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Horror swept through me when she angled herself out of the car. She was bloody, her hair matted with it. Rivers of red ran down her beautiful face. I was pretty sure I was going to vomit. I’d seen a lot of fucked up shit while I was overseas, butnothingI saw or endured could have prepared me for seeing the love of my life looking like she was going to die at any fucking moment.
I pushed myself harder, sprinting toward her as fast as I could. She took one look at me, and a small smile tilted her lips before her eyes rolled back in her head. My arms latched around her just as her body went slack, threatening to take her to the ground.
“Oh, fuck,” Carter breathed from right behind me. I hadn’t even noticed that he’d followed me from the clubhouse.
I sank to the ground with her in my arms, my knees thudding against the earth as I cradled her to me. My heartbeat was pounding so loudly in my ears, it almost drowned out the sound of everything else around me.
“Go to the nearest place and call 9-1-1,” I rasped. With trembling fingers, I swiped some blood off her cheeks, smearing the dark, red liquid on my hands. I cupped her face, tears swimming in my eyes. Her breaths were shallow, her lips twisted into a grimace of pain even in her unconscious state.
I couldn’t lose her. Not like this. Living without her bright smile lighting up my world every fucking day would be my own death.
I heard Carter’s bike tear off down the highway a moment later. Carver, who I hadn’t noticed had followed me either, crouched beside me, his hand resting on my shoulder. “Brother, I know this shit hurts, but stay the fuck out of your head, you hear me? No one stayed to help her, which means she was targeted. We need to be on our P’s and Q’s in case someone comes to make sure they completed the job.”
My molars ground together so hard, the sound was audible. I’d been so caught up in seeing Lindsey like this that I hadn’t even started thinking about who could have done this to her. Hell, I hadn’t seen anything but her car and her stepping out of the wreckage since I laid eyes on all the damage.
I could’ve very well gotten the three of us killed. Jesus Christ. I mean, fuck, I hadn’t even been aware that my own brothers followed me out here. Formiles,I’d ridden without knowledge of them.
“Blink,” Lindsey mumbled, her eyelids fluttering before she went under again. I tucked her closer to me, doing my best to shield her in case something happened.Anything. God, I couldn’t… Not her. I never wanted this shit to touch her. I did my best to protect her, and the one fucking time I wasn’t home to keep her there, this shit happened.
I’d failed her. I had put this damn club first andfailedher.
I looked up at the sound of a bike, only to see Carter speeding back toward us. In the distance, I could hear sirens slowly making their way closer. I breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to get help. And fuck, I hoped she was okay. I hoped she made it until they could get her to a hospital.
“They’re on their way,” Carter told me once he’d parked his bike and turned the engine off. “How is she?”
I just shook my head. Because how the fuck was I supposed to answer that? She was bloody and unconscious. There was no way of knowing how she felt. How much pain she was in.
It didn’t take much longer for the ambulance to get there. Cops showed up, too. There was nothing I could do to stop them from getting involved, and honestly, I couldn’t be fucked to be worried about it. I would deal with whatever consequences may come our way as long as she got help. As long as she survived this shit.
I just hoped she could forgive me after. Because there was no doubt in my mind she’d been targeted. And the only reason she would’ve been targeted was because of me.
“Sir, let us help her,” the paramedic urged as he came closer. Two more paramedics followed him down the hill carrying a litter to get her to the ambulance and on the stretcher.
Once they set the litter down, I gently placed her on the hard plastic before backing off, my throat working as I tried to keep myself together. I was covered in her blood, and it was making my stomach roll.
I would forever see the dark red color on me. For the rest of my life, I would see it. There would be no washing it away. No scrubbing it away.
But I could live with that if it meant she lived, if she continued breathing for me. Smiling at me.
Carver clapped a hand to my shoulder. “Breathe, brother. We’ll find out who did this, and they’ll pay,” he promised me.
I nodded once—short and curt. The sheriff strode over to me, his gut hanging over his belt. He eyed me distastefully, but I just calmly met his stare, locking everything else away. A man like me didn’t go to war overseas and see the shit I did and not be able to compartmentalize.
This fucker wasn’t getting anything out of me. And I could tell he already knew it, too.
“I’d like you to come down to the station so I can get your statement.”
I glanced at Lindsey, who was now on the stretcher and currently being stabilized before being taken to the hospital. Then, I looked back at the officer. “As soon as my girlfriend is awake, I’ll be more than happy to give you a statement. Until then, I ask that you give me and my family space.”
With that, I strode over to my bike, preparing to follow the ambulance all the way to the hospital.
10
Lindsey
Everything hurt. I was hurting in places I hadn’t even known existed on my damn body. Pain rolled up my arm if I even attempted to move my fingers. What the fuck happened to me?
I groaned and squinted open my eyes. The room was only dimly lit, but I was instantly aware of the fact that I was in a hospital. The heart rate monitor let out slow beeps in time with my heart, and the blood pressure cuff began to tighten around my arm to take my blood pressure.
