His eyes roll back in a silent surrender. His body goes limp against mine.
“ETHAN!” I scream, voice raw, broken, echoing through the room.“We need help! Stay with me! Stay…please!”
“Summer,” Cas commands, voice cutting through the panic like steel, standing over me, Jude and Dex flanking him, shields between us and the chaos.“You need to let go. The medics need to work on him!”
I shake my head violently, panic clawing up my throat, lungs burning. The wailing that escapes me isn’t just a sound, it’s my soul breaking. I’m rocking, pressing against him, trembling so hard I feel my bones shaking.
“I can’t lose him,” I gasp.“I can’t…I won’t!”
The paramedic steps closer, calm but firm, hands steady and sure amid the hurricane of terror.“Ma’am, we need you to let go so we can treat him.”
I glance down at him, so pale, so fragile, so impossibly still, and my lips find his. A desperate, shaking kiss, tears soaking into his skin, every ounce of me pleading, screaming without words:
“Don’t you dare leave me now. Do you hear me, Ethan Hawthorne? I need you. Mia needs you. You stay with me.”
I let go. Dex catches me instantly, his arms a wall of strength as the paramedics descend. Their hands move fast, precise, slicing through the chaos, pushing Kevin’s outburst aside, cutting straight to saving him.
Time stretches, distorting. Seconds stretch into eternity. Every moment drags like a cruel eternity. All I can do is pray, whispering against Dex’s chest, clinging with every fiber of my being as they wheel Ethan out of the courtroom in a blur of motion.
And all I hear, all I feel, is the sound of a gunshot and the hollow echo of my own scream,“NO!” reverberating in the walls behind me, in my chest, in my very bones.
CHAPTER 32
Summer
We reach the hospital in minutes, Dex driving like a man possessed, riding the bumper of the ambulance, barreling through red lights, his hand leaning hard on the horn. My entire body vibrates with adrenaline, fear, shock.
We’re the first ones through the ER doors, but of course the nurses can’t give us any information. Rules. Always rules.
Lily, Josh, Jude, Jace, and Grace burst in seconds later, breathless, tear-streaked, panic written on every face.
“Summer!” Lily rushes toward me, arms open, but I flinch back like her touch might shatter me.
“I’m so sorry,” I choke out, my words breaking apart.
Lily’s face folds into confusion.“What are you talking about?” She steps closer, her hands trembling slightly at her sides.
“It’s my fault,” I whisper, the words ripping themselves open into a sob.“He got shot… because of m…mm…meee…” My knees nearly give out. Lily catches me anyway, pulling me fiercely into her arms.
“Oh no. No.” Her hand cups the back of my head, fingers threading through my hair with fire in her eyes.“Don’t you dare say that. There is only one person who pulled that trigger, and it wasn’t you. Do you hear me?”
“He threw himself in front of me,” I whisper, voice small, like a confession.
Lily’s throat bobs as she swallows hard. She nods slowly.“He did. Because that’s who he is. My boy is strong. He’s a fighter. He’s going to make it.” She hugs me again, our tears soaking into each other, raw and relentless.
Half an hour drags by like an eternity.
Lily presses against me, her hand wrapped tightly around mine. Josh paces in tight circles across the room, a storm contained within his chest. Dex lingers outside, cigarette smoke curling from his tenth at least, each inhale sharp with anxiety. Jude and Jace sit frozen, eyes fixed on the blank wall as if the paint itself could answer their questions. Grace leans into Caleb’s shoulder, soft, muffled sobs breaking through.
The doors slide open and Asher hobbles in on crutches, his cast still firm around his leg.
“I heard…” he whispers, voice trembling.
Josh crosses the room in five long strides and pulls him into a rough, desperate hug. When Asher pulls away, his eyes land on me. He limps over, lowers himself into the chair beside me, still wincing with each movement.
“He’ll make it,” he murmurs, voice breaking.“He has to.”
Another half hour passes. More people flood the waiting area, Ethan’s entire firehouse crew, neighbors from town, local business owners. Like the courtroom, the space fills with bodies, prayers, fear, and whispered names.
