Page 63 of Beautiful Vengeance
“Guess you don’t know Sloan as well as you think.”He rushed the other man.The gun went off and fire exploded in his side, but he didn’t stop.Jude kicked Teague’s knee out, then slammed a fist into his face.He didn’t go down, but he was stunned long enough for Jude to run through the door and into the trees.Each step hurt like a bitch, but he didn’t stop, didn’t slow down, didn’t do anything but keep one hand on his side to keep the blood blossoming there from hitting the ground.
The pain didn’t matter.The fucking wound didn’t matter, either.
All that mattered was getting back to Sloan.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sloan nearly screamed when Jude rushed out of the trees, covered in blood and panting.“Oh my God!”
“I didn’t…kill…anyone.”He stumbled a little, but shook his head when she rushed to his side.“Boat.We have to…go.”
“Sit down right this instant.”She bit her lip and went to the boat.“I can get it into the water.”Probably.She didn’t wait for his response, digging her bare feet into the rocks and pushing with all her might.The boat moved a few inches, not nearly as heavy as she’d expected.She’d gotten it another few inches closer to the water when Jude appeared next to her.“Sit down.”
“Don’t have time.”He shoved the boat, sending it halfway into the water.“Get in.”
There was no time to argue, not with the steady stream of blood trailing down his side.He’s been shot.Her stomach lurched, but she muscled the reaction down.Her having a meltdown wouldn’t do anything but add to their trouble.He wouldn’t let her help him until they were away, so she needed to ensure they got somewhere safe where she could patch him up as best she could.
Sloan climbed into the boat, her heart in her throat as he pushed them the rest of the way into the water and rolled over the side to lie in the bottom.“Pull the cord on the engine.Takes a few tries.”
She braced herself and yanked, and then again.On the third try, it caught, roaring to life.Sloan tested the handle, quickly discovering the basics of driving.“Where are we going?”
“Sloan!”
She twisted to see Teague standing on the shore, several of his men behind him.She recognized that man who always guarded Callie, Micah, nursing what looked like a broken nose, but the rest of the men were only vaguely familiar.Gauging the distance between the boat and where her brother stood, she gave it a little more gas so he’d have to swim if he came after her.“Go home, Teague.”
He shook his head slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.“You know I can’t do that.”
She didn’t throw a fit.Didn’t scream.Didn’t do any of the things she could feel rising in her chest like a trapped bird.Sloan looked at Jude, lying there so pale and with a hole in him that had come as a direct result of her brother not listening to her.He’d never truly listened, not even when he got her out.
Because I wasn’t really out.He still had a string attached to me that he could reel in whenever he felt like it.
Betrayal lay hot and thick in the back of her throat.“Then I guess you’re no better than our father.”She turned and powered the boat out of the inlet, doing her best to ignore the burning of her eyes.
Crying wouldn’t solve anything.
It never had.
“I don’t know where I’m going.”
“Sunshine…” Jude hissed out a breath.“North.Keep to the coastline.”
She obeyed and then looked down at him.“What do you need from me?I don’t suppose you have some sort of first-aid kit in that bag of yours?”
“Yeah.”He huffed out a laugh.Jude levered himself up until he leaned against the front of the boat.“It was a through-and-through.I’ll live if I don’t bleed out.”
She wasn’t a doctor, but he looked like he’d lost a significant amount of blood.“Do you have someone we can call?”
“Not on the island.”He moved like a man three times his age, carefully pulling out a little white box with the familiar red cross on it.“Second inlet you see is…” He gritted his teeth as he pressed a gauze pad to his side.“Where we’re headed.”
“I can stop and help.”
“No.”
Arguing would waste time and energy, and he was right.They hadn’t gone that far yet, and if Teague was truly determined to find her and bring her…wherever he intended…then they couldn’t afford to be caught.Not when Jude was clearly injured.But not helpless.I’d never make the mistake of assuming he is helpless.
She watched with a critical eye as he seemed to slow down the bleeding.He was pale beneath his summer tan, but he didn’t seem in danger of passing out like he had been when he first appeared at the boat.
Her attention turned to the bag at his feet.There was something in there—something worth potentially dying for.Curiosity bit her, hard and quick, but it wasn’t her business.Not really.She’d already pressed him hard in the last few days.If she kept it up, it was possible he’d snap back, out of sheer instinct.
