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His selflessness had been the final confirmation of his love. To care enough for someone to be prepared to die for them...that was the ultimate sacrifice. She didn’t need any more evidence, but it showed what a truly good person he was.
I need to tell him that. She lifted his hand to her cheek, trying to stem the feeling that her whole world was draining away while she had no way of stopping it.
“Bree!” She looked up through a haze of tears to see the crowd moving back as Trey strode toward her. “Get these people away from him.” He barked the instruction over his shoulder to one of his deputies. Crouching beside her, he turned to the security guard, who was administering first aid. “Vital signs?”
“He’s breathing, but it’s rapid and shallow, and his pulse is weak. As you can see, he’s lost a lot of blood.”
Trey placed an arm around Bree. “The ambulance is on its way. I told them to speed things up.”
She turned her face into his chest. “Rylan pushed me out of the way. He took the bullet that was meant for me.”
His fingers tightened on her arm. “David was never in Canada. I got a call from the police in Winnipeg just before I set off. He tricked us. And he was just minutes ahead of us. He can’t have gotten far this time.”
In the distance, she heard the faint wail of a siren. “I have to go with Rylan, but I can’t take Jekyll.” She handed the little dog over. “Be nice to him, he’s had a fright.”
Trey looked slightly bemused as though his large hands didn’t quite know what to do with such a small creature. He patted Bree’s shoulder awkwardly. “Rylan is tough.”
If her facial muscles hadn’t been frozen by shock, she might almost have smiled. He fooled you too, huh? “I’ll call you when I know anything.”
Once they were in the ambulance, the paramedics got to work, stripping off Rylan’s clothes, checking his injuries, applying more pressure and fixing an oxygen mask over his face. Bree saw the damage the bullet had done—it had torn straight through his shoulder—and she had to look away as a wave of nausea washed over her.
She heard the driver radioing ahead, telling their colleagues to prepare an operating theater. Phrases like “major blood loss” and “traumatic injury” imprinted themselves in her mind. Everything else passed her by.
When they reached the hospital, it was like déjà vu. Unlike Kasey, Rylan was taken on a trolley past the trauma assessment unit, and straight through to the emergency operating room.
Bree pointed to the waiting room. “I guess I’ll head that way.”
A nurse gave her a sympathetic look. “It could be a long night.”
* * *
It was a long night. A night of pacing and panicking or sitting still and feeling numb. Every few hours, Bree would find someone and ask how Rylan was doing. The answer was always the same.
“Still in surgery. The doctor will tell you when we have any news.”
Trey sent her a few brief text messages. The Roaring Springs Police Department and the Bradford County Sheriff’s Department were working together, both forces on high alert to catch David Swanson. So far, he had evaded them.
Don’t go anywhere without telling me, Trey had warned her.
Since she had no intention of leaving the hospital as long as Rylan was there, she hadn’t replied.
She was the only person in the waiting room. There was a stack of magazines, but reading the articles wasn’t an option for Bree. Once she’d flicked through the fashion, food and lifestyle pictures, she was left with the choice between listening to an audiobook or music through her headphones. Neither option suited her restless spirits.
There was an internal window between the waiting room and the corridor. Even in the early hours of the morning, the place was busy, and her eyes were drawn to the parade of medical staff walking past.
In an effort to stave off the boredom, she idly speculated on the roles of the various people. The different colored scrubs could have been a clue, if she’d known what they meant. Most people had their heads covered, and many also wore a mask, so studying faces was difficult. Bree switched her attention to their footwear. Comfortable, waterproof, lightweight, slip-resistant... She was compiling a list of features in her head, when she noticed an anomaly. One of the medics, someone who had walked past several times, was wearing high-top sneakers.
