Page 55 of Heartless
“Stand up,” he ordered Mari, pointing his barrel straight at her.
“Listen, I’m a medic,” she said, her voice taking on that calming but authoritative tone as her fingers brushed the handle of my knife. “I can help your friend if he’s still alive—”
“He’s not. And you’re nothing but rotten Steel Demon cunt as far as I care. Stand the fuck up.”
“I can help that foot of yours too.” She nodded toward his bad ankle, her fingers wrapping around the blade handle. “But if I get up, he’s going to bleed out.”
“Do I look like I care, bitch?”
Mari began sliding the knife out of my pocket, but my eyes were on that gun pointed straight at my woman. His gloved finger rested on the trigger and that fucking barrel was less than a foot away from her head. Bleeding out or not, I’d spend my last few breaths taking that fucker down if he shot her.
“I’m not gonna ask you again.” His trigger finger squeezed just a hair, enough to make my heart stop. “Stand the fuck up.”
Mari pressed her knees to either side of my body, her left hand flattening on the ground to push herself up. I felt the knife withdraw from my chest pocket and held my breath. I had no idea what her plan was, but he wouldn’t hesitate the moment he saw her holding a weapon. Each second felt like an hour as she slowly rose to standing, my body braced for the sound of the shot. When none came, I turned my head against the ground, squinting up to look.
Mari stood over me with her hands up and no knife in sight. I blinked in confusion, then the fear overtook me as our attacker leaned in and pressed his gun barrel directly against her sternum.
“General Tash wishes the Steel Demons a long and prosperous life,” the rider sneered under his helmet.
“No.” I thrashed on the ground, reaching for a leg, a kneecap, anything. “No, not her!”
I got a swift kick to my stomach for my effort, the air leaving my body in a violent rush, but it was the gunshot ringing in my ears that felt like the killing blow.
“No…”
I could barely whisper, let alone scream. All I knew was Mari no longer stood above me.No, no, no. Why, Mari? You should have fucking run.
It felt like forever before I could get my good arm under me so I could lift my head and look around. The world seemed to go silent, my senses dulling as I scanned the ground for my wife, or what was left of her.
I tracked the movement at the corner of my eye, turning my body painstakingly, slowly. Two black figures seemed to be wrestling on the ground, fighting desperately for the upper hand.
“Mari…”
My vision was going so blurry, I couldn’t tell which one was her. I heard her grunts of effort and cries of pain, and ragged breaths and curses that sounded like a man’s. I tried to drag myself closer to help, but my own bodyweight was too heavy. I tasted salt and dirt and blood. I couldn’t reach my wife. I couldn’t save her.
Another shot rang out and the figures went still.
Sixteen
GUNNER
“These dumb fucks,” I sighed, dabbing an alcohol wipe at the cut on Mari’s cheek. “Getting themselves shot and stabbed days apart. It’s shameful, really.”
“It’s increasing my workload, that’s for sure,” she sighed. “Okay, that should be good. Now let it dry, then put the ointment on.”
She sat on the counter in Jandro’s hospital room, legs swinging back and forth like a child awaiting a check up. Her injuries had been minor compared to the VP, who was laid out in the hospital bed, his left shoulder and chest wrapped in gauze, his arm in a sling, and his lower left leg equally wrapped up tight and elevated on a pillow. Freyja sat in a dark loaf at the foot of his bed, green eyes observing the room.
Club members on the fringes of town had heard the gunshots and went to investigate. Members of General Bray’s border patrol went to check it out as well. They found the motorcycle crash with two confirmed dead, Jandro nearly dead, and Mari working to slow the bleeding on his leg and shoulder until he could get rushed to the hospital.
Jandro went into emergency surgery immediately, with Dr. Books and his team firmly shoving Mari out of the operating room so she could rest and recover from shock. Unsurprisingly, she refused to have any of her own injuries looked at until Jandro was released from surgery a few hours later. Shadow, Reaper, and I rushed over as soon as we heard the news, taking Mari off the hands of the frustrated medics who had been trying to look after her.
“Don’t leave us in suspense now, baby girl.” I dabbed ointment carefully over the scrape on her face. “How’d you win with a knife at a gun fight?”
“I’m still not sure,” she laughed tiredly. “I pulled it out of Jandro’s cut when I was on top of him, and tucked it into my waistband like you showed me.”
“That’s my girl!” I grinned and kissed her temple.
“I stood up with my hands raised and he put the gun right up against me.” She touched a finger to her sternum. “I was so fucking scared, I didn’t think I’d get to the knife at all.”
