Page 108 of Dead Serious with Benefits
“Marcus is looking after him,” she told me, but let me go as I fought to get out of her arms. “Go on, I have the ties. I’ll keep this one trussed up better than one of our turkeys at Thanksgiving.”
I ran around the corner and stopped as I saw Marcus bent over Ward, covering him with his body. I was faintly aware of the red and blue lights flashing in the hallway behind me, but I didn’t care as I stepped forward. Amelia was kneeling on the floor at Ward’s feet, her eyes filled with tears and her makeup a total mess. Behind her stood Eric, his mouth a thin line as he stood with his hand on her shoulder, looking down at his only child with tears flowing down his face.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
Collapsing beside Marcus, I looked down at Ward and felt the breath leave me again. His shirt was soaked with blood, and his eyes were half open. His chest moved, and his eyes twitched. I allowed myself a momentary breath of relief, but I knew nothing was guaranteed.
“Marcus?” I asked softly.
“He’s...well,” Marcus said in a faint voice. “He’s alive.”
Alive, but nothing more.
“That bad?”
“A thread, I’m afraid.”
“Okay,” I said, leaning over Ward, stroking his face, and taking his hand. “Help is here, Ward. I don’t know how, and I don’t even care. But you need to keep going, okay? Hold on for a bit longer, and then you can let everyone do their jobs, okay?”
His eyes twitched to fall onto me, and I saw him try to open his mouth, so I shook my head. “You keep that strength, don’t be a fool now. You stay with me, you hear me?”
Ward’s breathing was labored, and it wasn’t hard to see why, even with Marcus’ dinner jacket and hands pressed over the wound, I could see where the bullet had entered. To my dismay, my knowledge of anatomy wouldn’t be denied, and I knew his lung had definitely been hit. Without being able to look at him without something in the way, though, I didn’t know how much danger he was really in, or rather, how much danger his heart was in. If his heart had been hit directly, he had only a minute or two, with or without professional help. If he had taken a nick, his chances were higher but not guaranteed. If it hadn’t been hit at all, then his chances of survival were so damn high with what I hoped was medical personnel showing up with the police.
I stared at Amelia, who looked so lost I actually felt a stab of pity for her. Ward was her only child, and despite their differences, there wassomelove for him in her heart. At the same time, what had she known of violence and danger? There had been no way for her to control the situation, and now she was watching her child suffer through every breath, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to help. Both Mother and governor were at a total loss.
“Amelia,” I said softly, pulling her attention to me. “Why don’t you go get the EMTs? If anyone here has a recognizable face and can get them in here quickly, it’s you.”
Her eyes looked around in a daze before she pulled her hands away from Ward’s legs, and I watched her take a deep breath. The genuine despair and hopelessness in her face disappeared, and I saw the mask of the woman she was slide back into place as her mouth set firmly, her eyes narrowing. Her hand adjusted her hair as she got to her feet and marched toward the hallway. She wasn’t wearing her heels; they had apparently been lost during the debacle, and I was amused to find she walked with the same heavy, determined step she always did. Clearly, her attitude existed with or without the power the heels gave her strides.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked as I stared down at Ward, holding his hand.
“Your mother busied me with Ward and was going to try to help the people locked in the back, which is where she probably is at the moment,” Marcus explained. “She was obviously distracted by whatever happened in the hallway.”
I let out a shaky laugh. “She was saving my life, that’s what she was doing.”
“That explains what I heard,” he said with a snort. “Sounds like her.”
“No!” I heard Amelia’s sharp voice crack like a whip, and I winced at the amount of ‘you’re an incompetent moron who shouldn’t be allowed to eat unsupervised, let alone do the job you’re supposed to be doing’ in her voice. “Downthathallway, as I said the first time. My son is bleeding out on the floor, and you can’t tell your right from your left?”
“It’s hard to argue with her,” Marcus said with a little laugh.
“They’re coming,” I told Ward, looking down and flinching when I saw how pale he had grown. The only thing I could hold onto to keep me sane was the sparkle in his eyes as he looked up at me and how he gripped my hand. It was just a flex of his fingers, but it was more strength than he would have been able to summon if he was too weak. That, or it was the last surge of strength people got when they were right on the brink of death.
God, I hated how much my brain knew about death and dying.
Pushing that thought away, I got out of the way quickly as the EMTs rushed in. Their focus was on Ward, but I could see the way they exchanged a glance as Amelia’s ranting continued in the background, now apparently unhappy with how slow the police were to get their hands on Devon. I couldn’t help but agree with her. The professionals were here, and I desperately wanted them to take over. Trying to deal with everything wasexhausting, and I wanted someone with more knowledge and control to take over. If that meant letting Amelia take her anger and helplessness out on people who didn’t deserve it, that was a price I would accept.
The EMTs descended on Ward in a heartbeat, talking into their radios and beginning to work on him. I barely paid attention to what they were doing as I dropped into the seat I’d been sitting in before losing my mind. All that mattered was that they got him out of here as soon as possible. I couldn’t even think where the nearest hospital was, but I knew it had to be a decent drive away. Every minute counted when someone was shot in such a vital place, and that clock was steadily ticking. People died all the time on the way to the hospital, but the possibility of surviving existed.
The room became a mess of people as they brought in a stretcher while they continued to work on Ward to keep him stable enough for the drive. I was with them instantly, on my feet before I realized what I was doing, and trying to follow them out. I jerked in surprise, my fist coming up when someone caught my wrist and barked. I turned to find a cop staring at me with a furious look.
“Let me go,” I said as they took Ward out the double front doors and down the stairs; he was almost out of sight. “I have to go with him.”
“We need a statement,” he said, his brow stitched together as if he were considering whether or not he should treat me as the victim or the perpetrator.
“And you can get one from me later,” I said with a sigh, and then realized there was no way I could talk my way out of this. I was the one who had been in the thick of everything from start to finish. Sure, others could account for my story as well, but they were going to want to talk to me. I was the one who had gotten the jump on the three men before they could do more damage.The police would inevitably focus on me after they focused on Devon. “Please.”
“I’m sorry, but we need to speak to you,” he said without sounding sorry in the slightest.
