Page 32 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

Ambrose

L eaning forward, I tried to ignore the fire racing through my veins and stared out the windshield as Danny flew up the driveway.

Every porch light and spotlight outside was on, and the front yard was littered with bodies.

We’d lost contact with Sven seven minutes ago.

Until then, his contact had been sporadic at best.

I felt like I was going out of my mind. I could hardly focus.

“Oh my god,” Danny’s mate whispered from the back seat as she got a good look at the carnage.

“Faster, Danny,” I ordered, my hand on the door handle.

Beau’s SUV skidded to a stop ahead of us. He and Chance jumped out, running toward the house.

“I’m coming with you,” Charlie announced.

“No. Keep watch,” I ordered when the car had slowed enough for me to jump out.

“Fuck, Ambrose!” Danny shouted in alarm.

The front windows were fucking gone.

I jumped over a body at the base of the stairs. Gods, there were so many of them on the porch that I had to step on a couple as I raced for the door. I shoved against it and got nowhere.

“Lucy?” I yelled. I slammed against the door again, but it still didn’t budge.

Fuck. I hurried to the windows.

“She’s in here,” Chance called.

I hadn’t thought it was possible, but the sight that greeted me as I climbed inside was far worse than what I’d seen outside.

Chance was crouched in the middle of the floor. Beau and Reese were kneeling further away. There were bodies everywhere. Blood and Gods knew what else painted the walls, the floor, the furniture.

“Where is she?” I barked.

“Here,” Chance said, shifting to the side.

My heart stopped.

Lucy was lying face down on top of a body, her pants pulled halfway down her ass. Another large body covered her legs. Her hair was still in the braid she’d been wearing when I left her, but pieces had fallen out and pooled on the floor. Her arms were covered in blood.

“She’s breathing,” Chance said as I scrambled toward them, tripping over the mess. “I can’t tell where she’s hurt, so I didn’t want to move her.”

“Get him off her,” I ordered, falling to my knees.

“Mom,” Beau called. “Mom, can you wake up for me?”

I looked to the side where my mother was lying flat on her back, motionless.

There was so much blood.

“Beau?” I called out, brushing Lucy’s hair away from her face.

“Gut shot,” Beau called back. “Alice!”

“I’ll find her,” Reese said, pushing herself quickly to her feet.

“Stay here,” Beau argued. “I’ll get her.”

“Lucy?” I called gently. “Baby, can you open your eyes for me?”

Chance grunted as he pulled the body off of her lower half. “Fuck.”

“What?” I asked, looking at her.

“She’s bleeding.”

“Where?” I brushed my hands down her body, gently pulling her leggings back into place.

“I can’t tell,” Chance said frantically. “It’s a lot of blood, Ulf.”

“I’m getting her up.” We couldn’t figure anything out while she was still draped over the body beneath her.

Lucy didn’t stir as I rolled her onto her back. Her skin was so pale it was practically translucent.

“Thigh,” Chance said, reaching for her. He wrapped his hands around it as I rose to my feet. We carefully carried her out of the room, stepping on anything that was in our way.

Reese barely glanced at us as she tried to put pressure on my mother’s wound. It didn’t seem to be making much of a difference, since it looked like the blood had mostly stopped already.

Forcing myself to look away, I carried Lucy through the kitchen to the hospital room.

Inside, Alice was just finishing up stitching a horrendous slash across Sven’s throat. He was out cold.

“Alice?” I called as we laid Lucy on the bed. Chance climbed on with her, his hand still gripping her thigh.

“I’ll be right there,” she replied, her voice rough. She turned to face us, and her eyes were dark with fear.

“Sven?”

“It wasn’t complete,” she said as she rushed to the sink. She quickly started scrubbing the blood from her hands. “The old fool made it back into the house. Lucy?”

“Thigh,” Chance replied.

“How bad?”

“Bad.”

“Baby,” I whispered, brushing Lucy’s hair back from her face. “Baby, wake up.”

“All right, let me see what we have,” Alice ordered Chance as she tugged a pair of gloves on. She grimaced when he let go.

“Alice,” Reese bellowed from the living room.

“Go tell her that I’ll help Mattie when I’m able,” Alice ordered Chance. “And please tell her that a gut wound won’t kill your mother, will you?”

“Do you know where Beau went?” Chance asked as he strode for the door.

“I sent him outside to find Matthias and Josiah.” Twisting, she grabbed a pair of shears off the little rolling table between the beds and began cutting Lucy’s leggings off. Beneath them was a large hole.

I looked at it with foggy detachment.

I’d seen hundreds of bullet wounds. Thousands, maybe. It was familiar, that hole.

“Ambrose,” Alice bellowed.

I looked at her in surprise.

“Stay with me, kid,” she ordered.

I nodded.

“Start an IV,” Alice said briskly.

“Right,” I said, my fingers tangling in Lucy’s hair as I pulled my hand from her cheek.

