“My ribs.” She put a hand to her side right side, clearly having trouble pulling in a full, deep breath. “Pretty sure at least one of my ribs are broken.”
Son of a…
“Uh…Digger?” Rawlins’ voice sounded in Slade’s ear.
Shit.“I’m here.”
“What do you need?”
“Three ambulances,” Slade answered without hesitation. “Owens is alive, but he took one to the gut.”
“Three?” Rawlins paused. “I thought I heard two gunshots.”
“You did,” Slade confirmed. “Stanton shot Owens, and then Shadow shot Stanton.”
“Holy shit. He dead?”
“Unfortunately, no. But I don’t think he’ll be shaking many hands on the campaign trail anytime soon.”
And from the look on the pathetic man’s face, even the disgraced senator knew that his time in politics—and as a free man—had just come to an end.
“Atta girl.” The other man sounded pleased. “Who needs the third ride?”
Slade turned to the woman who was clearly overrun with shock. “Shadow.”
“She hit?”
“No, but she took one hell of a beating.” To her, he had to know, “Did Stanton do that?”
“He hit me once.” She nodded. “But the rest was from one of the two guys who broke into the apartment and took us.”
“One was Reiner,” Slade informed her. “Not sure about the other yet. But don’t worry,” Slade vowed. “We’ll get them both.”
And anyone else involved in Stanton’s fucked up plan.
“Police and ambulance are on their way,” Rawlins let him know in a rush.
Relaying the info to the team, Slade told the others, “Cops and medical are on their way.”
With that handled, his focus returned to the woman next to him. She was still in shock and shaking like a damn leaf.
While Apollo used some plastic ties he’d had in the car to secure Stanton, who was still writhing in pain, Slade helped Shadow walk back over to her dad.
“H-How b-bad?” she asked for her father’s prognosis.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Bones stated the obvious. “But I think he’s going to be okay. It’s impossible to know for sure until the medics get him to the hospital, but from what I can see, it doesn’t look like the bullet hit anything vital.”
“Oh, thank God.”
Shadow nearly collapsed in relief, but Slade was right there, more than ready to catch her.
“I love you, Alice,” he whispered in her ear as he held her in his arms with kid gloves.
She leaned back just enough that her watery blue eyes could meet his. “What did you just say?”
Her widened gaze was filled with shock, but this time it had nothing to do with the horrors she’d faced.
“I said I love you. And I hope like hell you can somehow find a way to love me back.”
