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“Bran—” she cried out, but it was choked, “Brandon. I-I-”
She collapsed, but I grabbed her before she fell flat on her face. Maria looked sickly white, and her blouse was wet…with blood. I inched the blouse and saw a bandage wrapped around her middle that went right up her right side. Her blood was seeping out.
“John!John!” I screamed. “West! Maria needs a hospital! Stop fighting, for God’s sake. She’s going todie!”
My scream jolted the two, and West rushed to us, grabbed her from my arms, and pulled the blouse up. “No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What wasn’t—” John limped closer. “—Jesus, West, she’s going to bleed out. You need to get her to a hospital.”
“I-I can’t,” he shook his head, “She’s—”
“I don’t care,” John snarled. “Even if she’s a cutthroat killer, she needs medical attention.”
“You too. Get in. I’ll have to drive you,” I said while I ran to John’s car. They hesitated. I screamed. “What are you waiting for!? Get in! If she dies, it’s on you!”
* * *
I felt like I was in a dream.
Driving at breakneck speed to the nearest hospital with my enemies in the backseat. West was in the backseat, holding Maria and whispering something to her that I couldn’t pay attention to if I wanted to get us there alive.
As we took the highway like lightning, John was putting pressure on his wound. “Hold on, okay.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Believe me.”
“This feels…wrong,” I whispered.
His laugh was dark and wry. “Believe me, the irony isn’t lost on me.”
We got to the hospital twelve agonizing minutes later, and Maria was rushed to the emergency room while a nurse took care of John’s gunshot scrape. Seated in the waiting room, I called Detective Juliann, told her the whole story from the fair to video to the ambush, and she said she would be there before the two got out of emergency services.
My body felt like lead as I looked at the knife on my lap. The adrenaline swooped out of my body in waves, and I only wanted to sleep. From the moment John had found me to now, it made the day feel so long, like three days had been crammed into one.
I dropped my elbows unto my thighs and cradled my head. “Jesus.”
A warm hand dropped on my shoulder, and I saw Juliann there. “I’ve got some…relieving news. Well relatively. We won’t have to worry about who had broken into Maxwell’s place because the wound on Maria’s chest tells us she did it.”
“What’s the bad news?” I asked.
“She’s got sepsis,” Juliann replied. “She opted to treat the wound at home, not realizing the infection would set into a lesion that deep. The doctors are going to help her, though.”
“She won’t die?”
“Not if the professionals can help it,” she said. “And John’s going to be fine too. He’s got a few battle scars, but he’ll be fine with some painkillers and antibiotics.”
“What about the other crimes?” I said, “Killing the calves, blackmailing me, making that video, the ambush, and attempted murder?”
“We’ll be compiling the crimes, but with money like his family has, the best thing I can see is him getting off some technicality and moving to Costa Rica while everything is kept hush-hush,” Detective Juliann replied. “I know, but just wait for the result, okay? But be assured; he will never be releasing that video.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I know.”
“I’ve got to check on something,” Juliann said. “Just be glad it all worked out.”
“I am, believe me, I am.”
Five minutes, ten…fifteen, maybe. I was not sure how much time had passed. I was past the point of exhaustion and started considering how to use three chairs as a bed when John came walking out, his lower half clad in scrubs instead of his suit pants, and sat next to me.
Wrapping an arm around my middle, he tugged me into his side. “You doing okay, baby?”
