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“Bitch!” He roars after me. My leg gives out from the pain in my calf as I try to stand. Instead, I limp as fast as I can, swiping my keys from the coffee table when I hear him right behind me. I turn, swinging my arm out in an arc with the pieces of metal between my fingers. I get him right in the face. Angry red lines score his cheeks, but all it does is make him madder.
He grabs my shoulders and wrestles me down to the couch. I keep lashing out, stomping him square in the junk, but he slams his head down on mine in a punishing blow that makes me see stars. Red hot pain flares from my forehead. My vision doubles, and I close my eyes to ward off the aftermath of the excruciating, sledgehammer-like impact.
I fumble around, still clawing and kicking when his weight is lifted from my body. My vision comes back into focus as Dempsey levels the barrel of a gun at Jared. The fucker in question scoots back, trying to get away as fast as he can on all fours, but Dempsey doesn’t even give him the chance. He pulls the trigger, and two bullets release that sound like soft little puffs of air. The only evidence Dempsey shot him is the two holes in Jared’s head as he falls backward.
Freaking out, I retreat, reaching the side of the couch. Dempsey has to lunge for me so I don’t fall right off the edge. “Relax, Colleen. Deep breaths. Let me check you over.”
A bone-deep tremor takes over my body. His hands pass over my clothes and limbs. “Jaz?” I sob. “She’s in the bedroom.”
“I’ll check her. I promise. Just let me do this first or Boss will fucking murder me, okay?”
Cole’s second passes his thumb over the knot on my forehead, and I hiss. His fingers run down my torso, stopping at the growing red spot on my leggings. “He stabbed me.”
Dempsey growls and pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket before wrapping it around my leg. “I’m going to check on your friend. Sit tight. Don’t move.”
He steps over Jared’s body and moves toward Jaz’s room. I don’t hesitate. I get up, swaying on my feet. I make it to her room with the help of walls and furniture, then stumble forward onto the edge of her mattress. Dempsey places his fingers to her neck. Time stops. It takes what seems like forever for him to say, “She has a pulse.”
Crushing relief sweeps over me. I crawl next to her, and he curses. I start untying the knot on her wrist, and he does the same with the other. “Jaz, baby. You there?” Her limp hand falls to the mattress, and I cup her cheek. Hot tears sting my eyes and fall down my cheeks. “We have to help her.”
“I’ll get a paramedic, just let me hide the body.”
My fingers fret over the blood staining her stomach. I don’t dare touch anything because I don’t want to hurt her further, but the wound doesn’t even appear to be fresh. “Fuck!” I scream, ending on a whimper when it feels as if my head is in a vise.
Dempsey rambles off our address to someone and pockets his phone. He runs into the other room, more than likely moving Jared’s dead form. When he returns to Jaz’s room, sirens are a faint sound in the distance. He turns my chin until I’m facing him. “You had an intruder. He accosted you when you walked in this morning. I’m a neighbor. I heard your cry for help. He got away. Understand?”
I blink up at him.
“Understand?”
I nod. “Intruder. You’re a neighbor. You heard me cry out for help.” When he nods back at me, I ask, “How the hell did you get here so fast, anyway?”
“I was close by because Cole wanted me to check on you. Finn called me.”
I gasp, gaze darting to the phone I dropped when I first came in. He must’ve heard the whole thing.
“I’m sure he’s on his way. I have to call your brother. Remember the plan?”
I nod again. “Intruder. He tried to hurt us. Neighbor who came to help. Fucker got away.”
Dempsey slips into the other room as voices call out from downstairs. “It’s the paramedics. Are we clear to enter?”
“Come on up,” Dempsey yells. He’s silent after that, staying in the other room as the EMT’s enter Jaz’s bedroom. They help me off the bed, attending to my friend first. They confirm she has a pulse, and then say a lot of things in medical speak that I don’t understand.
A minute later, someone brings a gurney up the stairs, and they help Jaz onto it. As they’re prepping her, more loud footsteps stomp up the stairs. Dempsey says, “Woah, woah. They’re attending to them. Hold up.”
“I need to see her,” a voice barks.
“Finn?”
Next thing I know, Dempsey curses and Finn comes flying into the room, skirting around the gurney until he sees me sitting on the bed. His gaze rakes over me, and I really come apart then. Tears track down my cheeks. I’m caught between watching them wheel Jaz away and wanting to go to Finn.
One of the paramedics tries pushing him back. “We’ve got to get her in the ambulance. Stand aside.”
My hottie trainer easily pushes past him. “I’ll do it.” With concern etched all over him, he places one arm around my shoulders and another under my knees, hoisting me into the air. I lay my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes.
Now that Finn’s here, I know everything is going to be okay.
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