Page 69 of Painless
“You did it, sugar.” Reaper’s voice was choked with emotion. “You’re a fucking lifesaver.”
Someone else had pulled the oxygen mask over Jandro’s face, his breaths still deep and pained, but steadier as he regained consciousness. His pulse slowed gradually as blood returned the color to his face.
He pulled the oxygen mask from his mouth and looked at me.
“How long have I been out?” he rasped, barely over a whisper.
“You weren’t breathing, and had no pulse, for nearly two minutes,” I replied flatly. “You’ve sustained third degree burns on your back from the grenade. You’ve lost a lot of blood, required a transfusion, and might have brain damage from your lack of oxygen.”
Jandro’s eyebrows lifted. Most of his body was numbed from anesthesia, but he still had strength to move his head.
“You don’t look too happy to see me,bonita.”
I snapped.
Pulling myself out of Reaper’s embrace, I took one long step to the VP’s side, and slapped him hard across the face.
To say he was stunned would be an understatement. His jaw dropped as he clumsily raised a partially-numb hand to his cheek.
“Hey, hey.” A hand squeezed my shoulder, and Gunner’s soothing voice brushed across my temple. “Take it easy, baby girl.”
He brought my temper down a couple notches, but I was still focused on Jandro, seeing him through red-tinted vision.
“It stops with this, Jandro.” I willed my voice not to shake. “You’re not taking bullets for me anymore. You’re not blocking grenades with your body anymore. I need youalive,you fucking idiot, don’t you understand?”
No fucking way in hell would he break my heart by dying on me. I wouldn’t allow it. Fuck Daren’s prophecy. I didn’t even notice the tears spilling down my cheeks until Reaper wiped them away with a rough thumb pad.
Jandro just shook his head at my demands. “Not happening, beautiful. It was either me, or you and the kids. I wasn’t about to let you or them take any force of the blast.” He shifted, trying to get comfortable in the makeshift hospital bed. “Why the fuck are all of you in here anyway?” He scanned the room, seemingly noticing Reaper and Gunner at the same time. “What happened? Is it over?”
“Yeah.” Reaper scrubbed a hand down his face with a sigh. “It went on for a while after Mari got you in here and tried to stabilize you. We kept picking off drones, and they just kept coming. That was, until…” He looked to Gunner, like he couldn’t believe the next part of the story himself.
“Until they all just started dropping out of the sky.” Gunner crossed his arms, looking just as puzzled as Reaper. “Like their controllers got switched off, or ran out of batteries or something.”
Jandro stared at him, wide-eyed. “All at the same time?”
“No, but one after another pretty quickly. It was freaking weird. My guys are out combing the surrounding area right now. They couldn’t have been controlled from far away.”
“Did we lose anyone else besides…”
A dark, somberness fell over the room. I couldn’t bear to say Dallas’s name either, to refer to him in the past tense. Out of all the Steel Demons men, he was probably the most innocent and least-deserving to be killed in such a way.
“No.” Reaper’s face was grim, and he couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with anyone. My heart ached for him. I knew, as president, he took Dallas’s death as his personal responsibility.
“A few minor injuries, but that’s all.” I picked up speaking, where Reaper clearly couldn’t. “The effects of the tear gas have started to wear off. It was standard law enforcement stuff. Nothing causing permanent damage, thankfully.”
“Do you know how Dallas…what the cause was?”
I let out a sigh, exhaustion hanging over me like a massive load on my shoulders. “His spinal cord was severed in multiple places, which was the most likely cause. He also had massive internal bleeding, which would have killed him if the spinal damage hadn’t.” My gaze dropped to the floor, my head feeling incredibly heavy. “There was nothing I could do.”
“Did he go…painlessly?” Gunner and Reaper both looked up at Jandro’s question, as if they needed to know this too.
I nodded, trying to turn my exhausted mind away from the image that would haunt me forever. Dallas running out to shield his kids. The blast knocking me off my feet. And he, in its direct path, falling limply on top of his children. He was dead before he hit the ground.
“It was over fast,” I assured my men. “He didn’t suffer.”
They all nodded, that morsel of information a small comfort to them.
“We need to hold a memorial for him,” Reaper muttered. “A big one, with the highest honors of our club. One on par with Daren’s.” He scoffed dryly. “Both of the Steel Demons who’ve died, did so protecting others. Funny how shit works out like that.” He turned to look at Hades, who’d been sitting quietly in the back of the room, as if the dog would offer an explanation. But none came.
