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Her lashes fluttered.
“That’s it, honey.” I brushed her hair with my fingers and kept my face close to her so she could see me without moving. “It’s me, Maddy. Please wake up.”
“Ma…Maddy?”
“Yes, Charly. It’s me.”
Her eyes opened further. “Maddy.” She reached up one h
and and stroked my cheek. I clutched her hand. “You’re okay! I’m so sor...” she started to cough, but recovered. ‘So sorry for everything,” she wheezed.
“It’s fine. Save your strength. We can talk later.” I kissed her hand, terrified by her paleness and weak speech.
Paramedics came over with their bags and split their attention between her and Holt. I was torn. I longed to be with Holt, but Charly seemed to be in worse shape.
She must have sensed my conflict. She flicked her eyes toward him. “You…you need to be with him.” She began shaking. “But first, I n…need you t…to f…forgive me. I needed to pro…protect Lily.”
“Lily?” I questioned. Was she talking about our mother? That didn’t make any sense. “You know what? It’s fine, Charly. Save your strength. We’ll talk when you’re better.” The paramedics were taking her pulse and hooking her up to a portable IV and doing who knows what else. I moved out of their way and moved to sit behind Charly, cradling her head in my lap.
Her eyes glistened. “Pl…please take c...care of Lil…Lily for m…me.”
“Charly, who’s Lily?” I brushed the hair from her face and stroked her cheek, tears running down my face as my sister fought for her words.
Her lips trembled. “M...my…my daughter.”
Her daughter? Seeing Charly was shocking enough, but this? She had a daughter?
I kissed her hand and held it to my cheek as I huddled over. “I don’t know what to say, Charly. I didn’t know, but I’m sure she’s beautiful. Like you.”
She grimaced in obvious pain, and I tried to tell her to be quiet, to save her obviously fading strength, but she weakly shook her head. “Sh…she knows all about how…how br…brave her Auntie Maddy is.” Her grip on my hand loosened.”She l…lov…loves you and says pr…prayers f…for you. Pl…please tell her…how much…h…her mama loves her.”
“Ma’am? We need to get her loaded in the ambulance and to the hospital.” The paramedics had brought over a gurney.
“Okay,” I replied and started to lift her head gently off my lap.
“No!” Charly said with surprising strength. Her eyes sought mine. “Promise me. She…she’ll need you.”
I didn’t want to accept what she was trying to tell me. “I promise, Charly. Now, please, save your strength. We’ll talk later when you’re stronger. I promise I’ll be there. We have so much to catch up on. We’ll do like we did when I was really little and we’d splurge on one of those big candy bars from the dollar store and curl up in bed together and tell each other about our day. I’ll even give you the bigger half of the candy bar,” I pleaded with her. I couldn’t lose her now, not like this. My nose ran and blended with the tears on my face, but I couldn’t let go long enough to wipe my face.
She smiled sadly at me and released my hand. “I love you,” she whispered. “Always h…have. Go…go f…find your m…m…man. Be happy, brat. It’s your t…turn. W…way p…p…past t…time.”
The paramedics wasted no time transferring her to the gurney and carefully moved her down the steps to a waiting ambulance. I remained by her side the whole way, but her eyes had closed. I could tell she’d lost consciousness, and I’d only be in the way in the ambulance. Plus, I needed to find Holt. I hurried to a second ambulance where they were already loading Holt. I tapped the paramedic on the shoulder. “I need to see him.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, you’ll have to meet us there.”
Like hell. “Now you listen to me,” I said tersely pointing my finger at him. “I’ve had a gun held to my head, watched the love of my life, who happens to be your patient, get shot, seen my sister appear out of nowhere and get shot, and my head is splitting, so you could say I’ve had a bad day. Not to mention I think I have PMS, so unless you want me to knock your teeth so far down your throat you’ll have to shove food up your ass to eat, I suggest you get out of my way.” I stood with my hands on my hips and glared at him.
He blinked at me, a stunned expression on his face.
“I think you better do as she says,” an amused voice called from inside the ambulance. “She loves me, and even I know better than to cross her when she pulls out her grannyisms.”
Mr. Paramedic moved out of my way still staring at me and giving me a wide berth. I nodded, smiled sweetly at him, and scampered up, sliding along the bench until I was close enough to lean into Holt’s face. They had his back elevated and he was pale, but grinning.
“As I said, always willing to stand up to others for those you care about. Remind me to never block your way, sweetheart!” He winked at the paramedic who was still looking at me like I was crazy.
The adrenaline rush faded, and I burst into full blown tears. “Oh, baby. I was so scared for you. Are you in much pain? Are you okay? What can I do?” My sentences all ran together in one breath.
His face grew serious. “Won’t lie, my shoulder hurts like a motherfucker, but I’ll live. And you weren’t nearly as scared as I was. I knew I couldn’t lose you. All I could think of was if something happened to you, I hoped the next bullet was true because I wouldn’t survive without you.”
