Page 150 of Live for Me

And a single gunshot put Indy on the ground in front of all of us.

Watching Jersey take several steps forward while he fired several more rounds than would have ever been necessary to kill one human was something that I was certain would be burned into my brain for the rest of my life.

I was sliding across the grass to Indy’s side with no memory of deciding I was going to do it.

“Indy?!”

“No,” Memphis’ broken voice said into my ear. “Don’t say his name that way, Colt.”

“Are you wearing a belt?” Nevada asked from right beside me. I definitely hadn’t noticed her appearance. Indy was breathing. He was awake. He was staring at me as hard as I was staring at him.

“Use mine,” Jersey said from somewhere behind us. His belt dropped to the ground between Nevada and me a second later. I felt a hand squeezing my arm but I couldn’t rip my eyes from Indy’s. Until something smacked me in the back of the head.

“Listen to her, kid,” Jersey said.

“I need you to put every ounce of muscle you have into applying pressure directly on top of the wound, Utah,” Nevada said as clearly as could be that time.

My eyes dropped to Indy’s thigh, where blood was gushing from the hole through his jeans. I watched Nevada slide Jersey’s belt under his leg as quickly as she could.

“I am so fucking sorry, Indy,” I said before I leaned forward to put all my bodyweight onto his leg through my hands. Hearing him scream that way was another memory I’d never be able to wipe clean.

“Colt,” Memphis said again.

“Keep it together, honey,” Jersey said to remind us both that he was also listening. “Kyle, watch everything,” he said and handed off the M4 to him. “I’ll be back with Hades. Tell Triss to get Seph running too. We’ll be heading that way in a minute and we need to leave in a hurry.”

I watched Nevada put all of her effort into tightening the belt around Indy’s leg to cut off as much of the circulation as possible while he continued to scream.

Jersey’s car was beside us in the next minute and he was out lying towels across the backseat.

“Everybody in,” he said. “The bleeding one goes on the towels.”

Jersey walked right to Indy and grabbed him under both arms. “His legs, kid. Gently as you can.”

I all but shoved Nevada out of my way to move to Indy’s side to just pick him up bridal style rather than between his feet like a cranky old Marine might’ve expected. Jersey still helped with his upper half while I tried desperately to prevent his lower half from moving at all. We laid Indy across the backseat, Nevada followed, and I jumped right in with them.

“Two other vehicles are driving up and down this road, guys,” Memphis said. “And someone handed off a very accurate description of Persephone and the two of you to the police.”

“What?” Jersey asked. “How would?—”

He stopped talking when I assumed the moment we tossed that construction worker around crossed his mind.

“We need somewhere to go,” Jersey said.

“We need a doctor,” Nevada added.

“Can’t imagine we’ll be able to use any doctor in our regular network,” I said.

“Fix him yourself,” Jersey hissed. “We wouldn’t be in this position if your ass hadn’t come along. Handle it.”

He pulled this car straight into the field to park it next to my truck and his other car.

“I can’t justfixhim,” Nevada said. “He’s clearly bleeding from an artery. It needs repaired. I’m a nurse. Not a surgeon.”

She jumped out of that car the moment Jersey opened his own door and they were in each other’s faces immediately.

“Youwillfix him,” Jersey said.

“We can’t stay here,” Memphis said. “Have this argument while we’re moving.”

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