The whole world becomes sirens inside my skull.
Noise, movement, shouting, engines—none of it reaches me.
All I see is her.
Her shaking hands.
Her lips moving around a whisper that guts me.
“Stay with me… please stay with me…”
For one sickening second it feels like a bullet tearing through my own chest, and I imagine those hands covered inherblood.
Her body lying there instead.
And something inside me snaps clean in half.
“Kaden, please. Look at me.” Autumn’s voice cracks, but her hands stay exactly where they are. She’s shaking, sobbing, but she doesn’t loosen her pressure for a second.
“You took a bullet for me,” I say, my own hands unsteady. “Fuck, Kaden… you took a bullet for me.”
Kaden’s eyes flutter, his breaths coming in fast, shallow gasps. He tries to smirk, but it dies halfway.
“Let’s move,” Kian says, controlled.
“The team’s on standby. We need to take him now,” Declan adds, his hand clamping down on my shoulder like he’s grounding me before I fall apart.
I inhale once, deep, forcing control and ice into my veins. It feels thin. Fragile. Like it might crack at the slightest touch.
“Autumn—” I try, voice low, but she shakes her head before I finish.
“No.” Her hands press harder, her whole body leaning into it. “I’m not moving my hands. He’ll bleed out.”
She looks up at me, eyes red and terrified and stubborn as hell, begging me without a word to let her keep him alive.
Kaden tries to lift his own hands to push hers away. A stupid, heroic move.
She slams his hands back down.
“No!” she snaps. “I’m staying with you.”
Kaden’s eyes change, soften, fear, admiration, grief, everything mixing together.
“Connor. Kian.” Declan’s voice cuts through the chaos.
We move as a unit, four men lifting Kaden off the ground while Autumn stays glued to him, crawling with us, refusing to let go for even a breath.
We slide him into the back of Declan’s SUV. Blood spreads across the leather in a thick, dark pool. Autumn climbs in after him, kneeling on the floorboard, bracing her elbows on the seat to keep pressure steady.
“I’ll drive. Take mine.” I shove my keys into Declan’s hand. He nods once.
Viviana doesn’t speak; she just sprints to my car with Connor at her heels. Declan follows, already dialling someone.
I jump into the driver’s seat beside Kian. The second the doors slam, I peel out of the lot.
“How is he?” I grind out, eyes flicking to the rearview mirror. I can’t see Kaden’s chest. Can’t see his eyes. Can’t see if he’s slipping.
“He’s breathing,” Autumn answers. Her voice is shaking, but her hands stay firm. Her spine straight. She’s holding him together with her bare fucking will.
