Heartless (Steel Demons MC #6) - Crystal Ash Page 0,58

violent rush, but it was the gunshot ringing in my ears that felt like the killing blow.

“No…”

I could barely whisper, let alone scream. All I knew was Mari no longer stood above me. No, no, no. Why, Mari? You should have fucking run.

It felt like forever before I could get my good arm under me so I could lift my head and look around. The world seemed to go silent, my senses dulling as I scanned the ground for my wife, or what was left of her.

I tracked the movement at the corner of my eye, turning my body painstakingly, slowly. Two black figures seemed to be wrestling on the ground, fighting desperately for the upper hand.

“Mari…”

My vision was going so blurry, I couldn’t tell which one was her. I heard her grunts of effort and cries of pain, and ragged breaths and curses that sounded like a man’s. I tried to drag myself closer to help, but my own bodyweight was too heavy. I tasted salt and dirt and blood. I couldn’t reach my wife. I couldn’t save her.

Another shot rang out and the figures went still.

Sixteen

GUNNER

“These dumb fucks,” I sighed, dabbing an alcohol wipe at the cut on Mari’s cheek. “Getting themselves shot and stabbed days apart. It’s shameful, really.”

“It’s increasing my workload, that’s for sure,” she sighed. “Okay, that should be good. Now let it dry, then put the ointment on.”

She sat on the counter in Jandro’s hospital room, legs swinging back and forth like a child awaiting a check up. Her injuries had been minor compared to the VP, who was laid out in the hospital bed, his left shoulder and chest wrapped in gauze, his arm in a sling, and his lower left leg equally wrapped up tight and elevated on a pillow. Freyja sat in a dark loaf at the foot of his bed, green eyes observing the room.

Club members on the fringes of town had heard the gunshots and went to investigate. Members of General Bray’s border patrol went to check it out as well. They found the motorcycle crash with two confirmed dead, Jandro nearly dead, and Mari working to slow the bleeding on his leg and shoulder until he could get rushed to the hospital.

Jandro went into emergency surgery immediately, with Dr. Books and his team firmly shoving Mari out of the operating room so she could rest and recover from shock. Unsurprisingly, she refused to have any of her own injuries looked at until Jandro was released from surgery a few hours later. Shadow, Reaper, and I rushed over as soon as we heard the news, taking Mari off the hands of the frustrated medics who had been trying to look after her.

“Don’t leave us in suspense now, baby girl.” I dabbed ointment carefully over the scrape on her face. “How’d you win with a knife at a gun fight?”

“I’m still not sure,” she laughed tiredly. “I pulled it out of Jandro’s cut when I was on top of him, and tucked it into my waistband like you showed me.”

“That’s my girl!” I grinned and kissed her temple.

“I stood up with my hands raised and he put the gun right up against me.” She touched a finger to her sternum. “I was so fucking scared, I didn’t think I’d get to the knife at all.”

Across the room, Reaper groaned and scrubbed his hands down his face. He’d bitten his tongue so far, but I knew he was full of pent-up I-told-you-so’s. After this, I had no doubt he’d only be extra protective of Mari.

“Then he said, ‘General Tash wishes you a long and prosperous life’.”

“That fucker,” I cursed under my breath. It was what the general said after every meeting back when we traded goods.

“And then Jandro moved.” She looked over to the man in the hospital bed, chewing her lip. “Like he was trying to grab his leg or something, and the guy kicked him. I took that as my chance to pull the knife.”

“Good girl,” I praised, my grin returning. “Where’d you get him?”

“Well I shoved his arm first to get the gun away from me, so I just nicked him here.” She dragged a touch along the side of my ribs. “It caught him off-guard and I didn’t want him to regain balance, so I jumped on him and we went falling.”

“How’d you get the gun away from him?” Shadow asked. He sat next to Reaper against the far wall, but was entranced by her story as