My breath catches.
As I watch in horror, Ames leans down and clutches Holden’s face in both hands and lets out a sob that tears my heart to shreds. “No! Holden! Oh, god, please no.Pleaseno! Come on, you asshole.” He pounds Holden’s chest weakly with one fist. “You can’t be?—!”
I’m frozen solid, staring at the scene unfolding before me, clueless about what to do or say. My own fucking brother might be the reason Ames loses his. And if that happens, everything is lost. There’s no way we would survive that. How could he ever forgive me?
“Fuckingow, Ames! Jesus Christ!” Holden complains through gritted teeth, shocking everyone.
I let out a shuddering breath as I see him blink.Finally.
Ames lifts his head to see Holden’s face. His cheeks are streaked with tears. “You’re alive?”
Holden coughs and tries to roll, but can’t. He groans loudly. “No thanks to you andyourtender mercies.” He grips Ames’s hand in his, possibly because Ames looks like he might punch Holden again, this time for worrying him. “I’m okay. Just… had the wind knocked out of me.”
“He shot you!” Ames insists.
“Yes, he fucking did,” Holden says with gritted teeth. “Do you know, I had a perfect fucking record until today? Zero on-the-job injuries.” He yells loudly as one of his deputies leans on his shoulder, applying pressure. “Marin! Are you sure that’s what you’re supposed to be doing? How fucking long for the bus to get here?”
“ETA less than one minute, sir,” the woman replies. “I’m trying to get the bleeding stopped?—”
“Have I mentioned it fuckinghurts?” Holden demands. “Because it fucking does. A fuckinglot. So maybe stop that!”
One of the other deputies, Bale, touches my arm. “Rob? You can get off him now, bud. Let us get him up.” He nods down at Mike. I have to glance down before I realize I’m still kneeling on my brother’s back.
I hop up, quickly scramble across the deck, and drop down at Ames’s side, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him against my chest. Tears are still falling down his face as I press a kiss to his mouth.
He kisses me back, lips clinging to mine. “Robbie. Fuck, baby, I thought?—”
“You’re okay,” I soothe. “I’m okay. Holden’s okay too. I’ve got you.”
Ames sniffs. “I know you do. You always do.”
The EMTs arrive and efficiently cut away Holden’s shirt to assess the wound. One of them, Linette, looks at Ames with kind eyes.
“Bullet went clean through his shoulder, Ames. He’ll be okay. There’s just a lot of blood?—”
“Andpain,” Holden complains. “Have Imentionedthe pain?”
Ames lets out a shaky, watery laugh. He’s still gripping Holden’s hand, but he lets himself lean into my arms. “Oh my god, quit being so dramatic,” he teases.
Holden shoots Ames a narrow-eyed look as the EMTs start loading him onto a stretcher. “Me? I had to get shot to make you and your boyfriend stop pretending you’re not together. But sure, Ames,I’mthe dramatic one.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AMES
Not-Shocking Ames AxfordFact Number One: I fucking hate hospital waiting rooms.
The fluorescent lights. The hideous pastel walls. The chairs that put your ass to sleep the second you sit in them. The utter lack of control, knowing someone you care about is around here somewhere, but you can’t see them or hear them orfix them.
I imagine this is a little taste of what Robbie went through not so long ago, when I was the one being rushed to the hospital. But in this case, thank fuck, we know Holden’s going to be okay. And in this case, I get to have my very favorite person sitting beside me with his arm around my shoulder.
Even as I’m thinking about this, Robbie shifts and pulls me more fully against his side, careful not to squeeze too hard.
The man actually made me get my arm checked when we arrived here, convinced I’d reinjured myself—which wasn’t too far-fetched, since my sling had beensoaked with Holden’s blood. I’d opened my mouth to protest that I was fine—that I had, in fact, tweaked my arm a fuck of a lot more while I wasgetting fuckedlast night—but one look at Robbie’s worried face, and I’d shut up.
Not-Shocking Ames Axford Fact Number Two: There’s not much I won’t do for Robbie Wojcik. Especially when he’s holding me against him so I can smell the homey, soothing scent of his Abercrombie cologne over the unpleasant tang of antiseptic.
He lifts his other hand and runs his fingers through my hair before settling my head on his shoulder. It feels so damn good. I don’t give a shit that my whole family’s watching me lean on him, literally and figuratively.
