He kept his hands over hers for a moment, pressing them down to demonstrate. “I need you to apply a lot of pressure to stem the bleeding. Are you okay with that?”
She nodded again, some of the shock leaving her eyes, replaced with determination.
Kayden scanned the woods. Empty. By the looks of it, whoever had done this was gone.
He pulled out the radio. “Hendrix, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Kay. The center’s locked down—everyone here’s safe. You find Jake?”
“Yeah, he has a bullet wound to the right side of his middle back.”
“Shit. Pulse?”
“Yes, but we need to get him out of here now. I need you to bring a stretcher.”
“I’m on it. Theo’s here too. We won’t be long.”
“Kayden…” Tilly’s quiet voice sounded, and Kayden lowered beside her.
“What is it?”
“He has a wound on his head too.”
Kayden moved around his body and inspected Jake’s head. Damn, she was right. His gaze shifted to the log beside Jake’s body, narrowing on the blood and bark disturbance. He’d hit his head when he’d fallen.
“Help’s on the way. They won’t be long.” When she didn’t reply, Kayden looked at her. “Tilly.”
She was slow to look up, and when she did, worry glazed her eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“Someone shot him,” she whispered.
“They did.”
“Someone shot Jake while we were out here in the mountains, not far away.”
Kayden cupped her cheek. “My brother will be here soon. It will be his job to find the asshole who did this. Right now, we’re gonna make sure he gets to the hospital alive.”
She swallowed and nodded. He wanted to say more. Hell, he wanted to promise her things he had no right promising.Like that Jake would make a full recovery. That Eastern would find the person who’d shot him and arrest him before he struck again. But he had no idea if any of that would be true.
It didn’t take long for Theo and Hendrix to arrive, and when they did, they were all business. The three of them carefully lay Jake on the stretcher while Tilly kept the top pressed to his wound, then they jogged him out of the woods. They’d just reached the parking lot when the paramedics arrived, closely followed by Eastern and a few other officers.
Once Jake was in the ambulance, Eastern moved over to him. “What happened?”
“He found something to do with Macy’s murder.”
Eastern straightened. “What did he find?”
“I don’t know. He radioed to tell us, but before he could say what it was, the gunshot fired. Whatever it was, he said he was scared to touch it in case there were already prints on it. I had a quick look around his body but didn’t see anything.”
“So it’s the same location as Macy’s body was found?”
Kayden nodded. “Almost, just a bit closer to the highway.”
Eastern scrubbed a hand over his face. “This is getting out of fucking hand.” He turned to his deputies and relayed the information, giving them instructions on where the shooting took place before turning back to Kayden. “I’m shutting down the visitors center until further notice. And I want to interview everyone who was here.”
Kayden nodded, not surprised by his brother’s call. “Okay. Tilly was with me at the time of the shooting.”
