fucking eyes right now I swear I will tell Cade you bought your own rookie card off eBay for an obscene amount of money.”

Apparently, the reason my gunshot wound didn’t hurt was because my dumb ass wasn’t shot. The impact was from Theo knocking me out of the way, taking the bullet for me.

With bated breath, I watch his eyes flutter, then hear, “That’s a low blow, Ans.” He moans, cracking one eye open and tries to roll over to his side. I breathe out a sigh of relief and help him up to his feet.

He stands on wobbly legs, and Lawson and I quickly support his weight with our shoulders and pull him from the chaos of the barn. Killer’s barking is wild as Cade tries to secure the scene behind us.

“Are you hurt?” I ask.

What the hell, Anniston? Of course, he’s hurt. He was shot for goodness’ sake.

He shakes his head. “The vest caught it. Just sore.”

“Okay. But I am taking a look at you when we get to the house.”

He mumbles a quiet, “Okay.”

Tim opens the door to the barn for us to make our way outside. Theo is stumbling but hopefully it’s the adrenaline wearing off and nothing dire.

“Come on, Teddy. Almost there,” I encourage.

His weight becomes too much as he starts to pitch forward. Lawson moves in front of him but Theo collapses to the ground before either of us can catch him.

I drop to my knees and bark at Lawson to help me roll him over. His eyes are distant, his face pale. What the—he has to be injured somewhere.

“Theo! Theo! Look at me, dammit! Do not fall asleep.”

He mumbles and tries to focus his eyes. They roll back in his head, his breathing becoming more and more shallow.

“Can’t… breathe… Ans.”

He attempts to roll over, but I push him back down and look at Lawson. “Go to my office, get everything you can get your hands on. Take all the guys.”

Lawson regards me for a minute, unsure if he should leave us.

“Go!” I yell.

This time, he sprints off without a backward glance.

I snatch the Kevlar vest off and find… blood. Buckets of it. Oh shit. My heart sinks as I realize the bullet missed the vest, hitting Theo in the upper ribs where the Velcro should be secured. It’s not. The vest wasn’t on properly. Dammit!

“Why didn’t you have the vest secured properly?” I’m yelling, asking stupid questions that aren’t really relevant to the situation, when he admits softly, “Tim knew I wouldn’t stay in the house, he left it on the bed for me.”

I want to rage that Tim should have put it on him instead of leaving it on the bed. Theo has no idea how to put on a Kevlar vest properly! But I don’t because Tim was right in his assumption: Theo never does as he’s told and something was better than nothing.

I pull at the seams of Theo’s shirt; the damn thing is triple stitched, making it hard to tear. After a desperate scream and adrenaline rushing my veins, I make a small rip, giving me a starting point to tear it the rest of the way. “Theo,” I choke. “I need to roll you over and see if the bullet went through.”

I already know it didn’t but there’s no shame in hope. Theo doesn’t respond, his breathing is very shallow, giving me a sense of impending doom.

“Keep breathing,” I encourage him while I roll his shoulder, confirming that the bullet is still lodged in his beautiful chest.

Tears prick my eyes. I will not cry!

Sniffling, I scream at Nicole to go find Cade and call an ambulance.

“I’ll be fine,” Theo whispers painfully.

His patronizing only pisses me off. “You’re damn right, you’ll be fine. Keep breathing!” My voice cracks. “You will not die on me! Do you fucking hear me?” There’s no holding back the fat tears running down my cheeks. “You will not die for me!” I sound like a lunatic screaming out demands.

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