Page 121 of With this Ring

“Friendlies,” Stryker assured her.

Nodding, Sasha focused on the weak rise and fall of Gregorio’s chest beneath her hands.

Seconds stretched into eternities.

Then—finally—the hospital’s lights pierced the darkness ahead.

Rather than pulling up to the ER entrance, Stryker whipped the SUV around to a side door where a small group waited. Even in the darkness, she recognized Hawkeye’s commanding presence.

Before the vehicle completely stopped, her door was wrenched open.

“How long’s he been out?” Hawkeye demanded as medical personnel swarmed around them.

“Three minutes.” Her voice sounded foreign to her own ears.Too damn long. “Maybe four.”

The hospital staff loaded him onto a gurney with practiced efficiency.

“BP’s dropping—”

“At least one GSW—”

“Starting an IV—”

The clinical terms blurred together as she scrambled out after him. Her legs barely held her as she ran alongside the gurney into the hospital, her blood-covered hand finding his.

“Gregorio…” She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not like this. “I need you.”

His fingers twitched in hers, but his eyes remained closed.

They crashed through a set of double doors, the gurney’s wheels squealing against the floor as they rounded a corner.

“Ma’am.” A nurse blocked her path. “You can’t go any farther.”

“But—”

“They’ll take good care of him.” Another set of hands caught her shoulders. “Let them work.”

She tried to follow as they wheeled Gregorio toward the operating room, but the walls were tilting, and her legs wouldn’t cooperate.

“Wait—” Her voice was hoarse and weak, but it didn’t matter. No one was listening. The doctors were shouting over each other, and the gurney kept moving.

Her vision blurred as she stumbled, barely catching herself on the doorway. The world narrowed to Gregorio’s bloodied chest, the too-pale shade of his skin.

This can’t be it.

With the last of her strength, she reached out and grabbed his wrist, fingers pressing against his cooling skin.

“Ma’am! You need to let go.”

“Gregorio…” She wasn’t even sure what she meant to say.Come back to me. Don’t leave me. I’m not ready to lose you.The words tangled on her tongue, but the ache in her chest said them all.I can’t live without you.

The gurney jolted as they turned a corner, and she lost her grip.

The world spun around her.

Then black sucked her under…

Chapter Nineteen

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