Page 269 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

“I’m right here. I’m right here,” I mumbled frantically. I struggled to roll him over onto his back, then a gasp tore from the depths of me when I saw the huge wet spot on his shirt where his jacket draped open.

The wound was low on his side.

I set my hand against it, and warm blood seeped out against my palm.

Dread spiraled through me, and I got up high on my knees so I could apply pressure to it with both hands. I put my weight on it as I muttered, “Theo, listen to me, just hold on. Help is on its way. You’re going to be okay. You have to be. You aren’t leaving me. You aren’t.”

There was no response, just the faint wheezing of shallow, haggard breaths.

Tears poured down my face as I leaned over him. “Just hang on. Hang on.”

Cash crashed through the door.

“Fuck,” he hissed as he found the scene, and I could tell he was talking to Otto when he said, “Colt is here. This was a kidnapping that we stumbled on. Cut and dry.”

“Yup,” Otto said, though his voice was low and heavy with implication. Could feel the weight of their eyes sweep to us.

Heavy footsteps clomped our way, and Cash dropped down to his knee at my side. He pressed his fingers to Theo’s neck. “He has a pulse but it’s weak.”

He slugged out of his jacket and pulled his shirt over his head. He balled it and shoved it under my hands. “Keep the pressure as firm as you can. You can’t hurt him any worse than he already is.”

Could feel him peering over at me as I fought the sob that knotted at the base of my throat.

“Ambulance is almost here. He’s going to be fine.”

Except I could hear the bleakness in his voice.

Another siren approached, and a minute later, three paramedics hustled through the door. Cash stood and set his hand on my shoulder. “Come on.”

“No, I won’t leave him,” I choked.

“Ma’am, I need to look at his wound. You don’t have to leave, but I need you to scoot back.”

Tears pouring down my face, I slid back on my knees, and the paramedic took my place.

Otto came up and curled his hand on my shoulder, his words scraping against my soul. “He’ll be okay. He has to be. It’s the first time in his life that he truly has something to live for.”

I watched in horror as they rushed to save his life.

Torment turning a bitter cold as a paramedic covered his mouth with a mask and started to squeeze air into his lungs while another was straddling him on the stretcher and pumping his chest as they pushed him out and into the ambulance.

Otto looped a big arm around my waist to keep me from falling back to the ground, and Cash stood firm yet stoic at my opposite side.

Chaos was everywhere.

I felt as if I were watching it through vapor. Through a hazy, distorted mirror.

Blood.

There was so much blood.

Nausea convulsed and seethed in my stomach as my mind curled between the past and now. How one wicked man could bring so much trauma and suffering.

I’d give anything to go back.

Rewind to that fateful night.

Save my parents.