Page 84 of Fatal Vision

Shelby pressed her hands against the two bullet wounds in Sabrina’s chest, searching for a heartbeat as she tried to stanch the bleeding. Behind her she heard Colton fighting their bomber.

She was shaking too much to feel the heartbeat, but she thought she saw the pulse in Sabrina’s neck jump. Maybe that was just wishful thinking. The security system would have already alerted the authorities, but medical services would be too late.

Shelby removed her shirt, leaving bloody handprints on it as she wadded it up to press it against Sabrina’s chest. Tears welled in her eyes.

Please Lord. Don’t let this woman die.

Don’t let Connor die.

This is all my fault.

Sirens echoed in the distance. The sounds of Colton and Ski Mask fighting fell away. She was cursing under her breath and praying for help when Colton suddenly appeared at her side.

His face was a mess, blood coming from a cut piercing his left eyebrow, more from beneath his ear and across his bottom lip. “Shelby, are you okay?”

The tears rolled down her cheeks. “Help her, Colton. I… I can’t.”

“Shelby? Can you see me?”

She nodded, glancing back. “Where’s that SOB? Tell me you killed him.”

Sirens sounded in the distance. Connor stirred, holding his head as he sat up gingerly.

“He got away,” Colton said, his gaze falling on Sabrina, then darting to Connor.

Connor saw them, saw Sabrina. He cried out, shoving debris out of the way to crawl over to her on hands and knees.

“What happened? Oh God, tell me she’s alive.”

Shelby couldn’t tell him that. She didn’t really know. Her body shook with adrenaline and shock. Colton moved her off Sabrina and Connor took her place, holding the shirt over Sabrina’s wounds and talking to her, begging her not to die.

Colton took Shelby in his arms, examined the glass in her leg. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “I’m going to find him, Shelby. I’m going to find the bastard that did this. And then I’m going to kill him.”

Through the open side of the house, she saw a rush of police cars and an ambulance pulling up. Colton’s truck was in shambles, Connor’s too.

As cops and EMTs swarmed inside, Shelby heard a whine.

“Salisbury!” She whipped her head one way and then the other, searching for the scruffy dog.

Colton was speaking to someone on his phone. He tried to keep Shelby still while an EMT knelt beside them.

“Get the dog,” she told Colton. “Now.”

He turned her over to the EMT, barking orders at two of the cops and the person on the phone all at the same time as he picked his way through the glass and wood to the hallway. There he scooped up Salisbury and held the dog up for her to see.

Thank God.

The EMTs were working on Sabrina. “I’ve got a pulse,” one said, and Shelby felt Connor’s relief from across the room.

They were all still alive. Shelby bowed her head for a moment and let out a shaky thank you.

I’m going to find the bastard that did this. And then I’m going to kill him.Colton’s words circled her brain, the killer’s eyes taunting her behind her closed lids.

Shelby touched her hair.Not if I kill him first.

NOTHING LIKE Agood car bomb to start the day off right.

If only it had done the job.