I reached for the supplies as Alice mumbled to herself. “No exit. Didn’t hit the bone. Where the hell is it?”

Setting out the supplies I’d need, I looked at Lucy’s arms. I wasn’t even sure where to place it. She was covered in blood and scratches. Reaching for the wipes on the cart, I froze when Alice called my name.

“I don’t care if she’s your mate,” she chided. “Go wash and glove.”

Fuck, I needed to get my head right.

I half-ran and half-stumbled over to the sink and began to scrub. Lucy would be okay. There was no other possibility. The Gods wouldn’t be cruel enough to take her when I’d just found her. I scrubbed harder. The Gods wouldn’t take Charlie’s sister, not after he’d lost his mate.

“Gloves,” Alice shouted.

I grabbed a towel to dry my hands and turned back toward the bed just as Matthias and Josiah stumbled into the room.

“How bad?” Alice barked.

“Two GSWs,” Josiah replied. “Side and shoulder.” He helped his brother lower to the floor.

“You’ll have to get in line, sweetheart,” Alice replied, all business. “Where the hell have you been?”

Matthias let out a choked laugh. “Taking care of the stragglers.”

I pulled on a pair of gloves.

“Josiah, you’re good?”

“Pretty much.” He limped toward the bed.

“Scrub,” Alice ordered him. “Take over for Ambrose.”

“Lucy?” Matthias asked, leaning over to see the bed.

“Gunshot to the thigh,” Alice replied as I reached the bed and leaned down to kiss my mate’s forehead. “It’s still in there.”

“I can start the IV,” I said, leaning back up.

“You’ll sit there and make moon-eyes at your mate,” Alice countered. “You’re in no shape to be any help.”

I nodded and pulled the gloves back off so I could lay my bare hands on her skin. I swallowed against the lump in my throat as I carefully pulled a piece of hair away from her neck and set it behind her.

“Damn, Ambrose,” Josiah said with a whistle as he began to clean her arm. “Your woman’s a fighter.”

I nodded, staring at Lucy’s face. She was so out of it that her eyes weren’t even fully closed. A sliver of white was showing between her lids. The round cheeks that I loved so much hollowed out because of the way her jaw hung slightly open.

It felt like I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.

“There you are,” Alice mumbled.

Lucy jerked.

Josiah lifted Lucy’s hand and sniffed it, letting out a noise of surprise.

“Was she shooting?” he asked Alice.

“Wake up, baby,” I whispered, putting my face close to hers. “Open those pretty brown eyes for me.”

“Best she’s not awake for this part,” Alice said dryly. “And yes, she was.”

“No shit?” Josiah asked.

“No shit,” Alice replied. “More than half those bodies in the living room are hers. Porch too.”

“Fucking hell,” Matthias said tiredly from his place on the floor.

“You should’ve seen Reese,” Alice said, amusement in her voice. “That girl can shoot too.”

“She had the rifle? We saw the bodies outside.” Josiah asked as he laid Lucy’s arm gently on the bed. “You need anything?”

“I’ve got it,” Alice replied. “Clean and bandage those cuts on her arms.”

“On it.”

“Reese had the rifle,” she confirmed. “Used the upstairs windows.”

“Smart,” Matthias mumbled.

“I used to be good with a rifle,” Alice said as she dropped the bullet she’d pulled out of Lucy’s leg on top of the rolling cabinet.

“Uncle Sven said you were a better shot than him,” Josiah said as he crossed the room.

“Easily,” Alice agreed, glancing at her mate.

“You want me to check him?”

“No, he’ll do,” Alice replied. “Lucy’s arms first.”

I didn’t move from my place at her side, so Josiah worked around me.

Once the blood was cleaned off her arms, the wounds were easier to see.

Across the top of each of her forearms were four deep gouges with familiar spacing.

Josiah laid his hand on top of them so I could see where his fingernails fell. I nodded.

Someone had scratched her, and they hadn’t been fucking around.

The bottoms of her forearms were worse. Little bits of glass were embedded in the tender skin there, one of them so deep that it would need stitching once Josiah pulled it out.

“Alice,” my dad called, carrying my mother into the room.

“Josiah, get the extra gurney,” Alice ordered.

He rushed across the room and set it up in less than a minute.

“She’s still out,” my father said as he laid my mother down.

“For the best,” Alice replied. “I’ll get to her next. Then Matthias.”

“I’m good,” Matthias said faintly. “Jo, call Adira. Tell her I’m—” His words drifted off.

Lucy’s eyebrows pulled together in a frown as her eyelids fluttered.

“It’s okay, love,” I said, running my thumb over her cheek.

“Almost done stitching,” Alice said as my father set his hand on my shoulder.

“Lucy?” Charlie called, running into the room. “Oh no.”

“It’s a fucking party in here,” Alice snapped sarcastically.

Charlie ignored her as he rushed to the foot of the bed. “Is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” I replied firmly.