Seth’s head snapped up, his gaze sweeping rooftops, windows, parked cars, the street, every possible angle. Then he looked back at her, and his eyes dropped to the blood covering her hands, her clothes, the concrete around them.
“We can’t stay out here in the open.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
His jaw tightened, and for a second she thought he was going to argue. Instead, he shifted closer, angling his body around her and the wounded man as best he could while barking details into the phone. “Yes, a gunshot victim. Possible shooter still in the area. We need EMS and officers here immediately.”
Charley kept pressure on the wound, her arms starting to shake with the effort.
“Come on,” she whispered to the guy who had now closed his eyes. “Come on. Stay with me.”
She honestly wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or herself.
The next few minutes blurred into noise and motion.
People started gathering despite shouted warnings to get back. Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder by the second. Someone nearby was crying. Seth stayed beside her, tense as a coiled wire, one hand occasionally pressing against her back or shoulder like he was making sure she was still upright, still there.
Then police cruisers tore up to the curb and officers spilled out, weapons drawn, scanning rooftops and windows and every dark place someone could hide. The paramedics came seconds later.
Everything moved fast after that. Seth helped ease Charley away as the paramedics took over, working to stabilize the guy as they began cutting his shirt off, checking his airway, getting a line into him, and packing gauze over the wound to his chest.
Charley just stood there staring at the guy on the ground and the blood covering her hands and clothes.
The full weight of what had just happened hit her all at once, and her knees started to buckle. Thankfully, Seth caught her before she hit the pavement. “Easy,” he said, one arm locking around her.
He walked her over to the curb and helped her sit. The moment her body stopped moving, the trembling started. Herheart was still hammering like it was trying to break free of her chest.
Alyvia appeared out of nowhere and dropped into a crouch beside her, pale and wide-eyed. “Oh my God, Charley. What happened?”
Charley opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Her arm throbbed now, a deep, hot ache that made her wince.
Seth saw it immediately. He crouched in front of her, his expression tightening. “Charley, are you hurt?”
She glanced down at her right arm. Her sleeve was covered in blood. “I… I think I hit my arm when I went down.”
Seth didn’t look convinced. “I’m getting a medic.”
Charley just nodded.
Across from her, the paramedics loaded the stranger onto a stretcher. The sight of him strapped down, pale and unmoving except for the frantic work being done around him, twisted something deep in her chest. They lifted him into the ambulance, slammed the doors, and seconds later, it sped away with the sirens screaming.
Moments later, Seth reappeared with a paramedic and a police officer.
The officer began introducing himself and asking Charley for a statement, but Seth cut in first.
“Statement can wait. She’s injured.”
The officer took one look at the blood on her sleeve and backed off with a nod.
The paramedic crouched in front of her. “Ma’am, can I take a look at your arm?”
Charley tried to push her sleeve up, but the movement sent a sharp bolt of pain through her, and she sucked in a breath. “Just cut it,” she said.
The medic didn’t hesitate.
As soon as the fabric fell away, Seth muttered, “Fuck.”
