Anja stood in the doorway, weapon steady, face locked down.“He’s done,” she said.
Kayne nodded once.Then the world tilted hard.
He reached for Chloe, fingers clumsy now, pulling her against him because letting go wasn’t an option.Not ever.Her hands flew to his vest, slick with blood.
“Kayne,” she whispered, terror flooding her voice.“You’re bleeding.You’re bleeding a lot.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, the word distant, belonging to someone else.The room pulsed in and out of focus.“Just a scratch.”
Even as he said it, his legs disagreed.
It wasn’t a scratch.The warmth spreading beneath the vest told a different story, and suddenly gravity felt negotiable.
He tightened his hold on her, comforting himself with the sound of her breathing, the feeling of her alive in his arms.
“Stay with me,” Chloe begged.
Kayne tried to smile.“Not goin’ anywhere,cher,” he said softly, stubborn even now, as the edges of the world blurred and darkened.“Not without you.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Kayne’s knees buckled.One second, he was upright, still holding Chloe, and the next, his weight sagged forward, his body going terrifyingly slack in her arms.
“No, no, no.Kayne.”Panic ripped through her as she grabbed him, lowering him awkwardly to the ground, hands slick with his blood.There was so much of it, dark and spreading beneath the Kevlar vest.
She wiped her hands on her pants and cradled his face between her palms, brushing her thumbs over his cheeks the way she’d seen people do in movies, the way she’d never understood until now.“Hey.Stay with me.Do you hear me?You’re fine.You’re going to be fine.”
The words felt flimsy, even as she said them.She didn’t know whether he could hear her, but she needed him to.
Her voice slipped into a soft croon she didn’t recognize but couldn’t stop, words tumbling out in a steady stream meant as much for her as for him.“You’re strong, and you’re stubborn.You don’t get to leave me here.Not now.Not ever.”
Relentless fear gnawed at her, eating through everything else.She’d faced Aiden’s gun and fought for her life in the dark.None of that compared to this helpless, hollow terror of watching Kayne’s eyes flutter and then close.
Anja was applying pressure to the wound, while Leo ran to the entrance to guide the medics inside.She should probably check on Danica, but she refused to leave Kayne’s side.
Sirens wailed somewhere above them, distant at first, then closer.Someone barked commands, radios crackled, and police and EMT boots pounded down the tunnel.
