The Drift - Jenika Snow Page 0,4

this situation. And because of that, I didn’t hesitate at all. I continued to stare down at the unconscious man’s face, and something tugged at my heart. I had a very sick feeling he wouldn’t make it. He was losing too much blood, had already lost so much.

I took my other hand and placed it right under his ear at his pulse point, seeing if I could feel a pulse. For a moment, panic settled in me as I felt nothing, but then there it was, very small and faint. I was going to tell this man to take his brother to the hospital, because I had a very strong feeling he wasn’t going to make it otherwise, but I kept my mouth shut. It was pretty obvious these men weren’t law-abiding citizens, not if they were behind a bar, no doubt making back alley deals, and definitely not when bullets were flying.

I swallowed, my throat hurting, tight and so damn dry. This was just my luck, my last night at work, about to start over, go somewhere else, be a new me, when this shit happened. Adrenaline moved through my veins, but I knew I was in shock. I had to be, right? I felt like I was in a dream, some out-of-body experience. I was hovering close, watching as I followed this dangerous man’s orders, knowing that at the end of it, I probably wouldn’t make it out alive. I’d seen their faces, seen the shooting. If he was crazy enough to kidnap me, wouldn’t it go to reason he was crazy enough to kill me so I could never identify them?

“I’m almost there. Have shit ready. He’s bleeding out.”

I blinked a few times, realizing the driver was on the phone with someone.

I didn’t know how long we’d been driving. It seemed like hours, like an eternity, but then it was over as if it just started. We pulled to a stop at a gated house. The driver leaned out his driver side window and punched in a code on a little console, and then the gate slid open before he hauled ass up the driveway.

The house appeared pretty normal, a family home if I called it anything. But the situation—this man—was anything but what I envisioned a family to be like, brothers or not. I still had my hand pressed to the wound, afraid to even breathe, let alone move it. Yeah, the driver scared the shit out of me, but there was an even stronger part of me that was more afraid to remove my hand, because if I did, this man would die. I didn’t know why any part of me cared, but it was so pronounced in me that I was like stone, not even moving an inch in any direction.

He skidded to a stop by the front door, and a second later, I watched as two men burst from the house and ran to the SUV. The driver put the SUV in park and cut the engine before I could even blink. The back door was thrown open, and the two men who’d come out of the house looked at me curiously before snapping out of it and hauling the unconscious man off my lap and into their arms.

“Who the hell is that?” one man asked.

“Collateral damage,” the driver responded. “Kimber inside, Cullen?”

The one name Cullen nodded. “Dom, let’s get him inside now.”

“Fuck, he’s bleeding too much,” the one named Dom said. “You can deal with that.” He lifted his chin in my direction. “You’ve brought a fucking mess to our doorstep, brother.” That was all that was said, and then the two were rushing toward the front door with the unconscious guy in their arms.

For a second, I sat there, blood covering me, soaked into my clothes, all over the leather seat, on my hands, and the scent filling my head. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Hell, I barely breathed.

“Come on,” the driver said, and I snapped my head to look at him. I shook my head; the only thing I could think of was that he planned on killing me. His expression hardened, and he stepped closer to the open door. “Get the fuck out.” The look I gave him had his expression shifting. He exhaled and looked me up from head to toe. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Right.

I shook my head again. Why was I fighting this? He’d get me out of this car one way or another, and