“Alpha,” Wes croaked. He’d never been more terrified, but his arm hurt too much for him to crawl over there. The guard Bergam had been holding knelt next to Valentin and pressed a bar rag onto his side. Sandi did the same to Wes’s shoulder.
“Hang tight,” Sandi said. “It looks like the bullet went in and out cleanly.” He applied pressure, and Wes almost passed out, but he wouldn’t allow himself to do that until he knew Valentin was okay.
As if reading his mind, the guard helping Valentin looked over. “He’ll be alright. It’s just a flesh wound. Shot grazed him on the rib cage.”
Thank stars!Wes shuddered, realizing how close Bergam had just come to ending Valentin’s life.
Six police officers ran into the room, followed by EMTs.
“Who needs help?” the EMTs demanded.
Wes waited for Sandi to call the medics over to him, but it was Asher’s panicked voice that rang out.
“Right here!” Asher wailed. “I can’t stop the blood! I don’t know if he’s even breathing! Please! Help him!”
Wes forced his head to loll in the other direction.
Assa lay crumpled on the floor ten feet away, eyes closed, skin pale, arms and legs unnervingly still.
Asher squatted next to him, weeping, uselessly pressing a bar rag to the bright red bloom of blood covering his chest.
Wes tried to cry out, but no sound came. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the neon pink glow of the cracked heart sculpture behind the bar.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Calder
The Pashuk men had been shot. All three of them.
It took a minute for Asher to calm down enough to give Calder and Zinn specifics, but the bottom line was that Assa, Wes, and Valentin were in the hospital right now.
Wes had only needed stitches, but because he’d passed out at the scene, they were keeping him overnight as a precaution.
Valentin and Assa were still in surgery.
Assa’s injuries were the worst. The gunshot had punctured his upper torso. It missed his vital organs, but he’d lost a lot of blood. Valentin’s rib cage had been grazed, breaking two bones and causing internal damage that needed to be dealt with surgically.
That was as much as Asher could tell them over the phone, and when Calder and Zinn arrived to find him sitting next to Xan in the hospital waiting room, there was no new information.
The last time Calder had been at the hospital was when Lachie was born. But this didn’t remind him of that. Because they werein the other wing now. The one with the antiseptic smell and the hushed family members in the waiting room. The wing with the dark shroud of sickness hanging over it. If he took the elevator to the floor directly above them, he’d be in the unit where Denni had taken his final breath.
Realizing this, Calder experienced a moment of absolute clarity. As long as Valentin, Wes, and Assa were still breathing, he wanted to make the most of it. Because nothing was guaranteed.
“At least Bergam will be locked up for good,” Xan said. “He won’t be a threat to your family anymore. He must have had a complete mental break to do what he did, like he’d just given up and didn’t care what happened to him.”
“I know what it feels like to think you’ve lost everything,” Zinn said. “Even when my parents destroyed my life, I still had a son out there somewhere. It kept me going.”
Asher flattened his lips. “I will never forgive myself for not telling you where he was.”
Zinn patted Asher’s cheek. “There will always be a part of me that resents you for that, but I think we can agree that Ryde ended up exactly where he belongs. It means something that you figured it out, that you’ve chosen me and my family over our parents.”
Asher kissed him on the head. “That was an easy choice.” He sat back down and nudged Xan on the shoulder. “Also, have you met Xan…my boyfriend.”
“We’ve met,” Zinn said dryly. “And the boyfriend thing is a surprise to no one. You two have been dancing around the obvious for a while.” He winked at Xan. “Welcome to the family…officially.”
“Thank you. I’m just sorry it took literal gunfire to get us to say it out loud.”
“Wes didn’t need surgery,” Calder interrupted, still distracted by the heaviness of his surroundings. “Does that mean we can see him?”
