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No shit, Jasper thought and moaned when Loki touched something on his thigh that sent fire screaming along his nerve endings. "The fuck?"
"Jesus, I can't see a goddamn thing out here. You're bleeding pretty bad." Loki sat back on his heels and waved at someone. "Need help over here!"
Liam limped across, out of the darkness, blood smeared over his hands and face. A trickle ran from his nose and there was a black eye starting to form. But he just yanked his phone out, switched on the torch app, and knelt on the opposite side of Jasper's still form. "Knife wound," he said tersely, wiping at his nose with his sleeve. "Four inches long, gonna need stitches. It's pretty deep, maybe caught a vein with that amount of blood."
Jasper frowned, trying to think when Gerald had cut him. The only possible frame of opportunity given to the bastard had been in the second before Jasper's boot drove into Gerald's chest. Goddamn it. "What's happening?"
"What isn't?" Loki scoffed.
Liam shook his head. "Atticus has everything under control, J. He's working his magic and bringing reinforcements in. Right now, I need you to shut up and take an internal assessment of what hurts."
God, that might take a few years. Speaking more than a couple of words at a time hurt; Jasper didn't want to think what moving would cost him. "Got concussion. I think. Hit the ground...hard. Starting to...to get feeling...back."
"Shit." Liam exchanged glances with Loki. "I'm going to tourniquet this leg just in case the blade nicked an artery. We need medical assistance here now. Can you go tell Atticus to hound the EMT crew he's got in his pocket?"
"Atticus is a little busy," Loki retorted pointedly.
"We've all got our hands full. He's the only one with the fucking strings organized in his hand. Go."
Loki bolted off. Jasper watched Liam strip off his belt and wrap it around his thigh. Oh yeah, feeling was starting to come back, all right. Teeth clenched, he asked, "Tell me. Don't lie."
The Viking Master looked pale. His hands were steady as he tightened the belt around the meat of Jasper's leg above the wound. "You know about the dead guy over there?" He jerked his chin to where Jasper could see Michael's body in his mind's eye. When Jasper nodded slowly, Liam continued. "There's another one on the other side. When we got here, Anarchy was sat in your truck down the road. There's blood all over the hood, and a trail of it where the wheels have..."
No. No, Anarchy was supposed to be at Avalon. He'd given her an order to turn the truck around and head back to Avalon, to safety. Every instinct told him to bolt upright, to force his body onto its feet and go find his woman. One of his toes gave an effort to curl, but otherwise he was dead in the water. "Get me up."
"Not a prayer, man. We're waiting for the medics. You need scans and shit. Medical shit." Liam rested his hand on Jasper's shoulder. "Att gave us a brief rundown on what it is he does. His team are pros at cleaning scenes like this. Anarchy is safe with him, okay? Braun's taking her back home, away from all this. Connie's with Bodie, so she'll work her shrinky magic."
"Should be me." Jasper focused on his hands, willing his fingers to move.
"Yeah, well, you're banged up to high hell and one look at you is gonna send Anarchy into a panic attack." Liam's head shot up and over in the direction he'd come from. "This better be the fucking cavalry."
Closing his eyes, Jasper breathed as deep as he could manage, blew it out. The restriction around his chest was easing gradually, even if his throat felt as though he'd shoved a white-hot poker down it. The air was growing louder with the sound of approaching vehicles, and lights lit up the world beyond his eyelids.
Anarchy had killed someone.
It was completely unfeasible. His kitten was no more capable of killing a man than she was of turning into a sadist. Even as he tried to deny it for her sake, he couldn't stop replaying that fraction of time over and over again in his head.
Gerald standing in the road, knife in hand.
The flash of movement, a snapshot of a black Lincoln Navigator.
No Gerald standing in the road.
There was only one conclusion. Anarchy had committed vehicular homicide...for him. Fuck, that boggled the mind. Jasper was aware he'd probably be trussed up in the trunk of the brothers' car and on his way to Virginia right now without her intervention. If Gerald had been as much of a sadist as his older half-brother, Jasper would have been cut to ribbons first.
Dominic didn't usually specify anything but alivein his orders. Whole and unharmed rarely entered into the equation.
Anarchy needed to disappear. Tonight. Atticus should have the connections to get her at least out of the state before dawn, and out of the country within a couple of days. They needed to burn his truck, get rid of any and all evidence that linked her back to here, to tonight, and this clusterfuck.
They needed to protect her, the same way she had protected him.
"Christophe," Atticus's voice cut through Jasper's internal plotting like a sledgehammer. "Take that piece of shit over there and get him back to base. Liam kindly left him breathing for us. Check him for weapons, make sure he's restrained at all times."
A strange voice answered. "Yes, boss. You want me to get someone to take a look at that leg?"
"Wait until he's fucking begging. Hell, break the other one for all I care. Just keep him alive."
"Yes, boss."
