Josie’s stomach plummeted.“Just keep looking at me, okay?”She moved her free hand to his wound.
“Here.”Dez handed over her sweater.
Josie pressed the cream-colored material to the bullet hole.Quin winced, but she didn’t ease the pressure.He took the garment in his free hand and shifted so he sat up straighter.
“Well, that looks like it hurts, huh boys?”The sheriff crouched between Cody and Quin.“Care to tell me what happened?”
“It was Cody,” Josie blurted.“He killed Liam.He started the fire at the bar, and he tried to frame Quin.”The words rushed from her mouth faster than water over Niagara Falls.“When Quin came back to town, Cody came after me.He’s the one who ran me off the road and broke into my house and kidnapped me.”She nodded at the weapon a few feet away.“He was going to kill me with that axe before Quin showed up and hit him with his car.”If they tried to pin this on Quin, she’d—
Hank held up his hand.“It’s all right, darlin’.I believe you.”He leaned forward and checked Cody’s pulse.“He’s still alive.”
“Don’t fucking save him,” Quin said, his voice hoarse.
“That’s up to God to decide, son.”
A siren sounded in the distance.Josie slid her gaze to Cody’s motionless body.Anger still flared inside her, but she didn’t want him dead.He needed to pay for his crimes, not get the easy way out.
An ambulance pulled up.Paramedics rushed to Cody’s side then two more came to Quin’s.Josie got elbowed out of the way while they cut off Quin’s shirt and went to work cleaning the gunshot wound and stabilizing him.
Dez pulled her back a few feet and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.“It’s okay.He’s going to be fine.Look at him.He’s too big and strong to let one measly bullet take him out.”
Her friend’s words were meant to lighten the moment, but there was nothing that would take the weight off her chest except Quin leaping to his feet.Josie swallowed one breath of air after another.She needed to be close to him, to see for herself that he was hanging on.
The paramedics sat him up and shifted him away from the car so they could get to his back.The sight of the bloody exit wound made her shrink.“Oh my gosh.He’s lost so much blood.”
Dez murmured more words of encouragement.Cody was loaded into the ambulance as the shrieks of a second ambulance split through the night.
With his wound now covered, Quin batted away the paramedics.“All right, that’s good.”He extended his uninjured arm, and Josie crushed herself to his side.
The second ambulance came to a halt and she got in with Quin, keeping her hand tucked into his.Dez yelled out her promise to call soon.
Quin’s grip on her fingers loosened.The doors slammed shut and Josie looked down at him.His face was relaxed, his eyes closed.She smoothed her fingers over his cheek.“Hey,” she said.
He didn’t move.She pressed her palm to his stubble and gave him a little shake.His skin was cold.“Quin?”
The world spun around her and she shook his arm.She turned to the paramedic.“Help!He’s not responding!”
CHAPTER 17
Beep,beep,beep
Quin blinked his eyes open.Bright light seared his retinas.He wet his lips and lifted his head.
A hand tightened on his.“Quin.You scared the shit out of me.”Josie’s frazzled tone made him lower his head back down to the hospital pillow.
Lord almighty, had he passed out?His dignity dropped ten points.“Sorry,” he mustered, turning his head to face Josie where she sat perched on the bed beside him.The room spun, but he forced his eyes to focus on her face rather than wobble around in his head like they wanted.
She lifted their joined hands and rested her cheek on his knuckles.“I’m just glad you’re okay.The doctor said you lost a lot of blood.You’re stitched up and no surgery was needed.”
A deep, throbbing pain in his shoulder crept into his awareness at the mention of the wound.Damn thing hurt like a bitch now, but there was no way he’d take any more pain meds than they’d already given him.
“Oh my god!”a female voice croaked from the doorway.
He shot his gaze to his sister.Her large blue eyes were wild with concern.
“Hey,” he said, the worry paling her skin making him wince.He pressed the buttons on the side of his bed and slid himself into a seated position.His head pounded, and he closed his eyes for a beat.He needed to find out what had happened to Cody and talk to the sheriff.
If the bastard was still alive, he sure as fuck better be charged with murder.
