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Jocelyn didn’t agree. “Sharon needs an ambulance.”
“Please help her,” Kent said.
Jocelyn noticed the blood on Connor’s face from what looked like a nick across his cheek and the shot to Kent’s wrist. He held it but didn’t complain. In the end the desk jockey had turned out to be quite the savior for his wife.
She turned around to smile at her own savior. “Ben, are you—”
Connor was already moving. He dropped to his knees at the far end of the box, right in the corner. “Ben’s down. We need an ambulance.”
It was as if someone flicked a switch. Police officers came into the room. Willoughby got on his radio as sirens rang out in the distance.
Her mind went blank. Sounds were muffled and everyone seemed to move in slow motion. She saw Joel’s mouth as he cried out and slid in next to Ben. But the walls closed in on her. She stared at Ben’s still body and the blood covering Connor’s hand as he pressed it against Ben’s neck.
“No, no...no...” She didn’t know she’d said the words until she pushed Joel out of the way and shoved in next to Ben. He was so still, his skin almost gray.
The room whirled to life again.
She was not losing him. Not now that she’d found him and had fallen so hard and so deeply that she couldn’t figure out how to separate herself from him.
Without thinking, she whipped her shirt off, leaving only a thin tank top on. She rolled the material into a ball and pressed it against Ben’s neck. Blood soaked the material and covered her hand. Still, she pushed and ground, using all her strength to stanch the flow of blood.
Dipping down, she listened for breathing, tried to watch his chest rise. Nothing happened and her frantic search for a pulse turned up only the weakest flicker. “You will not die on me.”
She wanted everything with this man. She would not watch the life seep out of him.
One of his eyes opened. A haze covered it and she doubted he could even see her. She grabbed for his hand with her free one. “I’m here, Ben.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t talk.”
“It meant everything that you trusted me.” His head lulled to the side. “I’m sorry it ended like this.”
His eyes rolled back into his head and panic tore at her insides.
“I hate your job. I refuse to deal with the danger and fear.” The words flowed out of her. She barely knew what she was saying. She just knew the fear infected her like a poison and she wanted it out. “No more, Ben. Do you hear me?”
But he couldn’t. He was unconscious and deathly still. Seeing him like that filled her with a fury that kicked around her insides and had her doubling over in pain. Her muscles shook as she fought to hold him steady. She couldn’t tip his head back for CPR, so she put her fingers against his jaw and lowered it.
The position wasn’t perfect but she didn’t have a choice. “Joel, hold this tight against his throat and do not let go for any reason.”
Joel nodded as they shifted positions.
Connor shouted in the background to the people slipping in and out of the room. “We need an ambulance now. Get it here.”
Willoughby helped Kent sit down and lifted Sharon out of the box. The chaos raged on but Jocelyn’s focus stayed on the CPR count and watching Ben’s chest for any signs of life. Her arms ached and her heart hammered hard enough for her to feel it in every limb.
“Jocelyn, he’s not—”
She didn’t even spare Joel a glance. “He will live. I will not walk away until I know he’s okay.”
And he had to be okay.
Chapter Sixteen
Ben heard shouting in his head. Male voices, then Jocelyn’s. They screamed at him as a rush of what sounded like water beat against the inside of his brain. He wanted to fight against it. Find quiet. But Jocelyn... He ran toward her.
His eyes popped open and confusion settled in. Lights came into focus above him and he could make out the tiny dots in the ceiling tiles. He heard the beep of machines and smelled the antiseptic. He tried to move his head but something held his neck still, and even that small twitch had pain thundering against his skull.
He took it all in. Every piece, including the pale blue walls and the railings on the bed. He was in a hospital.
His eyes finally focused and instead of seeing the woman he wanted, he saw blond hair and scruff. Davis.
“Where’s Jocelyn?” Ben ground his back teeth together and lifted a shoulder off the mattress.
“Hold on there.” Davis held a hand against Ben’s chest. “She’s fine.”
