“Aah, fuck.” The man shouted and aimed once more.
“Dom, you stay behind me.”
“I will kill both of you.” The man had his weapon pointed at me and the shot sounded.
The pain didn’t follow and for a moment I wondered if I was dead, but then I heard a cry from the man. He was holding his leg but tried to aim once again. His face was filled with pure hate despite the pain he had to be in.
With a shaky arm, his gun was pointed in my direction when another shot rang out and the man crumpled to the ground.
Behind him I saw the woman of my dreams, in combat stance with a weapon pointed at the dead shooter and venom in her eyes. Surely, that was not meant to be sexy.
I grunted as the full extent of my own pain wracked my body. “Fuck dammit.” Then I turned to Dom and noticed the blood on his bandage. “I think your stitches ripped. Bex, I need —”
“You need an ambulance.” She came to me pulling out her phone but didn’t dial. “Both of you do.” Her focus moved from us. “Yes, Jared, we need medical care, too. Yes, I have one restrained to a chair inside and the one outside hit his head on the concrete floor when he fell over. I don’t think that’s what killed him though.”
She continued talking on the phone as the sirens came blaring towards the house. I looked at her. “Bex, what about Landon and Vicky?”
“They’re locked in their bedroom.” She turned to Dom. “Get that restitched. Also, can I trust you to make sure he listens to the medics and the doctors? I’ll leave here as soon as I can get away.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, though.” I said to Bex but my words were already slurring and the world was becoming more and more watery.
I don’t remember what happened after the medics arrived. I heard the faint sound of my children crying, then Dom and I were in the ambulance, sirens blared and then blackness.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
BEX
Nearly two hours had passed before I could get to the emergency room. It was only because I had Agent Lamb accompanying me that I was able to leave that soon. He didn’t want anything to compromise the case he had against the now former State's Attorney, Samantha Lang, her brother and his gang. And I needed to see my family. The fact I knew as much as I did about the case and the fact Dom was my son, already meant lines were crossed.
Neither of us wanted any of the men or Samantha to get away. Agent Lamb wanted an arrest by the end of the night and I wanted my family safe.
There weren’t many people occupying seats in the lobby of the hospital and the woman at the desk was on the phone. Her eyes widened as we approached her. But her shoulders squared and her jaw tightened. As I got closer, I could read the name on the tag on her left breast.
“Sandy.” I smiled at her as I placed the court order on the desk. “I’m looking for Dr. Logan Evans. He would’ve been admitted almost two hours ago with a gunshot wound. And I am looking for Dominic Bayers as well.”
“Are you family?”
I took a deep breath. The nurse was only doing her job. “That court order says I am Dominic Bayers’ legal guardian. And the man behind me is a federal agent who needs to question him. As for Dr. Evans, I am the woman he intends to marry. And the boy you’re preventing me from seeing is our son.” I glared at her. “Now, where is my family?”
She tapped at the keyboard in front of her and looked at the screen. “Dr. Evans is in surgery. His family is in the waiting room.”
I didn’t bother telling her it was my family too. Instead, I lifted a brow. “And my son?”
She nodded and as she tapped some more. She frowned. “I don’t know why, but he is in one of the private procedure rooms.”
I guessed because he was the kid of one of the doctors. “Can you tell me which one?”
“Room one oh six.” She pointed over my right shoulder. “Go down that corridor and it should be the third one on your left.”
I followed her directions, not bothering to check if Agent Lamb was following me. As I approached the room, the unmistakable sound of giggling caught my ear. I peeked into the room and held my breath. Three teenage girls and one boy were crowded into the room with Dom.
“Bex.” Dom smiled at me. “I don’t know if you know everyone, but this is Shiloh, Maggie, and Holden. And the girl on the bed is Caterina, she’s in my class.”
I smiled and nodded. “I know them.” The girls were Harry Bauman’s daughters and Holden was my friend, Scott Waite’s oldest son. “I mean you all trashed my paintball course together a few weeks back.”
All five kids found the floor more interesting than me.
Holden was the one to speak up. “We’re really sorry about that. It wasn’t how we should’ve introduced ourselves to Dom.”
