Page 63 of The Return
He threw his head back, his eyes wild, and screamed, “Kinsey!”
I turned back to the door. I could smell the blood, sharp and coppery. Fuck, no. I raced back outside and found Kinsey facedown about thirty feet from the house. There was a hole in his back, and I couldn’t be sure if he was breathing. I turned him over, then lifted him as I yelled for Corey to call 911, then started for the driveway. I didn’t want Matt seeing Kinsey like this.
Matt’s wailing grew louder, verging on hysteria. Around me, other men converged. One of them tried to take Kinsey from me, and I snarled at him. He got the idea and backed off.
How had this gone so wrong? Why was someone after Corey? The siren was only a few blocks away. Nice thing about Harken’s Corners was there was little need for medical personnel, but we’d been giving them a workout. The ambulance screeched to a halt, and Elias and Jake got out, grabbed the gurney, and rolled it over to us. They took Kinsey from my arms and laid him gently on the conveyance.
They worked for close to twenty minutes, with Jake talking to the doctor as Elias hooked Kinsey up to a blood bag. Seeing him that way was sobering. Corey was right: you never knew when a precious life could be taken from you.
“How’s he doing?” I asked when Jake hung up the radio.
“Thready. He’s lost too much blood and is having problems breathing. The bullet pierced his lung, then blew out the other side. From the angle of the exit wound, my best guess is it might have ricocheted off some bones too.”
“Will he be okay?”
The frown told me everything I needed to know.
“Do what you can.”
“Of course, Alpha.” He gave me a sharp nod, then went back to help tend to Kinsey.
I returned to the house, and found Matt sobbing into Corey’s chest. When Corey peered up at me, I went to them both and knelt down, putting my hand on Matt’s shoulder.
“He’s in good hands, Matt.”
Matt turned to me, his face shiny from tears, sweat, and probably a good helping of snot. “He can’t die. He just can’t.”
“He’ll be all right, Matt. You’ll see,” Corey said, staring into my eyes. “We should go to the hospital with Matt.”
I was about to protest, but Corey’s glare stilled me. It dared me to argue about this with him. Wisely, I decided not to.
“C’mon, let’s go.”
Matt stood, his legs nearly giving out. If Corey hadn’t been holding him up, he’d have collapsed. “Let me get my keys.”
No way in hell was he in any shape to be driving. “I’ll take us,” I told him.
He wanted to argue, but Corey squeezed his shoulder. “Let your Alpha care for you, okay?”
Matt nodded, tears on his cheeks. “What am I going to do?”
Corey pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s going to work out, I swear.”
I could only hope he was prophetic.
CHAPTER17
COREY
We satin the waiting room for six hours. Matt never once let go of my hand, even though both were damp. Each time a door opened, Matt’s head snapped in that direction to see who it was. It was never the doctor.
“Do you know how I met Kinsey?” he asked softly.
“No. Why don’t you tell us?” Jonas said.
“He was assigned to guard a new Alpha who was installed after the old one died. It was natural causes. Aubrey Tate was, like, a million years old, and he’d fathered alotof kids. They were all bickering about who should be the new Alpha. I was the driver at the time, and I knew I didn’t want to work for any of them, because they were pretentious and rude. Anyway, we had to go to see the lawyer for the will to be read, and as they’re all shrieking that someone got more than they did, the door slammed and everyone’s heads jerked toward the noise. Kinsey strode in, and they were like harpies descending on him, demanding to know why he was there, who did he think he was, and stuff like that. He sneered at them, and said, ‘My name is Kinsey Huxley, and I’m the bodyguard of the new Alpha.’”
“Oh, I’m sure that went over great,” I said.
