“The women,” she whispered, wincing.
“Hey. Wait,” I said as I rolled down the window.
Petrov turned, “I said to trust me. Your men need to go to the clubhouse now. The women will be found.”
Goddammit. “Hey, all of you get the fuck out of here now.”
“You should probably leave Jeannie here,” Petrov said.
“No. Now, go! We need to get her to the hospital now.”
Petrov went back to his phone, but didn’t argue with me. There was no fucking way Jeannie was getting out of this.
I glanced behind me as we pulled down the bumpy driveway, my guys rushing around. They’d get out soon. They knew the drill.
Turning back, I kept one hand under her shoulder and pressed the other over her chest, trying to slow the bleeding. If this had been one of the guys, I’d be rational– calm. I’d know they’d be alright because of where the shot was. But it wasn’t. It was my woman.
I’d fucked around, not wanting to put out the vote forher. In the back of my mind, I thought if I didn’t claim her, maybe I wouldn’t get attached. Maybe I wouldn’t worry. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like the world was crumbling around me while she bled in my arms.
But none of that mattered. I had no chance since the moment I met her. I’d just been fooling myself.She’s been my woman since I met her.
“This is my fault,” I said, looking down as she dozed off again, but breathing.
“Don’t do that,” Ma said. “She’s gonna be just fine, anyway. But this ain’t your fault, and playing martyr only serves your ego, nothing else.”
“If I’d just–”
“Just what son? Patching her wouldn’t change the fact that Jeannie’s a psycho.”
“Maybe. But maybe if I had, she wouldn’t have gone. Why the fuck didn’t you stop her?” I asked. Keys gave me a short briefing about the beginning of the feed, and Klara admitted to Keys they snuck out to go confront Jeannie. She got worried when her watch showed an increased heart rate.
Ma scoffed. “Just because I said don’t blame yourself doesn’t mean you get to blame me. Would you rather she’d gone alone? Because I got news for you, she would have found a way, with or without me.”
Looking down, I knew she was right. Kat was definitely stubborn. While she didn’t have a short fuse, once it was lit, it made a big bang.
“How do you do it, Ma?” I asked, still holding pressure onher wound.
“What’s that, son?”
Looking up I said, “Carry on without Pops.”
Her face softened and her mouth fell open slightly. She drew in a deep breath. After a drawn out exhale, she answered, “One day at a time.”
It was quiet for a few minutes and I saw the hospital sign on the highway. “We’re getting close, Kitty Kat. Just hang in there.”
“Hawk,” Ma said. She hardly ever called me by my name so my eyes quickly flicked up in her direction.
“It was still worth it.”
My jaw clenched. I was trying to think of something to say, but Niko announced, “We’re here.”
The hospital was small, and only half of the parking lot was full. There wasn’t even a parking deck. “Is this a hospital or a medical park?” I asked.
As we pulled closer, the sign said hospital.
Ma said, “It’s a hospital. They probably don’t do trauma, but her shot ain’t that bad.”
My heart sped up as we got closer. She’d lost a lot of blood before we even got into the SUV, and the ride had been close to twenty minutes.
