Page 70 of Ice Cold Christmas

Another weapon wasn’t gonna help the bastard. Victor didn’t think anything could help him. He grabbed for the ski mask and ripped it off the jerk’s head. The headlights from the van lit up the scene. So much blood. The ski mask was wet with it. But when he pulled it off the attacker’s head…

Too young.

Some young punk. Barely looked twenty-one. Shaggy, brown hair. A pathetic excuse for a beard. Just scruff. And…wide, scared eyes.

“H-help…”

The kid’s lips were busted. Bleeding. His entire body was busted and bleeding, and, hell, he was not gonna make it. You didn’t need to be a doctor to figure out that shit.

“I didn’t see him!” A door slammed. The driver’s side door of the van. “He just ran out! OhGod, OhGod…is he all right?”

No, he was not. The perp’s breath heaved in and out. And his body shuddered.

“Get the hell back, Victor!” Angus’s shout again.

“Is he all right?” A desperate cry from the driver.

Blood covered the kid’s chest. From the knife wound Victor had given him? Yeah, sure, but also from the stunning impact of the van’s front end slamming into him. The kid couldn’t breathe right. He was just wheezing. And the blood—everywhere.

Melody dropped to her knees beside the perp.

Angus cursed.

The driver staggered closer. “I didn’t see him! I swear, I didn’t! He just ran out! Didn’t stop…”

Victor put his hands on the biggest wound he saw. A gushing wound on the kid’s chest.

“Look at me,” Melody told the kid. “Look at me. Focus on me. You’re going to be okay, do you hear me?”

Ah, no, he was not. Blood immediately soaked Victor’s fingers. Angus had called for help, he knew that. Just how long would it take for that help to arrive? They were so close to the police station. It should be fast, right? And why the hell weren’t other cops already nearby? Surely someone had heard the gunshots. “Tell the EMTs to fucking hurry!” Victor snarled to Angus because this kid could not die without giving him answers.

“Hurry!” Angus immediately blasted into his phone. “We’ve got a perp down. He’s…shit. Hurry.”

“Breathe,” Melody urged the kid. “You just have to breathe. We’re going to get you to a hospital.” Her hands were shaking as she tried to apply pressure to some of his wounds, too.

The kid’s eyes began to sag closed.

“It was an accident!” A yell from the driver. “He just ran out! You all saw that, right? He ran out!”

The kid’s body jerked. More blood pumped between Victor’s fingers.

Melody shuddered. “Don’t die. Don’t.”

Sweetheart, that ship is sailing. But maybe he could get answers first. Because he knew the attack near the station had been targeted. The SOB had been waiting for him and Melody. The kid’s eyes had almost closed completely. No. “Dammit, look at me!” Victor snapped. “Who are you? Why the hell did you attack her?”

The kid’s busted lips parted. Was he going to answer? Blood trickled from his forehead. From his nose.

“Don’t move him!” Angus loomed over them. “He could have spinal injuries.”

Could have? Uh, try definitely did have. The kid’s body was twisted as hell, but the gushing blood was a current priority because Victor feared the perp was about to bleed out. Far, far too much blood. But, no, he was trying not to move the kid. Maybe they’d get a miracle. If the ambulance and the EMTs could just arrive, and they could get the kid to the hospital before?—

His eyes closed.

“No!” A sob broke from Melody.

“Why her?” Victor demanded.

There were tattoos on the kid’s neck. Disappearing down to his chest.