Lucius (Acquisition Series #4) - Celia Aaron Page 0,72

knife I dropped.

He still stands in front of me, his face dazed as blood soaks his shirt and pants, so I take the opportunity to stab his motherfucking feet like the petty bastard I am.

When he screams, I grin with delight, then move to his shins, slashing them through his pants.

He stumbles backwards and drops, and when he does his intestines play peekaboo through his tattered shirt.

“You’re done, dickhead. So fucking done.” I laugh as blood runs from his mouth.

“I’m the Sover—” His eyes roll up in his head, and he falls backward, his body thumping onto the stone patio.

“Hey, asshole!” I yell. “If you want to die like your boss, then keep on shooting. My brothers will be here any second, and they’ll happily take you out.” I sit still and inspect my wounds. The one in my arm stings like a motherfucker, but it’s not fatal. The one in my leg, though, it’s gushing. I can’t even feel anything past my knee. Not fucking good.

I yank my belt off as I hear something in the tree behind me. Stilling, I listen and barely catch retreating footsteps. I can’t believe that worked.

Looping my belt around my thigh, I make a tourniquet as best I can, then lean back. The fountain water splashes on me. Irritating. When I look up at the house, I try to figure out which room Evie’s in.

“Hate to break it to you, dumbass,” I call to the dead motherfucker beside me. “But there’s no way Evie was up there waiting for you to dick her. She’s probably got the room rigged to murder you the moment you walk in.”

He doesn’t respond. In the short time I knew him, he never was a good conversationalist. I laugh at my own joke until my eyes close from fatigue.

I force myself to open them. Then I see something, and I realize I’m hallucinating.

“Evie?” I look at her. She’s ghostly white with blood on her lip and in her hair. “You okay?”

“Lucius.” She drops beside me, her arm hanging oddly at her side.

“Your arm.”

“Lucius. Stay with me.” She cups my cheek, and she’s right in front of me, but I can barely hear her. “Lucius!”

I close my eyes.

She’s screaming for help and begging me to look at her.

I try to. I want to make her happy. “I’d do anything for you,” I try to tell her. But no words come out, and everything turns into deathly stillness.

33

Evie

“I hear her!” someone yells.

“Here. We’re here!” I scream despite the splitting pain in my head. “Help!”

“Evie!” Teddy runs across the lawn to us, then hurdles the hedge around the fountain. “What happened?”

Sin appears through a side gate, a gun in each hand as he scans the gardens.

I focus on Lucius. “Help him!” I cry to Teddy.

He pulls out his phone and dials 911 as he opens a beaten-up leather bag.

I try to listen to him talk, but I can’t take my eyes off Lucius. “—two GSW, major blood loss, AB+, heartbeat—” He presses his stethoscope to Lucius’s chest. “—is Afib. Shit. We need medics now!” He tosses his phone. “Help me lay him down.”

I use my good arm and maneuver Lucius gently down to the ground. I don’t like the way his head lolls on his shoulders or the pallor of his skin.

Teddy gives me a glance. “You’re in bad shape, too.”

“I’m fine. Please, just save him.”

“Sin!” he calls.

Sinclair runs up, guns still in each hand.

“Get this shirt and vest off him while I check his leg.”

Sin drops to his knees, and with surprising gentleness, he strips off Lucius’s shirt and tears away the vest. “Come on, Lucius. Don’t be a dick.” He presses his ear to his brother’s chest. “It’s beating.”

“Hand me that gauze.” Teddy barks.

I lean over to reach for it, but my head goes fuzzy.

“Evie!” Teddy points at me. “Grab her.”

Sin catches me before I hit the ground beside Lucius. I can’t seem to control my body. It won’t follow even the simplest instructions.

“Save him,” I try to say. But I can’t tell if the words come out.

“She’s concussed, and I don’t know what else. Fuck!” Teddy’s voice goes in and out. “—keep pressure! I need you to—they’re coming. I hear sirens—don’t move his arm. Shit, we’re losing him!” The anguish in Teddy’s voice tears a hole in my heart.

I try to sit up, to do anything and everything to help, but I can’t. Lucius needs me, and I’m helpless. It’s ripping me apart. He came here to save