Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Buck obviously gave it willingly.
Even though Buck was old, I highly doubted that he’d give up his firearm unless he’d wanted to.
I found myself moving without conscious thought.
I was sprinting directly for the man that held my heart.
My husband.
My best friend.
My soulmate.
The police officer tried to push me away, to stop me from going to Baylor, but I shoved him and he fell back.
He landed on his ass in a pool of blood that was gathering around Sal’s body.
Sal was alive and glaring at me, his hand covering a wound on his belly.
I didn’t spare him a second glance.
I just didn’t care.
I was so angry.
So, pissed off.
So, fucking broken.
“Oh, God.”
I looked down at my man, who was lying on the ground, his hands covering his stomach, and breathing shallowly.
I could see his intestines.
I could see his intestines!
Chapter 27
Am I the only person running out of people I like?
-Coffee Cup
Lark
They tried to put Sal in the same ambulance as my husband.
That went over about as well as anybody could expect. Kind of like trying to shove a cat into a bag that was already riled up to begin with.
If it wasn’t for Pace, I think I might’ve tried to shank a few paramedics as well as the stupid officer who was still trying to make sense of what had just happened.
“Listen,” I seethed. “You will not put him in the same vehicle as my husband.”
I didn’t add in what I was also thinking—or I’ll stab him in the head with my goddamn belt buckle—which happened to be the only sharp thing I could think of at the time.
The paramedic opened his mouth to argue, but an angry voice from behind me had the paramedic closing his mouth before he said whatever stupid thing he said next.
“Listen, Cooper,” Pace said. “You’ll have to take them one at a time.”
“If I take them one at a time, one could die while we’re transporting.”
“Not my problem,” Pace shot back. “This man goes first.”
I had no clue who Pace was, but I was happy for his interference because the paramedic listened to him.
Squeezing Pace’s hand in thanks, I climbed up into the ambulance with my husband and stared at him as we made our way to the hospital.
When we arrived ten minutes later, Baylor was in no better shape.
His breathing was shallow. His eyes were closed. His hands flopped uselessly at his side.
There was a new IV in one hand, and they’d placed an oxygen mask on his face to help with his breathing.
Before I could wonder anything else, we arrived at the hospital, and he was taken away from me.
When I tried to follow, they pushed me back and told me to wait in the waiting room.
Which I did for all of fifteen minutes before the first trickle of family came inside.
His mom was first.
His dad second.
His brother, Travis, third.
Hannah, fourth.
Evander and Tate Casey fifth and sixth.
Dante, seventh.
I couldn’t even scrounge up the interest to see this elusive brother of Baylor’s.
I didn’t care.
Nothing interested me at all.
Not the fact that his family was rallying around me. Nor the fact that Dante had a baby with him.
No, not one single thing interested me until that nurse came through the door two hours later.
And only then it was the news that he was in surgery and that we could move up to the surgical waiting room on the first floor.
I didn’t go.
Not until after I stopped by the hospital chapel.
There, I dropped down to my knees in front of the steps that led to an altar, buried my face in my hands, and prayed to God.
Something I hadn’t done in a really, really long time.
It was hard to believe in someone who didn’t save you when you needed it most.
But now, I could see, that though he may not have answered my prayers when it came to making Sal into a good man, he did answer my prayers that I would someday find a good man.
Baylor was that man for me.
Once I was finished, I wiped my tears, composed myself and joined my new family in the waiting room.
Or tried to, anyway.
I wasn’t sitting down but for five minutes when a nurse came into the waiting room.
“Anyone O negative in here?”
I blinked, then raised my hand.
Two others did as well.
“We were hoping y’all could donate,” she disclosed. “We had two accidents come in on the heels of the other.”
I stood up, knowing which accidents she was walking about, and wondering if my blood would be used to save my ex.
I thoroughly fucking hoped not.
She led us through a maze of hallways to a sterile white room and came to a stop just to the side of the door.
“One at a time,” she said, gesturing at me first. “You come with me.”
I did, glancing back at the older man in his sixties, and the younger boy who looked to be in his twenties.