King’s voice sounds from the ground again, and the man reaches across Dom’s body and picks up the phone.
He reads the screen before hanging up the call.
But I don’t care about the phone call.
Because under my palms, Dom’s chest moves.
He’s alive.
New tears stream from my eyes.
I want to fall forward onto Dominic.
I want to hug him as hard as I can.
But I don’t want to hurt him. And I have a job to do.
The man drops the phone back onto the ground. “Was Dom hit anywhere else?”
“H-his back, I think.” I don’t know who this stranger is. And I don’t care that he knows who Dominic is. I just care that he’s helping.
“Keep your hands where they are,” he says, then pulls Dom’s shoulders forward.
I brace Dom’s weight as he leans unconsciously into me, his head hanging down.
The man pulls something out of his pocket and flicks his wrist, flipping open an angry-looking blade.
In seconds, he’s sliced through Dom’s suit coat and shirt so he can find the entry wound on Dom’s back.
Split down the front and back, Dom’s destroyed clothing slides down his arms, pooling around his hands.
I hate that his bare skin is exposed to the snow. I don’t want him to be cold.
The man grabs another packet of gauze, and I can’t see what he’s doing, but I think it’s the same thing he did to his front, something to stop the bleeding.
I look down, and Dom’s slumped body is blocking my view of his chest, but I know what’s there.
Too much blood.
Even if his heart is still beating… he’s lost too much blood.
The man eases Dom back against the car just as the faint sound of sirens filters through the air.
“We took the liberty of calling an ambulance.” His voice is somehow soft and gravelly at the same time.
That tiny, frayed strand of hope twists around itself, making it stronger.
“Thank you.” I hold the stranger’s gaze. “I can never repay you for this.”
The man stands to his full tall height. “Just remember me. That’s all I ask.”
I don’t understand what he means, but I answer with the truth. “I’ll never forget you. We’re in your debt.”
He almost smiles, but then he pulls the white mask back down over his face and jogs around the back of the SUV just as the ambulance lights appear in my vision.
And then he’s gone.
And we’re the only ones left alive.
“Help is here,” I tell Dominic. “We’re going to be okay.”
But the ambulance stops down at the end of the road, on the far side of the cars. And I realize they can’t see us. And there is so much carnage, they won’t know where to look.
And Dominic is so pale.
I lean in and press my forehead to his. “You need to lie down, okay?”
Even with the stranger’s help, we don’t have time.
And I need to get the medics’ attention.
Taking my hand off the bundle of gauze, I grip Dominic’s shoulders and pull him, tugging, until I get him turned enough so I can lay him on his back. I don’t know if this is the right call, but my instincts tell me to do it.
“I’ll be right back.” I push off the ground, my legs half-numb underneath me. “I’ll be right back.”
Then, hoping all the bad guys are truly dead, I run away from Dominic. I run away from the cover, out into the open.
Waving my hands in the air, I scream.
I scream for help.
Beg them to see me.
And then they do.
And when two men get out of the ambulance and start to run across the distance, stepping around bodies strewn on the road, I turn and run back to Dominic.
And when they reach us, when the road fills with more men—King’s men—I break.
I collapse on the ground next to my husband and break.
CHAPTER 80
Dom
Fuuuuuck.
Every muscle in my body aches.
I try to roll over, hating sleeping on my back, but I can’t even lift my arm.
A garbled sound comes out of my throat. My mouth feels too dry.
“Keep it down,” a masculine voice says quietly beside me.
I force my eyes to open. The room is dim, but bright enough that I can see the golden-flecked eyes staring down at me.
They’re familiar but the wrong ones.
“Where?” I croak.
“You’re in the hospital,” King tells me, like I’m a fucking moron.
“Where is Val?” My words are barely audible, so I hope he can hear me call him an idiot in my mind.