Page 71 of Jack of Hearts
“Hell no.” Ramon held Madison in front of him, his finger on the trigger of the gun. “Unless you want to see her dead, you’ll get out of my house.”
“You pull that trigger, man, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
Ramon turned the gun on Alex, and the minute he did, Madison kicked his shin just the way he’d taught her, and then fell to the floor.
That’s it, Grasshopper,Alex thought right before Ramon pulled the trigger, the sonofabitch shooting him above the edge of his Kevlar vest. A weapon fired next to his ear, and a second later, blood colored Ramon’s chest red.
“Good shot, bro,” Alex muttered before crumbling to the floor.
“Alex!”
That was Madison’s voice, and she sounded worried. Did that mean she forgave him? When he felt her hands touch his face, he tried to reach for her, but he couldn’t see her. Had someone turned out the lights?
“Alex,” Madison pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she crawled to him. She pulled off his ski mask, searching his face for any sign of life. She’d known those eyes almost from the minute he’d walked into the room, dressed in black with the FBI letters on his vest. All she could think while standing there with a gun stuck to her head was that Alex had used her to get close to Ramon.
Never had she felt so betrayed. As she watched him try to talk Ramon into surrendering, she’d looked for any warmth for her in his eyes, and all she’d seen was cold determination to get his job done. And as she’d waited to learn how it would feel to have a bullet blast through her brain, her heart—already broken in half—had shattered into a thousand pieces.
And now, he was dying. “Don’t die, Alex. Please don’t die.” She took his hand and brought it to her face.
“Hold this over the wound.”
A piece of cloth torn from someone’s shirt was thrust at her. She grabbed the material and pressed it to Alex’s chest where blood gushed out. There were other people in the room now, she could hear them talking, their voices terse. A man dropped to his knees on the other side of Alex, and he tore off his face mask.
He put his hands over hers, pressing her palms harder against Alex’s shirt. She peered up into the tear-filled eyes of his older brother, Nate. “Please don’t let him die.”
“Never,” Nate said, sounding as if he meant it with everything he was.
Another man joined them, and she recognized Alex’s brother Court.
“Dammit, Alex,” he said, his voice cracking. “You fucking die, I’ll kill you myself.”
The pain radiating from him turned what was left of her heart to ashes. Alex wasn’t going to make it. Did she even belong here with them at such a tragic time? Should she leave him to his brothers? Even if she should, she couldn’t make herself step away from his side. The two brothers shared a look, and despair flooded their eyes. She understood. Her heart was breaking, too.
“I’ve got him,” a man said, pushing his hands under hers. Startled, she fell onto her butt and was pushed out of the way by a trio of EMTs. Alex’s brothers surrounded the EMTs, who were doing CPR. Unable to watch, she ran out the door, hitting the hard body of a man she’d never seen before.
“Whoa. Easy, Madison.” He circled his arm around her waist, pulling her with him toward the front door. “I’m Rand.” He handed her a wet washcloth he’d gotten from who knew where, and she stared at her hands as she tried to scrub Alex’s blood away.
A woman fell into step at her other side. She recognized her as Alex’s date from the night he’d met her and Ramon at the Flamingo Bar. What was she doing here? Madison glanced at the gorgeous woman, who had tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Do you love him?” she asked, thinking she should just shut up, but she had to know.
The woman leaned her head down, resting her chin on Madison’s hair. “As a brother agent, yes, I do. As a lover, we’ve never gone there and never would have. He’s yours, Madison. Don’t think otherwise.”
Did everyone know about her and Alex? “Doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” she said, wishing she could stop crying. She had seen him take his last breath, had seen his body go slack, had even seen one paramedic glance at the other two, giving a shake of his head.
As soon as she walked outside with a wall of those who loved Alex surrounding her, she broke away and ran to the end of the house, losing everything left in her stomach. Too much blood had poured out of his chest for him to survive.
She hated him for using her to get close to her cousin, and she loved him with every fiber of her being. The front door of her uncle’s house flew open, and two EMTs rushed by with a gurney while the third one straddled Alex, pushing on his chest.
“He’s dead,” she whispered as her knees gave out. Someone picked her up and carried her away, but she was too lost in her heartbreak to know who, much less care.
“I’m not leaving,” Madison said, refusing to be daunted by the room full of what she assumed were Alex’s fellow FBI agents, some sprawled over chairs in the hospital waiting room, others holding up the walls.
“Only family can see him,” the woman she remembered as Taylor said, kindness in her eyes.
“Then I’ll just sit over here.” Madison moved to a far corner, away from the curious stares of some of the most intimidating people she’d ever seen. Nate had been the one to call and tell her that Alex was hanging on to life by a thread, and he would always have her gratitude for thinking of her during what had to be one of the hardest times in his life. She clasped her hands together, bowed her head, and prayed for God to save Alex’s life.
“Madison.”
