A dead heap.
Dead.
I don’t get a moment to think about it. Kade and Liam are over me. Liam pulls Rad off and turns him over. They’re saying something, but I can’t make it out. Kade takes the broken glass from my hand. I think there is another set of hands on me.
However, I’m fixated on Rad’s open, lifeless eyes.
He’s dead.
They’re all…
“Bon—Bonnie—”
Hands find my face. They pull my attention to them, and when I drag my gaze from Rad, I meet Mads’ sage eyes.
“We have you, Bed,” Mads says, his voice an echo. “We have you. It’s done. You’re safe.”
They’re all dead.
It’s over.
It’s over.
Voices rise and fill the room. There are people moving around me, hands touching my face, my hands. I can hardly hear everyone asking if I’m okay. My ears are still numb, still ringing.
My eyes move away from Mads to the person who Kade is checking on behind him. Curly hair sprawls out around her head, her arm draped over her stomach…
Gemma…
“Gemma—Gemma!”
I lunge out of Mads’ arms, ignoring the pain in my body as I crawl over the table to avoid Rad. Kade is checking her pulse, her limp arms. God, the blood… She’s bruised, beaten… My Gemma… I kneel onto the ground at her side and wrap my hand around hers.
“Gemma… Gemma! Is she…”
I blink as I look at Kade through tear-filled eyes.
“She’s okay,” he assures me.
“Paramedics are on the way,” Liam calls out.
Yet I’m too focused on Gemma for reality to truly hit me yet. I kiss her knuckles and swipe some of the blood from her lip. “It’s done, baby,” I whisper. “It’s done. It’sover.”
A heart monitor keeps going off in the room adjacent to Gemma’s.
Every time someone opens the door, I hear it, and it makes my heart sink a little more.
I’m thankful Gemma isn’t hooked up to one.
The aftermath is still a blur. I remember the police, the paramedics… Kade took care of talking with the cops and venuesecurity as I climbed into the ambulance with Gemma. I was forced to get looked at myself while they were examining her. Staring at her now… fuck.
She’s going to be in so much pain when she wakes up.
Her arm is broken, hands bruised. They say she has a concussion. She’s bruised everywhere.
Still, she’s alive.
We’rebothalive.
