Wood splinters.
An achingly familiar voice shouts, “Go, go, go!”
Another man replies sharply, “Tango armed!”
Ronan’s voice is strained but commanding. “Can you get her?”
The other man lets out a low snort. “Of course.”
I roll over to see Ronan racing across the room. His eyes are wild. Worry and fear are etched across his features. “Angel!”
I’m just sitting up as he comes crashing down beside me.“Angel.”His gaze sweeps over my body. His expression jolts. “Ah, fuck. Fuck. She hit you.”
“Tango down,” the other man announces. “Disarmed.” He sounds a little insulted as he adds, “As if I couldn’t.”
“Her name is Sharon,” I tell Ronan. My voice sounds funny, like I’m hearing it through cotton. “Justin’s mom.”
Ronan gently pushes me back to the floor. “Angel, sweetheart. I need you to lie down. Okay? You were shot. There’s blood—” His voice catches. “Just… let me take care of you. Alright?”
I want to insist I’m perfectly capable of sitting up. But all at once, my body goes weak. As I sag to the floor, a shudder takes hold of me. “She didn’t shoot me in the chest?” I ask. “She aimed at it. But I tried to get out of the way.”
“No.” Ronan presses something against my arm, and a fresh burst of pain erupts. When I yelp instinctively, he winces. “Shit, cupcake. I’m sorry. It’s your arm. I need to put pressure on it.”
“Not my chest?”
“Not your chest,” he replies. “But your arm is bleeding quite a bit.” He leans over to look at my arm. “I don’t think she caught an artery. But she got you good.”
I start shivering. “Why am I cold?”
“Shock.” Ronan looks up, presumably at the other man who came racing in with him. “Sawyer. Call 911. And I need my medi-kit. It’s in the?—”
“The car?” At the sound of a third voice, I turn my head to look. The front door is hanging on one hinge, and framed in the doorway is Enzo, holding a black bag in his hand. “I got it.”
“Paramedics are on the way,” Knox announces as he follows Enzo into the house. He glances around the room. “Shit. Who is she?”
“Justin’s mother,” I answer. “She wanted me to sign over custody. And when she realized that wouldn’t work, she said she was going to kill me.”
Ronan’s face jerks. “What?”
“I think… Justin lied to her,” I explain. “She thought I was hiding Haley from him. She’s the one who broke in. Who planted the drugs. She wanted to prove I was unfit. So she and Justin could raise Haley instead.”
Pure rage darkens Ronan’s expression. The muscles in his jaw work. He takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. I can tell he’s doing everything he can not to lose it.
“Haley.” I clutch Ronan’s arm. “Is she okay? Is she still with Alec? What about Justin?—”
“Gage is watching Justin,” Enzo answers. He crouches beside Ronan and gives me a gentle smile. “He went there as soon as we heard. Justin is claiming he had no knowledge of anything. But Gage isn’t leaving his side.”
“Haley’s with Alec,” Ronan adds. “I talked to him just before your alert went off. So she’s safe. He won’t let anything happen to her.”
I don’t even realize my teeth are chattering from the cold until Enzo takes off his coat and drapes it over me. “It’s the shock,” he says, echoing Ronan’s statement. “And the adrenaline dump. They’ll get some fluids into you, and you’ll feel much better.”
In the distance, the whine of sirens approaches.
Ronan strokes my hair and presses a gentle kiss to my forehead. “You’re going to be okay, cupcake. The paramedics will be here any second.”
“Then why do you look so worried?” I lift my uninjured arm to touch his face. “And scared.”
“Because I was scared,” he replies. “And I am worried. The woman I love was justshot.” He swallows hard. “I don’t care what my medical training tells me. I’m not going to stop being worried until I’ve gotten at least five doctors to look at you. Maybe more.”
