Page 56 of Condor’s Vow

“Get the EMTs in here now.” He held his hands firmly over the wound, wanting to die when she moaned in pain. “I’m sorry, gorgeous. I need to stop the bleeding.” So much blood and the wound was jagged and raw, probably from the serrated knife he’d spotted on the floor.

“Clay.”

Her words sounded off, and he knew she’d been drugged but didn’t know with what. “Hang on, baby, help is coming.”

“Knew you would come.”

“I’ll always come for you, gorgeous.”

The paramedics pushed him out of the way, but he kept hold of her hand, stroking her face, not willing to leave her even for a second. A paramedic slipped an oxygen mask over her face, and she tried to fight it, but he held it in place, gently moving her hands away.

“Keep it on, gorgeous. It’s okay. I won’t leave you.”

In minutes, the crew had an IV line in and were giving her pain meds and trying to stabilize her. She’d lost a lot of blood and the panic he was feeling at seeing it was making him feel weak. But she was alive, and he’d take that because she had a chance and that was all she needed. She was strong. She’d pull through. Any other possibility wasn’t worth considering.

The EMTs were loading Hattie into the ambulance as Hawk jogged over. “We’ve got the scene, boss. Let us know how she’s doing when you can.”

Clay nodded. “Is the other woman all right?”

Hawk glanced back at where Sandstorm was hovering over the other woman, who was sitting on the back of a second rig with a blanket over her shoulders. “She seems fine, but we’ll get her checked over.”

“Make sure you do everything by the book. I don’t want this asshole slipping through the net on a technicality.”

“Don’t worry, Condor, we have your back. Only place Patrick Wood is going is to jail for a long time.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s what friends are for.”

As Clay sat beside Hattie’s bed in the ICU hours later, he realized he was lucky in so many ways. His team had become friends over the course of the months and most especially since hunting this killer. Reid and Callie had hardly left his side when Hattie was in theater fighting for her life. Bolstering him when all he wanted to do was curl in a ball and howl out his pain at the thought of losing her.

Dax and Cruz had obviously told Mack and Mickie because they had shown up shortly afterward with a friend of theirs, Hayden, who was a sheriff’s deputy and a damn good one she was too, by all accounts. They had sat quietly waiting until they had got the news that Hattie was out of surgery, but by no means was she out of the woods.

Dax and Cruz arrived later to take them home, and now he was here waiting and watching her chest move, reassuring him that she was alive. He was lucky, but if she didn’t survive, all of it would be for nothing because, without her, his life would not be worth living.