Page 136 of Killing Mind

‘He used me. He had to die,’ Britney cried as she tried to wriggle out of Tiff’s grip.

‘Jesus,’ Kim said, assessing the mess before her. The blood was pooling either side of Jake’s torso and his colour was fading fast.

Kim ripped open his shirt as his eyes rolled back in his head. Of the three wounds the first and last seemed to be spewing the most blood.

She placed both hands over the wounds and tried to apply pressure. The blood seeped over her hands as the wounds tried to suck her fingers down.

‘Damn it,’ she said, trying to move her hands around to keep the blood from leaving his body. All the while she could see the pools of blood growing deeper and wider around him.

‘No,’ she cried out as she felt the life ebbing away from him. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she growled, moving her hands again. She knew a person could die from loss of blood in as little as five minutes, less if the wounds were serious and right now she had two serious wounds from which she couldn’t stem the blood.

She knew he had lost consciousness.

She moved her hands again, the warm stickiness leaving hand prints everywhere she touched.

‘Stay with me, Jake,’ she breathed, as his torso gave a sigh before stilling completely.

‘Fuck it,’ she called out, tipping his head back.

‘Boss, can I?…’

‘Stay where you are, Tiff,’ Kim instructed. They couldn’t risk Britney getting away.

‘Keep still, Brit,’ Tiffany shouted, and Kim could hear the emotion in her voice.

Tiffany had gotten closer to this girl than Kim had imagined but she couldn’t think about that now.

She linked her fingers and placed the heel of her hand in the middle of Jake’s chest. She pressed down thirty times and then gave two breaths directly into his mouth.

She checked his chest. Nothing.

She repeated the process and checked again.

Nothing.

Part of her knew he’d gone, but she had to keep trying.

Sheila and three other women appeared at the edge of the trees followed by her limping colleague.

The women looked on in horror as Bryant approached her. Two beads of sweat dropped onto the unmoving chest of Jake Black.

‘He’s gone, guv,’ Bryant said, touching her shoulder.

Kim sat back and took a proper look, seeing what Bryant had seen straight away. His complexion was a deathly white and the circles of blood around him were like storm puddles. No one could survive that level of blood loss.

She wiped her hand across her forehead and felt the stickiness of his blood on her skin.

‘What the hell happened here?’ Bryant asked, looking around.

‘I’ll explain later,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘Nothing to see here, folks,’ Kim said, stepping in front of Britney and Tiff.

Bryant took over and began shepherding them away.

Britney had stopped struggling once Kim had stopped working on Jake, as though she now knew for certain that it was all over.

The girl looked up at the woman she thought had been her friend. Hurt shone from her eyes.

Kim stepped to one side.