Page 157 of Under Your Scars

Something in the air goes stale. All the commotion falls quiet. I look up and around, and just a few feet from where Elena and I are standing, there’s a man and a woman. Crying. Dried blood crusted along their hairline. Zip-tied wrists. Red duct tape over their mouths.

But this isn’t just any man and woman.

It’s my parents. My mother and father are staring back at me with terrified looks on their faces that I haven’t seen in thirty years.

No.Notmy parents.

It’s worse than that. It’s just a visage of them. Delicate stitches along the high points of their faces, bruised and bloody and mutilated. The woman begins to make choked sobbing sounds, like she’s trying to speak.

I use one arm to push Elena behind me. She’s staring at the two people in shock, along with Gavin and all the witnesses. I slowly reach my hand up to pull the duct tape off the woman’s mouth.

When I do, she has bright red lipstick on, just like the woman in my office, and her lips are sewn shut. She’s moaning incoherently, her brows furrowed like she’s begging me to hear what she’s saying even though she can’t get the word out.

An irritating red flash buzzes around my vision and I rub my eyes to try and clear it away. Probably just a reflection of the police lights in the glassy haze of wetness gathered in my eyes.

The woman keeps moaning, crying harder now. And then one bullet enters her forehead. And then another enters the man’s chest.

I stumble backwards in shock, feeling like I’ve just watched my parents die all over again. I’m unable to form words or thoughts or feelings.

After what feels like a miserable eternity, but is probably only a millisecond, I hear Gavin shout, “Mr. Reeves, get the fuck down!”

And that’s when a bullet hits me, too.

CHAPTER 49

THE ANGEL

I don’t think I’ve ever made such a high-pitched, horrified shrill in my life. I can’t hear anything except the blood pounding in my ears and screams coming from my throat.

Everything happened so fast.

I heard two gunshots, then heard Gavin yell for Christian to get down. After that, all I remember is the sound of a third gunshot and my husband’s skull hitting the concrete.

Gavin pulls me to the ground and covers me with his body. It’s his job. I understand his concern for me, but I don’t care aboutmysafety. Not when Christian is just a foot away, struggling to breathe with blood soaking into his shirt.

Oh my God.Oh my God.Someone shot him.

My first instinct is to crawl to him, but Gavin won’t let me. He holds me down on my stomach, flat against the concrete and shields my entire body with his own. His pistol is tight in his hand. Gavin is a large, strong man, so I can’t move out from under him despite my non-stop squirming and bucking to get him off me. I reach for Christian’s hand as people scream and run around us. I don’t care about any of them. I don’t care about possibly getting shot.

All I care about is my husband staring up at the sky, struggling for his life. I’ll never forgive myself if the last thing he sees is the sky instead of my face.

“Gavin, please!” I cry frantically. “Please let me help him.”

“Youcan’thelp him,” Gavin growls, looking around at the buildings overhead, mumbling to himself. “That sounded like an M24. Army issue.”

“I don’t care about your fucking gun lesson!” I shout, digging my nails into his arm as hard as I can, though it does nothing. “Let me go right now or you’re fired.”

“Then consider me fired because you’re not fucking moving until I’m positive it’s safe.”

I cry out in frustration and squeeze Christian’s hand. “Look at me,” I beg. “Please look at me.”

His head turns to me, and I breathe out a sigh of relief that he’s still somewhat conscious. The blood seeping from his chest is pooling onto the sidewalk. He blinks at me slowly. Tears spill out of my eyes as I watch his chest rise and fall raggedly and painfully. I can see it in the paleness of his face and the distant look in his eyes that he’s fading.

“Gavin, let me go.”

“No.”

I growl and turn abruptly under him and kick him in the shin. “If it were your wife bleeding out on a sidewalk, you wouldn’t letanyonestop you.”