Adam wasn’tpositive Davis had it in him to pull the trigger until Gray ordered him to do it. The kid’s hand shook. His aim too high. The bullet ripped through Bodak’s shoulder, embedding itself in Kincaid’s upper left side as he dove in front of Gray.
Opportunity presented, Adam pounced. Twisting the gun from Bodak’s loose grip before he could recover from the shock of being shot, Adam grabbed his shirt with one hand and put two rounds through the fucker’s jaw and out the back of his head, making sure to keep Davis out of the trajectory of the bullets. Unfortunately, it didn’t protect him from the brain matter raining down, and the kid looked like he’d been spray-painted red.
Letting go of the dead weight, Adam let the body slump to the ground at his feet. Wrists still cuffed, he rolled Bodak over and shoved his fingers into the man’s left front pocket. Key found, he made quick work of springing his hands, the shouting coming from Gray keeping him going at a speedy clip.
She held on to Kincaid from behind, struggling with his weight. “Put him down,” Adam said, reaching her as her knees buckled. Refusing to let Grant go, she hit the concrete hard, her arms still around him, her palm pressed over the entry wound.
“Let me see, Gray.” Needing to assess the damage, Adam tried to pull her hand away.
Not tracking properly, she refused to let go, crying, “No,” repeatedly until it occurred to her to get bossy. “Don’t you die on me, Kincaid. Don’t you dare die. Not you too.”
“Mackenzie’s not dead,” Kincaid said with a groan, making her jerk.
“He’s not?” she sobbed, between heaving breaths.
“No. Bodak was lying.” Covering her hand with his own, Kincaid pressed down hard, adding the benefit of his strength to the pressure she applied.
“You promise?” she asked between sniffs.
“Yeah. I promise. Chase isn’t dead.”
Adam noted Kincaid didn’t offer the same reassurance with respect to the colonel. The omission spoke volumes, and a direct look from Kincaid coupled with a barely perceptible nod confirmed what Adam suspected.
The colonel was dead.
A sharp pain squeezed his chest as Adam acknowledged he understood with a nod of his own. Then putting it aside, he focused on the problem in front of him. Priority one—keeping Kincaid alive long enough to get them somewhere safe. Telling Gray about their father would have to wait.
“You better not die either, dickhead.”
Grant snorted, causing his face to blanch. “I promise not to die if you promise not to ever make me do that again. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Done. Let Adam have a look now, sunshine.” Pulling their hands away, Grant kept a hold on hers.
“How deep do you think it went?” Adam asked, tearing Grant’s threadbare T-shirt from the bottom up. Slowed by passing through Bodak first, the bullet had hit Kincaid just under his left shoulder, entering but not exiting. Blood seeped from the wound at a steady rate, but Adam decided to take the lack of squirting as a good sign.
“Deep enough,” Kincaid grumbled.
Relief evident in her grin, Gray snorted. “Stop being such a hero, asshole.”
Hero or not, the asshole in question had lost a lot of blood, and the pool beneath him continued to grow. They needed to stop the bleeding and move him to a secure location before he passed out. “Davis.” Adam looked over his shoulder. The kid hadn’t moved, his feet seemingly nailed to the floor, the gun in his hand dangling by his leg. “Davis,” Adam called louder.
“Kid’s in shock.” Re-covering the bullet hole with his and Gray’s hands, Kincaid grimaced as he pressed down. “There’s a medical kit in the trunk.” He pointed to the car parked in front of the loading doors with his chin.
Adam nodded once. “I’ll be right back.” He turned and approached Davis cautiously. “Davis.” No response. Eyes unfocused, the kid wasn’t tracking anything happening around him. “Davis. Let go of the gun.” Adam gently removed the weapon from the teen’s hand and shoved it in the back of his pants.
“I shot Grant Kincaid.” The tears came out of nowhere and spilled down Davis’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean to. I…”
Adam grabbed the kid’s face with two hands, lifting his chin until they looked eye to eye. “You did what you had to do, and you saved our lives, Davis. No one here blames you. Okay?”
Davis’s head nod was small and hesitant, and Adam’s heart hurt for the kid as he pulled him in for a quick hug. “Listen, Grant’s a tough son of a bitch and he’s not going to kick it today. So let’s get him patched up, and then you can help me move him somewhere safe. Alright?”
“Yes, sir.” Davis hugged him back hard and fast before he let go. “I’ll get the first aid kit.”
CHAPTERFORTY-SIX
“It’s not my blood,”Gray said again when Chase finally put her down after kissing her entire face. Reunited at an airplane hangar on the outskirts of Savannah, Chase had come at her like a freight train, scooping her into a rib crusher of an embrace that backed her up five feet from where they’d come into contact.
