“Pew, pew, bitch. Big sis didn’t raise no trailer trash.” Spoken in true Tiffany fashion, she pulled the trigger, hitting her mark.
We shot. We left.
Chapter 34
Rhylan
TrentandIstaredat each other in shocked silence, both of us having a firm gut feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.
We couldn't hear a fucking thing in the hallway besides announcements over the mounted speakers. They were taking too long for a simple single shot.
In a moment of weakness, I reached for the handle, but just as my fingertips grazed the cold metal, the door started to open, and I took a step back, praying to god that I’d see my wife on the other side, alive and unharmed.
To my horror, I found her draped over Tiffany’s shoulders, her right arm hanging by her side with trails of blood running down the length of it.
“What happened?!” Out of panic, I rushed to collect my girl, pulling her into my arms and pressing a palm over the holes on theside of her upper arm. “Are you okay?”Of course not; what kind of stupid fucking question was that?
“I’m… fine.” She sounded lethargic with labored breathing, most likely from the pain rather than blood loss, seeing as the bullet ran straight through, and luckily, it didn’t appear to have nicked any major artery. “Tiff… Tiff killed her…”
“I need to get her to the hospital.” Dakota had grown heavy in my embrace, and so I adjusted my hold, now cradling her against my chest while still keeping pressure on her arm.
“I should go with you.” Just as I’d turned to leave, Tiffany stepped into my path, asserting herself to tag along.
“No, you’ve done more than enough, and I mean that. You stay with Trent. I can take it from here.” I gently shoved her aside and continued on down the hall. I was grateful that she stepped in, but there wasn’t any time left to argue; Dakota needed immediate medical attention.
“She’s pregnant.” Tiffany’s outcry caused me to stop in my tracks, turning to glance over my shoulder as her voice lowered and softened. “Or…might be…”
“I know she is…” My gaze lowered to Dakota’s face, nestled peacefully against my shoulder with her eyes resting shut and gentle breaths kissing my neck.
“Wait, how? She said she hadn’t said anything to you yet.”
“I know my girl, and she’s been acting a little off the past couple of days…” When she refused her morning cup of coffee and traded the porch daybed for ours, that was the first sign that something wasn’t quite right. I just didn’t want to be the one to tell her without actually knowing. “We’ll meet you back at the ranch. She’s gonna be alright, Tiff. I promise.”
As I set Dakota in the backseat of the truck, she gripped my forearm with her left hand, alert once more, but she was slipping in and out of consciousness.
“R-Rhy, I can-I can explain.” Her voice was weak, but she tried to force the words, and it broke me to see the love of my life in this condition, and now worried about what Tiffany had revealed. She must’ve heard us talking when I thought she’d already passed out.
“Not right now, darlin’. Let’s get you mended up and home first…”
“You’re not… mad?”
“No, never. Not in a million damn years, Wildcat.” I did, however, wish that she’d been the one to tell me instead of her sister, and I was a little annoyed that she had to be put in harm's way while potentially pregnant with our child. But my hands were tied once her test was already in motion. “I’m just glad that I get to take my wife home with me, alive and maybe even carrying an extra piece of our love.”
“I’m s-so sorry. I should’ve—” Dakota tried to lift herself toward me, and I gently pushed her back down against the seat, my hand cradling her face as I gazed lovingly into her watery green eyes. The same look I gave her the first time I took her home.
“Shh… relax, Dakota. Just rest now; let me take care of you.”
Because she was here, still breathing, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the evening.
Notlongaftergettingsettled in her room at the hospital, Dakota crashed—hard. The painkillers the nurse gave her took away whatever pain she’d been feeling as the final remnants of adrenaline left her system, allowing her to finally rest.
The team of nurses assigned to us at the hospital gave her an IV with antibiotics to prevent potential infection, and they ran a blood test to confirm if she was pregnant.
Trying to explain how she even got the gunshot wound to begin with, without spilling the truth or going to jail for domestic abuse, was harder than I thought. In the end, I managed to come up with some bullshit story about practicing at the range with friends, and a stray bullet just so happened to hit her out of nowhere.
I didn’t believe the story I was telling; it sounded absolutely ridiculous, so I called Dustin to resolve the issue.
Thank the lord for leaders in high fucking places.
