“How far out are they?” I asked Wasp.
“Close. I can hear the sirens,” someone else answered.
A hush fell over the room as everyone went still, listening. Sure enough, the ambulance was closing in on our location. I only hoped they’d get here in time. Mercy’s normally lush lips were so damn pale I could barely tell where they ended and her clammy skin began. I swapped out the bloody towel and reapplied pressure. The bleeding had slowed, but her eyes kept fluttering shut.
“Stay with me, babe. I got you.”
“We really gotta talk about your superhero complex.”
I tried not to notice the way her words slurred. “You should probably kick my ass about it later.”
She made a sound that might have been, “Deal,” as cops burst into the room.
Paramedics followed, rolling a stretcher over to us and lowering it to the floor. They dropped into position and took over. My knee threatened to give out as I straightened it to stand, and Rabbit rushed in to prop me up.
“My brother,” Mercy slurred, her voice weak and breathy.
“Another team’s almost here. They’ll take care of him,” a paramedic said.
She cried out in pain as they lifted her onto the stretcher and strapped her in. They headed for the door. I willed my knee to hold and limped after them, determined not to let her out of my sight.
“Toss me your keys,” Havoc said, falling into step beside me. “I’ll make sure your truck gets back to headquarters.”
I dug into my pocket and handed them over. “Thanks, man.”
When we reached the parking lot, the second paramedic team was pulling in to get Ben. There were cops everywhere, but Link’s ol’ lady—a hotshot defense attorney, according to what the guys had told me last night—had shown up and appeared to have everything under control.
The ambulance ride to the hospital was the longest twenty-three minutes of my life, but my day only got worse from there. Mercy was rushed directly into surgery, while I was directed to the waiting room to sit on my goddamn thumbs.
After a quick stop in the bathroom to wash the blood from my hands—there was nothing I could do about my blood-soaked clothes—I found a seat in the waiting room. Another ambulance parked outside the glass doors, and the second paramedic team wheeled Ben in. Moments later, bikers filed into the waiting room.
Havoc was the first to notice me. He wandered over and sat across from me. “How’s she doin’?”
“She’s in surgery.”
He nodded. “How are you holding up?”
I’d scrubbed the shit out of my hands, but they still felt stained. “I’m worried. She lost a lot of blood.”
Havoc nodded again. “She and her brother would both be dead right now if we hadn’t gotten to them when we did.”
I knew he was right, but hearing my fears confirmed knocked the air out of me. It would have taken my legs out from under me had I not been sitting down. We’d done what we could, but Mercy wasn’t out of the woods yet. And visions of potential outcomes made me want to get rid of the sandwich Julia had made me eat.
Desperate for a subject change, I asked, “What happened with the cops?”
“They were making arrests when I took off, but Luke’s day is about to get a lot worse.”
“Luke?” The name registered. “Mercy tried to meet up with Luke the night Ben showed up with his ass beat.”
“He’s also the asshole who shot her.”
I let that sink in, damn glad I’d fucked her to sleep that night.
“Tap tipped off the feds. Kidnapping and attempted murder will provide enough probable cause to search all buildings attached to the business. Especially after Mercy’s brother told them about the drugs he tried to steal.”
“Drugs?”
“Fentanyl.”
