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“She lost a lot of blood,” she adds, quieter now. “The bullet hit just below her collarbone. Pierced her lung.”

I wanna tell her I know that part already. I was there for every agonizing moment.

41

Julian

Yesterday

The gunshot echoes through the basement. Dust rains from the ceiling.

Brad’s still clawing at my arms while I squeeze the life out of him. Every drop of my rage is in my fingers. His desperation feeds the hunger inside. Then I hear another shot and a scream.

Sable.

I turn my head just as another shot fires. My ears ring. My eyes water. And then they land on her.

She’s still tied to the chair in the middle of the room, but her body’s slumped over. Blood pools on the front of her t-shirt. Her eyes are wide and scared.

I push off of Brett and scramble to her. I grab her face in my hands, shaking my head, begging her with my eyes.

AJ’s at my side now, kneeling in the growing pool of blood.

“Untie her,” I manage to croak out. “Sable. Please. Stay with me, baby girl.” I rock her back and forth. “

The pain I feel is worse than the shrapnel. Worse than the three bullets I caught behind the hospital. It’s even worse thanbeing abandoned. This shit here…this is the kind of pain that makes you not want to live on.

But I will.

Because either she lives, and she’s mine, or she dies, and I kill every motherfucker that ever said a cross word on her name.

A shot rings out behind me, but I don’t even flinch.

“I think that was his last man,” AJ says as he drops his gun on the floor beside him. “Let’s see what we have here.”

We lay her flat on the basement floor. AJ pulls out a pocketknife and hands it to me. I cut straight up her shirt, tearing it off and tossing it aside. AJ’s hands are on her chest, pressing hard against the hole under her collarbone. On autopilot, I fold her shirt and press down hard where his hand is.

“Keep it there, and I’ll lift.”

I nod, but then I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I gesture to AJ to take my place, then I reach out and grab his gun. I don’t even move from my spot, because I’ve always been good at this part. I close one eye, aim, and put a bullet in Brett’s head.

We carry Sable up the stairs. AJ’s man is watching the door.

“Get them all wrapped up and ready to go,” I say on our way out the door.

I sit in the back with her, one hand pressed to her chest, the other cradling her head. Her eyes are closed, but she still has a weak pulse. I haven’t lost her. Not yet.

I peer around AJ’s seat. He’s doing 90, but it feels so much slower.

Finally, we make it to the hospital. AJ and I rush her inside.

“Help! Gunshot,” AJ calls. Two nurses get her situated on a gurney while AJ lies to the nurse about finding her stumbling down the street covered in blood.

I’m in a daze when I call Ebony.

“What do you mean, shot?” she screams. “What the fuck happened to my sister?”

“Just come to Lakeview. That’s where she is.”