Page 93 of Marked for Obsession

Jax!

Poppy ran to him, nearly tripping over the first man she’d shot in the process. Dropping to her knees, she sat the gun on the floor beside her and immediately began checking his carotid for a pulse.

Tears did fall then, the relief from the steady beat beneath her fingertips damn near overwhelming. Spotting the small entry wound at the back of his left shoulder, she immediately began to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.

Jax groaned, the muscles beneath her hands tensing with his movements. “Popp…y.”

“Shh…” She crooned, doing her best to keep him where he was. “Don’t move. You’ve been shot.”

“Yeah. I know.” Jax ignored her directive and rolled himself over.

Her gut tightened when she saw where the bullet had left his body. An inch lower and it would have pierced his heart.

“Stop moving,” Poppy ordered in her most authoritative voice. “We need to call an ambulance.”

“I’m fine.” He tried to sit up. “It’s a through and through. Just need a couple stitches and I’ll be good to go.”

“Well I don’t have the supplies to do that here, so you’re just going to have to suck it up and let me get you to a hospital.”

With a playful scowl, he stared up at her with a set of eyes she wanted to lose herself in forever. “When did you get to be so bossy?”

“I don’t know.” She smiled back at him. “Maybe when I saw the man I love get shot and nearly die.”

It wasn’t the most romantic of ways to declare her love for him, but after what had just happened, Poppy didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was letting him know exactly how she felt.

And if he didn’t feel the same, that was okay. At least now, he knew.

Jax blinked, his brows arching high with surprise. He opened his mouth to respond but closed it again before even the slightest of sounds escaped.

Looking like a fish out of water, Poppy nearly laughed as she did her best to ease his discomfort.

“It’s okay, Jax. You don’t have to say anything. I know it’s stupid fast, and there’s been so much craziness surrounding us. But I think that’s why I wanted you to know now, rather than waiting.” She cupped his cheek, his whiskers tickling the palm of her hand. “We almost died just now. And I didn’t want another second to go by without you knowing there was someone else in the world who loved you.”

“Ah, Kitten.” Jax wrapped his thick fingers around her tiny wrist. “Baby, I—”

His eyes grew wide as saucers, their focus lasering in on something behind her. She saw the alarm on his face and felt the fear erupting from his pores. But she didn’t understand why.

Turning her head, terror stole Poppy’s breath when she saw the man she’d shot—the first man who’d kicked down the bathroom door—standing tall.

He was staring down at her with a menacing snarl, his gun pointed directly at her.

Still balanced on her knees, Poppy reached for the weapon beside her as Jax pushed himself over to where his had fallen. Grabbing the pistol in her fist, she swung her arm around, more than ready to shoot the son of a bitch again.

“Get down!”

Declan?

Poppy didn’t dare risk looking to see if Jax’s brother was really there. Instead she took aim with the intent of finishing De Luca’s man off once and for all. But she was already too late.

A thunderousbangechoed off the bedroom walls. The man pointing the gun at her blinked once, his head tipping back as a bullet struck him dead center in the middle of the forehead.

He fell to the tiled floor once more, and this time, Poppy knew he was down for good.

She started to turn, to thank Declan or Jax—or whoever had just saved her life—when a sudden and intense fire erupted from deep inside her gut. Feeling as though a giant fist covered in flames had just punched her hard in the stomach, she glanced down at her midsection to see why.

Blood…lots and lots of blood…soaked the front of her white sweater. She put a hand there, shock keeping her from going into a full-fledged panic.

“J-Jax?” Her eyes flew to his even as the warm liquid spilled out from between her fingers.

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