Page 77 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

I grunted and staggered a little, listing to the side.

He reached out to steady me. “Jesus. You’ve been hit?”

“I’ll be right,” I murmured. “Where’s everybody else?”

He looked at me and shook his head. “TJ and Vinnie are gone, man. They refused to surrender. I saw them go down.”

“Mac?” I asked.

He exhaled heavily. “I don’t know. We got separated when that explosion hit.”

I nodded, trying to take a step without falling down. The sound of gun fire had faded now. I hoped that meant it was almost over because I wasn’t sure how long I had until I blacked out. I was losing a shit load of blood and my head was feeling pretty damned light.

A sound from behind us caught my attention and I reacted automatically, turning and raising my gun. It all happened within the blink of an eye. I recognized the agent immediately, but I still had a job to do. Making sure my aim was just past his shoulder, I fired, just as he fired too. Pain lanced through my shoulder and my body was thrust sideways and backwards. I heard another shot fired and I hit the ground.

My head spun. The pain was indescribable. Trying to breathe through it as best I could, I panted and hissed. Somewhere beside me, I heard Davo grunting and swearing like a trooper.

Footsteps rushed closer and I heard my gun being kicked away. I blinked open my eyes and saw a S.W.A.T. guy looming over me, his gun aimed at my chest. Turning my head a little, I saw Davo laying a few feet away, writhing on the concrete with another agent holding him at gunpoint.

Letting my head fall back, I closed my eyes and, for the first time in eighteen months, I relaxed.

Noises faded in and out. I heard the sounds of sirens, of footsteps, voices that tried to get me to answer. One stood out in particular when I heard them say, “I don’t think this one’s going to make it. He’s lost too much blood.”

I felt myself jostled and lifted, and something put over my face that I just wanted to rip off, but I just couldn’t get my arms to cooperate. I heard the sounds of doors closing, engines revving, and machines beeping.

I tried to get myself to focus. Forcing my eyes open, I looked to the side and saw the same S.W.A.T. guy who’d shot me, staring down at me.

“Hey, buddy,” he said darkly. “You gotta stay with me, alright?”

I blinked at him. He looked worried. I wanted to tell him not to feel bad. He was only doing his job. I nodded because it seemed like the only thing I could think of to make him feel better.

Closing my eyes, I let the darkness take me.

Chapter 51

Kaeli

Leaving Noah lying there bleeding, had been the hardest thing I’d ever had to do - and I thought I’d faced some pretty tough things over the last couple of months. It was also one of the scariest things I’d ever had to do.

Even though the gun fire seemed to have stopped, there were still armed S.W.A.T. agents everywhere, ready to take down anything that moved. I’d thrown my hands in the air at the first agent I came across, yelling out, “Don’t shoot me!” as loud as I could.

I’d tried to explain how I’d come to be there in some sort of coherent manner, but it’d all come out in a rush, and I was pretty sure I’d only managed to confuse him. At one stage I even thought he was going to handcuff me.

The only thing that seemed to make sense to him was when I’d said I’d been kidnapped. After that he’d bundled me into the back of a police cruiser,

with an armed guard outside the door, while they finished processing the scene.

Eventually, I was taken to the station where I had to give a statement. They wanted as much detailed information on Aaron as I could give them. I had no idea how, but apparently he’d managed to evade an entire estate crawling with S.W.A.T. agents.

It was also there at the station that I was reunited with Mom, and when I heard her story, I went into shock.

Apparently the bust that I’d somehow managed to get caught in the middle of wasn’t the only one that went down that night. Our house had been one of the many houses that were hit, and Mom had been brought to the station like I had.

She told me in hushed tones that Ken had resisted arrest and they’d shot him. She didn’t know how bad his injuries were, or even if he was alive. No one would tell her. I think we both hoped he was dead.

To top it all off, our house was now a crime scene and we weren’t even allowed to go home. Mom and I had decided together that we would call Lillian, Mia’s mom, hoping she’d be okay with us staying there until we could go home.

Aiden was the one who’d answered the call when I’d rung, and he hadn’t hesitated in saying he’d come to our rescue.

---