He fell backward, as if in slow motion, and then stared at the sky with unseeing eyes and a bloody hole in the center of his forehead that oozed with scarlet blood.
I grabbed my gun and took aim at the big guy to my left. I wasn’t about to give his dull brain the chance to decide whether or not to shoot the woman. He dropped as fast as Beelzebub. My bullet perfectly on target in his temple.
“Fuck!” Jamie said and aimed at the third guy who was spinning to face us.
A piercing agony burst through my left side at the same time as the gunshot rang out. The force of it was so violent it spun me around and threw me into the air at the same time. I hit the dirt, taking in a mouthful of grit as my bones ricochetedwithin my body, and pain, hot searing flames, raged through my guts.
Another shot echoed around the containers, and then I heard women screaming. Panicked and desperate, they were a bluster of energy that I could do nothing about.
My legs had gone from under me, my body still rippling in the aftershocks of the blast.
I gripped my side. Groaned. And drew my hand up to my face for examination. It was covered in rich sticky blood. My blood. I’d been hit.
Of course I had.
“Jesus Christ.” Andrew’s voice. “What the fuck?”
“I’ll go after them.” Finn to my right.
“Take Cillian, don’t lose them.” Andrew again. “Fuck, don’t lose them.”
“On it,” Finn’s voice then thumping footsteps.
A presence next to me. A hand on mine. “I’ve got you, mate. Stay with us.” Dalton’s calm voice.
“Fucker got me.” I blinked in the bright light of the sky above.
“Yeah and we got him. Don’t move, let me see the damage.”
“What are we dealing with?” Andrew was next to me, too. “Fuck, that’s bad, Dalton.”
I hissed in a breath when Dalton shifted my torso to examine me.
“Yeah, it is, there’s an exit wound back here, bullet went right through, and fuck knows what damage it did on the way.”
“So what do we do?” Grant’s voice now.
“We need to get him to hospital, he’ll need surgery.” Dalton paused. “Sorry, Prof, I know that’s not ideal, but it’s his only hope.”
“Then it’s what we’ll do,” Andrew said.
“And these three bodies?” Grant asked. “There’s going to be questions, a cop with a bullet in his side, and we don’t want no evidence here.”
I closed my eyes. My heart was thudding, as though it was working overtime, and my breaths were shallow and difficult to catch.
“Fuck,” Andrew muttered. “Okay, here’s a plan. Cillian and Finn will catch those girls, hopefully, so we can help them get home. Me and Grant will feed these bastards to the dogs, they’re not fussy what they eat, or so I heard Asshole say. And getting rid of evidence will suit us well. And Dalton, can you get Mitch to the hospital, drop him off, and then get out of there fast so you don’t have to answer any awkward questions.”
“Don’t…don’t get Galahad in the shit…for this…” I managed. “I don’t want…”
“It’s going to be okay, mate.” Grant squeezed my shoulder. “We’ve got this, minor hiccup, but the main thing is you’re okay.”
I really didn’t feel okay, far from it. But at least I was breathing even if I was bleeding out.
“Help me get him to the van,” Dalton said as something tight went around my torso, presumably to stem the blood flow.
I gritted my teeth. The discomfort was necessary, but that didn’t make it easier to bear.
“Anyone asks, you got mugged, okay.” Andrew hoisted me up. “Had your wallet and phone taken.” He pulled my phone from my pocket then searched for my wallet, found it.
