"It's me, Jayden."
"How?" he asked. "He shot you."
"Yes, he did." A hand covered in blood appeared in front of his face.
Jayden whimpered and closed his eyes when another gunshot rang out, followed immediately by several more and then a thud. He was afraid to look. Afraid to open his eyes.
"How about we get the two of you up off the floor? An ambulance is on its way."
Jayden opened his eyes and glanced up. "Sheriff Riley?"
It would make sense. The man was wearing a sheriff's shirt and a badge.
"You must be Jayden."
"Yeah."
The man smiled. "Well, it's nice to finally meet you. I understand you're going to be running our little newspaper from now on."
"Uh…” Jayden couldn't confirm that. He wasn't sure what he was doing in the next ten minutes.
"Here, let me help you up, Senator."
The weight on Jayden's back faded as Wilson was pulled off of him. As soon as he was free, he scrambled up. Wilson had been moved to the bed. Jayden started to take a step toward him until his eyes landed on the body at the foot of the bed.
"Ricky's dead?"
"He tried to shoot one of my deputies," the sheriff said, "who also happens to be my husband, so yes, he's dead."
Jayden was saddened by the loss of life but not that Ricky was out of his life on a permanent basis. Now he just needed to make sure Marv stayed out of his life. "Did you get the videotape from Harvey and Joey?"
"Yes, that's why I'm here." The sheriff frowned at him. "Don't you know you're not supposed to leave a crime scene before the police arrive?"
Jayden winced. "Sorry about that."
"I would have waited until morning, but your old boss called and said Ricky here had flipped out after he fired him. Apparently, while Ricky was beating Marv over the heat, he was yelling about making you pay for getting him fired. He called the police in the city, who called me."
Jayden's eyebrows lifted. "Marv called to warn you that Ricky was coming after me?"
The sheriff nodded.
Huh.
"I'd say Marv might not be as bad a guy as I thought, but I'd be lying. He's still an ass."
"I think he was trying to save his ass more than yours," the sheriff said.
"You're probably right." Jayden quickly walked over to the bed. Another man sat at the head of the bed, putting pressure on a wound in Wilson's shoulder. "Wilson."
"Hey."
"How bad is it?" Jayden asked.
"It's a through and through," the stranger said. "He'll be okay once he gets stitched up."
Jayden let out the breath he'd been holding. "If anything had happened to you…"
He could see the pain in Wilson's eyes, but the man still gave him one of those dimpled grins. "I love you, too, Jayden."
