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“I’m not going to prison today.”
“Yeah,” Archer counters. “I’d say you probably are.”
My captor releases me with a push, so my knees buckle, and my lungs empty.
“Shit!” Archer lowers his gun to use two hands to catch me. In his moment of distraction, Slade releases two rounds straight into the ceiling.
Pop.
Pop.
The stained-glass shatters in a deafening rain of color and biting shards. Pieces fall, exploding onto the tile floor, but it’s not until Archer shoves me to the floor and uses his body to cover mine that I know true pain. Until my head raps against the tile, and his weight on me crushes my shoulder back into its socket, so the blood and swelling that had filled the empty space rush out again, but with nowhere else to go.
My vision turns impossibly dark, and glass bites into my skin. Archer’s weight crushes me, and in the chaos of sound and pain, I swear I hear the bank doors slam open and men shouting.
“I need a medic!” Archer booms so my ears ring. “We need a paramedicnow.”
ARCHER
“She needs her factor!” I bolt to the bank manager’s desk while EMTs work on Minka’s body.
She’s bruised head to toe, bleeding, broken. Her blood, dangerously red against the stark white tile, is every nightmare I’ve had from the moment I met this woman and realized she has a weakness.
I skid to a stop by the desk, only to cry out when I find the bottle of medication smashed, and the liquid spilled out on the floor so it mixes with the security guard’s crimson blood.
“Fuck!”
Dozens of cops file into the old bank. Their boots crunch over broken glass, while tactical units sweep in to make sure the building is secure. They carry automatic weapons and wear Kevlar the way I wear jeans and a shirt. But Slade is the only asshole around here hurting people, and the moment I tossed Minka to the floor, he turned on his heels and bolted for freedom.
Frustrated, I spin and race back to Minka’s side. Already, the paramedics are loading her onto a stretcher and prepping her for a fast ride to the hospital.
“She’s Minka Mayet.” I latch onto the closest medic and ignore Fletch when he tries to pull me away. “Twenty-eight years old, suffers from hemophilia. She usually infuses Factor VIII every second night. She was supposed to infuse tonight, but never got to. She’s bleeding—”
“Yep.” The medic, a woman, peels my hand off her arm and snaps Minka’s straps into place. “We know. We’ve got it.”
“She might need surgery,” I chase after them when they start moving, “but you can’t do it without the factor. She’ll bleed out.”
“Iwon’t be operating on her.” Glancing to her colleague, she lifts the stretcher over the threshold and starts down the stairs. “You have to trust the medical professionals, Detective.”
“But I don’t!” I stride alongside the bed, and grab it when the paramedic on the other side stumbles and Minka sways treacherously to one side. “I don’t trust them, because they don’t know her. She’s not a standard case, okay?”
As soon as we reach the bottom of the stairs, I sprint to the back of the closest ambulance and swing the doors open. “Call Nicole Cleary. She’s a surgeon down there. I trust her to do it.”
“You don’t get to dictate—”
“She knows Minka’s history! She’s treated Minka already. Get her into that OR right now.”
“Dude!” Fletch grabs my sleeve and tugs until threads pop in my shirt and my neck wrenches to the side. “You sound like Slade. Just calm the fuck down and let them help her.”
“You shut the fuck up!” I shove him back so his hands fall from my body. “Where were you tonight, huh? Where were you when she needed help?”
“I was right here!”
“You were standing back with your fuckin’ girlfriend, too scared to be in the firing line.” Turning, I charge after Minka’s stretcher and dive into the ambulance when they try to close me out. “I’m coming.”
“You can’t come if you can’t calm down.” The medic, who clearly works out, presses her hands to my chest and threatens to toss me on my ass. “We have to move, Detective, but there comes a point where you’re putting her and the rest of us in danger if you can’t get your temper under control.”
“I’m not angry! I’m giving you the information she needs for treatment.” I park my ass on the bench seat and grab Minka’s hand as the sirens fire up and the engine growls to life. “I’m trying to tell you that if you rush her into surgery, she’s gonna bleed out on the table.”
