Page 152 of Nest of Thieves
Mac cracks his knuckles. “Every time she cries, so does he.”
“Goddammit, Mac!”
“I really need to get to work,” Doc reminds us.
“Lark is right,” Vette agrees. He grabs Mac’s arm and pulls him from the room.
I turn toward Doc. “Don’t let her die.”
“I can’t promise that,” Doc murmurs. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”
Mac snarls, but Vette shushes him, reminding him we need Doc in one piece to fix Jo. I slide my gaze back to the woman who’s captured my heart. Her skin is unnaturally pale. Her breathing is slow. Are her lips blue?
I can’t tell.
“Lark,” Vette snaps. “Let the man work.”
With every fiber of my being fighting against me, I step out of the room and close the door, hoping to hell that isn’t the last time I see her alive.
thirty-nine
JO
I wake up in Vette’s bed, the soft, gray comforter tucked in tight around my body. Blinking, I place my hands on the mattress and push up, hissing in pain.
“Easy, mami,” Vette murmurs, rolling over and tucking his hand under his cheek.
“I got shot.”
“Yeah.” His gaze strays to the bandage over my shoulder. “You drugged us.”
“We’re a bit mad about that part,” Mac pipes up.
I snap my head toward the couch pressed against the far wall of Vette’s room. He and Lark are sitting there, staring at me like I kicked a puppy. They’re both strapped with weapons, ready to battle if needed, so the wounded looks they’re wearing are almost comical.
“I made a decision,” I say, wincing when Lark’s eyes narrow. “Before you get mad at me—”
“Too late for that, but it’s hard to be mad when we thought you were dead,” Vette mutters.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I sigh. My head hurts from the tequila I drank to drown out the pain of being shot. Probably not the smartest choice in the moment, but it worked.
I glance at all of them. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven,” Mac says instantly. “Why’d you do it?”
My shoulder aches every time I move my arm, so I end up lying back down before answering him. “Because I didn’t want Damien to realize you were still alive. I didn’t think you’d be able to sit still while he threatened me.” I arch an eyebrow at Mac. “You’re not exactly the calmest alpha in the room.”
He huffs. “Well, that’s rude.”
“But true,” Lark says. “Why all of us? Why not just him?”
“Because that wouldn’t be fair. It was either all of you or none of you, and I needed to make sure Damien believed you were dead.”
“What happened, mami?”
I explain how Damien had almost shot me in the head, but I managed to hit him in the nuts and shoot him dead before he could recover and finish what he started. Those moments passed so fast, it’s almost unreal, but the hole in my shoulder is proof it happened.
“He is dead, right?” I have to be sure.
