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“Eddie, hold on,” I whispered. The man writhed in pain, and while it was good that he was still alive, I needed him calm or he could bleed out before I found the bullet.

Bennett raced up to me. “What happened?”

I blinked and wiped at sweat that beaded my brow. The heat was suffocating, and my head swam. “Keep Violet, Peter, and Annie away. They can’t see him like this.”

What if I couldn’t save him? The bullet wound was so perilously close to his heart. Was I depriving them of a proper goodbye?

No. No. No.

No one else would die in my wake.

I rifled through the bag with one hand and pulled out my forceps and a handful of gauze. Bullet first, stop the bleeding second. Then the hospital.

Warren returned with a pot of steaming water and a stack of folded towels from the kitchen.

Phantom stomped his hooves behind me but kept his distance. He must have smelled the blood in the air.

“Will you put him away?” I asked Warren, my voice trembling. “And then bring a vehicle as close as you can to load Eddie?”

Warren nodded. “Got it.”

He stood and walked over to Phantom, who followed him away from the commotion.

My gaze locked on the wound as I felt around for the bullet. Eddie groaned and passed out.

Then I felt it at the end of my tool, the clink of metal on metal. I gripped the chunk of lead and pulled it out, then quickly stuffed the wound with gauze. “That’s it, Eddie.”

Warren pulled his truck to the side of the house, blocked further by the back gate.

I looked up. “Mason, I need you to help Warren load Eddie.”

“Eva, I can’t let this guy go.”

Warren walked over. “I can get Eddie alone.”

“No, we can’t risk him bleeding out. We must load him carefully.”

Mason looked at Warren as if unsure what to do.

At that same moment, as if overhearing the quandary, the man jerked free of Lucky and Mason, taking off toward the woods.

Lucky leveled his firearm and fired twice but only hit the dirt at the man’s feet.

My heart thudded, and I saw the conflict in Warren’s eyes. “Warren!” I shouted. “We have to get Eddie to the hospital.”

He looked between the intruder and me, his eyes dropping to my neckline, which I knew was bruised and dirty. He wanted revenge.

There wasn’t time for this, and there wasn’t a question of who mattered more.

“Warren, now!” I turned to Mason. “Hurry!”

They jumped into action and Lucky held his firearm at the ready, his eyes scanning the tree line in case the man returned. Warren and Mason loaded Eddie carefully, and I crawled into the cab to rest Eddie’s head on my lap and hold pressure over the wound.

Warren closed the door, instructed Lucky to get all the men formed into a search party, and told Bennett to take Violet, Peter, and Annie to the hospital behind us. Then he hurried into the driver’s seat and started up the engine. His gaze locked onto mine for just a heartbeat, and I saw the same terror I felt in every cell of my body.

He tore down the roads and sped into St. Elizabeth’s parking lot. He jumped out of the truck, calling for doctors and waving over a nurse for a stretcher.

Eddie’s eyes opened slightly before the nurses took over. He looked up at me and offered a painful smile. “Are you okay, Eva?”