I feel the tweezers close around something solid. Pull.
The bullet slides out. Small, deformed, and covered in blood. I drop it on the floor and immediately press gauze to the wound. Ghost goes limp, panting.
“Done. It’s out.” My voice is shaking as badly as my hands. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”
“Bonnie.” His voice is fading. “Gun. Get the gun.”
“What? No, I need to?—”
“Savage Legion.” His eyes fight to stay open. “Might’ve followed me. Need to…protect yourself.”
Terror floods through me. I forgot. In the panic of getting him inside and digging out the bullet, I forgot he’d been ambushed.
They could be coming.
I grab the gun I dropped by the door. Check the clip. Loaded. Safety off.
“I’ve got it.” I return to the couch, gun in one hand, fresh gauze in the other. “I’m armed. Now let me focus on keeping you alive.”
I pack the wound with gauze. Layer after layer, trying to stop the bleeding. Ghost’s breath comes in shallow gasps.
“Stay with me.” I tie the gauze in place with strips of a torn towel. “Don’t you dare pass out.”
“Trying.”
“Try harder!” My voice breaks. “You can’t leave me. Not now. Not like this.”
I grab more towels and press them against the wound. Lean my weight into it. Blood seeps through, but slower now.
“You’re going to be fine,” I tell him. Tell myself. “This is nothing. You’ve had worse. You told me about Afghanistan. You told me about that mission where?—”
“Bonnie.”
“What?”
“Stop talking.”
A laugh hiccups out of me. Even bleeding out, he wants me to shut up.
“Make me.”
His lips twitch. Almost a smile. Then his eyes slide closed again.
“No!” I shake him. “Open your eyes! Ghost, open your fucking eyes!”
They flutter. Stay half-mast. He’s fading.
“Please.” I lean over him, still pressing the wound. “Please don’t leave me. I need you. The baby needs you.”
“Baby’s…yours.”
“She’s ours. Yours and mine and Ash’s and Titan’s.” Tears drip onto his chest. “She needs her father. All three of her fathers. Don’t you dare die before you get to meet her.”
His hand finds mine. Squeezes weakly. “Not…dying.”
“Good. Because I’ll kill you myself if you do.”
That gets another almost-smile.
