As they came to a stop, he felt something wet spread across his stomach. Fear ripped through him as he realized the bullet had gone right through his tactical vest and him, too.
There was a loud popping sound behind him as an M4 went off. It was immediately followed by a shout of pain. Screams filled the room, but they were quickly followed by sobs of relief, and Brooks knew Diego had gotten Pablo. The kid was still alive, but Brooks couldn’t find it in him to care at the moment. All he could do was worry that the bullet that had gone through him had hit Selena.
He shoved the desk beside him out of the way, sending it sailing across the room. Then he carefully rolled her over as gently as he could. His heart stopped when he saw the blood on her sweater, only to start beating again when he realized it was his, not hers.
He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but then he stopped himself. Selena might not have gotten hit with that bullet, but something was obviously wrong. Her breathing was coming fast and shallow, her skin was pale, and her eyes were glazed and unfocused. His gut told him it was more than simply shock. Had she broken or torn something when he’d tackled her to the floor?
Brooks slipped his arms under her, picking her up as gently as he could as he got to his feet. As he headed for the door, he caught sight of Trey treating a bullet wound in Pablo’s right shoulder. They’d bring the kid out soon, and he wanted to have Selena in an ambulance and long gone by then.
He moved as fast as he could down the locker-lined hallways, making sure not to jostle her too much. When she let out a soft moan, he glanced down and almost stumbled into a wall locker as he found himself captivated by her beautiful, dark eyes. He stopped, leaning in a little to tell her she was going to be okay and that she was safe, but the moment he got close, her scent hit him full force, and he forgot whatever he’d been about to say.
He didn’t even realize he’d stopped walking until a paramedic clapped him on the shoulder. “We got her from here.”
Brooks looked up in surprise to see that the paramedic and her partner had rolled a gurney up to him. He’d worked with Fletcher and Barnes before, so he knew they were good at their jobs. He couldn’t help but stare at them in confusion, though. How long had he been standing there lost in Selena’s eyes?
At the paramedics’ urging, Brooks gently placed Selena on the gurney, but when he tried to pull back, her right arm had somehow found its way around his neck and refused to let go. Their eyes locked again, and for a moment, time seemed to stop.
Until the female paramedic gently took Selena’s arm from around his neck and carefully placed it on the gurney beside her.
By the time Brooks recovered, Fletcher and Barnes had already shoved the gurney down the hallway and out the door, asking Selena where she’d been shot as they went.
He hurried after them so he could tell them Selena hadn’t been hit but got outside in time to see the doors of the ambulance slam shut and the female paramedic hauling ass around to the driver’s side door. The ambulance pulled away just as he reached it, lights and sirens coming on and the tires squawking on the asphalt of the parking lot.
For one crazy moment, he had an incredibly powerful urge to shift into his wolf form and chase after the vehicle so he could be with the woman whose scent still filled his nose.
What the hell was up with him? He couldn’t shift in broad daylight in front of a couple hundred people, not to mention all the reporters and cameras crews that had shown up. As he watched the bright red emergency vehicle disappear around the corner, he wondered what it was about Selena Rosa that had him so rattled.
He was still trying to figure that out when Diego and Remy brought Pablo out and put him in another ambulance. He absently noted the short discussion with one of the paramedics but didn’t bother to listen in as Remy hopped in back to ride to the hospital with the teen.
“You okay?”
Brooks jumped.Shit.He hadn’t even heard or smelled Trey come up behind him.
“Yeah, I’m good,” he murmured.
Maybe he should jump in his SUV and follow the ambulance to make sure Selena got to the hospital okay.
“Good, huh?” Trey said, walked around to stand in front of him, hazel eyes thoughtful. “So, that blood on your shirt and running down your arm isn’t a big deal?”
Frowning, Brooks glanced at his arm. Damn, Trey was right. His armwasbleeding. He had a hole the size of his little finger drilled right through the inside of his right forearm up near his elbow. Unlike the one that had hit his stomach, this bullet didn’t look like it had gone through and through.
One of the team’s two medics, Trey grabbed his arm, probing and squeezing with well-practiced fingers, then grunted. “The bullet is still in there, wedged between the radius and the ulna. You honestly didn’t feel it?”
Brooks shook his head. “I guess not.” Even as he said the words, his arm began to burn and tingle. “But I’m definitely feeling it now. Can you get it out?”
While werewolves could recover from just about any wound, except one to the head or the heart, foreign debris inside the body slowed down the healing process, not to mention hurt like hell.
“Yeah, I can get it out,” Trey said. “Good thing the paramedics didn’t see this, or you’d be taking a ride to the hospital along with the teacher and our gangbanger.”
“The paramedics must have thought all the blood on me was from the teacher. They never looked at me twice.”
“Thank God for small favors.” Trey regarded him curiously. “You sure you’re okay? Your eyes are a little glassy. Plus, it’s weird that you couldn’t feel the bullet in there until I mentioned it.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Brooks said.
But as they headed for the operations truck, Brooks wasn’t so sure about that. Why hadn’t he felt that bullet in his arm? And why the hell had he been standing in the middle of the school parking lot for who knew how long watching an ambulance disappear down the street?
He didn’t have an answer to either of those questions, and right then, he couldn’t waste any more time on them. After Trey got the bullet out, he needed to help get witness statements. Even though Pablo’d had a gun and was going to use it, this situation was going to get messy. They needed to make sure everything had been done by the book.
