Page 168 of Sinner's Obsession

I place her on the table and turn to her.

“Please, save her.”

Her entire demeanor changes, giving me the impression she knows what she’s doing. She checks Aurora and says, “She’s not breathing.”

Alessandra pushes down on her chest, giving her CPR.

“Do not stop.”

Hayden comes inside and says, “If you save her, you’re free.”

“Hayden,” Alessandra begins.

“Save her.” Something deep passes between them.

She prepares a defibrillator. Aurora’s chest rises and falls, but nothing happens. The second time goes the same and my heart seizes in my chest. I watch as Alessandra’s hands tremble, and she looks at me as if telling me she’s sorry. I close my eyes. Aurora’s chest lurches two more times.

“We have a pulse. You’re a fighter, aren’t you?” Alessandra says and tosses the defibrillator aside. I stumble, holding on to the edge of the bed.

“I have to operate.” She injects something, and I watch how she disinfects the wound and tries to extract the bullet.

“Put pressure on this,” she orders, and I do as she says.

Alessandra rips Aurora’s top off, and I take notice of her battered body, at those angry welts against her perfect skin. “She lost a lot of blood. What’s her blood type?”

The question takes me from my mental shutdown.

“Type O,” Hayden, Cameron, and I say.

“We need blood. What we have won’t be enough.”

Hayden rolls the shirt sleeve over his elbow and says, “Take all you need.”

“I can’t just take your blood. What if it isn’t a match? She will die for sure.”

“Take my fucking blood. It won’t kill her.”

“Hayden,” she pleads with him.

He opens and closes his eyes for a moment as if to calm himself. “She’s my fucking sister, and I have the same blood type, so take my damn blood and save her.”

Silence follows. Her eyes blink and I snap my head at him. He’s keeping the bullshit up even now.

“Are you fucking delusional, man?” Cameron says, echoing my thoughts.

But Hayden props on the chair next to her and she stabs his vein with a needle, taking his blood from him and readying it for Aurora.

“Not jealous anymore,cariño?”

“Shut up or I’ll drain you.”

“I’m not alive, anyway.”

After the longest twenty minutes of my life, she says, “The bullet is out, and I haven’t seen any internal bleeding, nor did the bullet perforate any organs. We just have to wait for her to wake up.” The bullet clanks as she discards it in a metallic box. I pocket it. When I find out who the fuck helped Delaney, they’ll wish they never crossed me.

“Thank you.”

“I might need more blood.”

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