Page 104 of The Science of Attraction

I love you.

Shivering.

Dark.

So dark.

So... cold.

I love you.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

Liam

When Zach stopped by to see if weneeded ahand and to let me know Jules wouldn’t be long, he let it slip that my idiot boyfriend was on his way to try and talk to Marty. Good God, what the hell did Jules think was going to come of that conversation? He’d been hurt enough. No more. Not on my watch. I’d promised to have his back and I was damn well going to make good on that, even if it was to protect him from himself.

I’d grabbed my coat intending to run after him, but Zach had offered to drive me instead. We parked alongside the ramp, and I’d no sooner jumped out when a loud crack split the air.

“Jesus Christ!” My gaze jerked to a wide-eyed Zach who’d frozen half in, half out of his ute. “Tell me that wasn’t a gunshot.”

“That’s exactly what it was.” He leaped free of the ute and sprinted up the ramp.

Holy shit.My heart barrelled up my throat as I ran after him, catching the door before it swung closed and bursting into the cavernous space.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the gloom and the noise of the panicked sheep still scattering in the pens before I registered Zach on his knees, tugging at a mound of clothes lying on the floor.

No.

Not a mound of clothes.

A body.

My heart lurched.

Jules.

Jesus Christ.It was Jules.

Ignoring Marty staggering toward me from the office, I ran to Jules’ side and fell to my knees. His grey pallor and rolling eyes struck cold fear into my heart, and for a long moment, I couldn’t breathe, not helped by the growing pool of dark red blood seeping from a wound in his left shoulder. A bullet wound.

“Oh my god. Zach! What the hell happened?”

“Time for that later.” Zach shot me a worried look. “Right now, I need you to help me get these clothes off and roll him over so I can take a look at his back.”

“Okay. Okay.” I sucked in a shaky breath and did as he said.

Jules didn’t fight our clumsy undressing. He didn’t do anything at all. He just lay like a sack of potatoes as we manoeuvred him this way and that to free him from his clothes. By the time we were done, I was covered in his blood.

Jules’blood.

Jesus Christ.

Bile rolled up the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down.Keep a grip, idiot.

I watched as Zach gently poked at the unsightly, ragged wound in Jules’ shoulder, muttering something I couldn’t quite catch. But when he finally looked up, I saw my own horror reflected back at me.

I hardly dared ask. “How bad is it?”

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