Page 43 of Justice for the SEAL
He lifted her shirt and saw two wounds, one on the edge of her breast, the other just below her rib cage. The lower was bleeding far more than the upper and he folded her shirt, using it and his hands to put pressureonit.
“You’re going to be okay.” He stared at a drop of blood as it rolled down her breast and around to the side of the other, seeming to mix into the tattoo of the ocean wave where it touched the shore. She’d been through so much already. It didn’t seem fair she should be dying right in front ofhiseyes.
“Please let her be okay,” hebegged.
The ambulance came racing across the property, headlights shining and emergency lights flashing. Logan showed the EMTs her wounds and stepped back so they could care for her, strapping her onto a gurney, loading her into the back, and taking her away—leaving him and Cowboy standing in the dark outside Anthony Royce’s burned down lake house, in an orchard full of rottingpeaches.
Crickets chirped in thedistance.
“You know what this means?” askedCowboy.
“What?”
“Thisisn’tover.”
“What doyoumean?”
“You killed Cole, Noah got one from his sniper’s nest, and I got one when the van exploded. That’s threetangosdown.”
“But someone shotGemma.”
“That’s right. Someone shot Gemma, and this ain’toveryet.”
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Logan refused to be admitted,spending the night in a corner of the Intensive Care Unit, half sleeping in a chair next to Gemma’s still form. He awoke every time a nurse or doctor came to check on her, and each time they gave him a sad littlesmile.
She’s going tomakeit.
He knew shewould.
Jax had almost died from smoke inhalation. When they pulled him from the building, there was soot in his mouth and he was coughing upblood.
Hell, at least he wascoughing.
A few more minutes inside and he wouldn’t have beendoingthat.
Logan didn’t envy Cowboy making that call to Jessa, and he wondered if this would be the straw that ended Jax’s time with HERO Forcecompletely.
Jax had stayed two nights in the hospital and gone home. Gemma wasstillhere.
One bullet had punctured her lung, another her diaphragm. She’d had emergency surgery and a ventilator was helping her breathe. But Logan’s biggest worry was her level ofconsciousness.
He just wanted her towakeup.
She’d sustained a head injury in addition to the gunshots—though no one knew from what—and her brain wasswollen.
She was so damn still, the beeping of the machines and the whoosh of the ventilator the only noises coming from her bedside. He crossed to her and brushed the hair from herforehead.
He never should have let her come to the orchard. She would have been safe back at headquarters, but he’d allowed himself to be swayed by her lobbying, telling himself she’dbeokay.
It was foolish, and it had nearly gotten herkilled.
“You’re going to go out with me after this. I don’t care if I have to drag you out in public with me. You’regoing.”
Iloveyou.
There it was again, the emotion he had no right to be feeling. He’d only known her a few days, but he suspected he would feel that way about her for the rest of his life—even if she chose not to beinit.
