“You shot me. You shot me in my goddamned ass,” Sal whined to Vance and any worry I had for him was lost. His voice was strong, strong enough to whine. I figured he’d be okay. “You didn’t have to shoot me,” Sal went on.
Vance grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back so I was behind him.
“You shot first,” Vance returned sharply. “What the f**k were you thinkin’?”
Um… Vance sounded pissed right the hell off. Then again, he’d been working at getting in my panties for a few days now. He was probably not pleased that five minutes after achieving his aim he’d been interrupted by having to shoot someone.
“You’re movin’ in on my action,” Sal explained.
It was my turn to be not pleased.
I turned to Sal. “Oh for God’s sake. Seriously, Sal?” I asked, not believing my ears.
“You got the hots for me, I know it. Sat right across from me –” Sal started.
“I sat across from you and threatened you,” I told him.
“Playin’ hard to get. You women always play hard to get,” Sal replied.
“Maybe it isn’t because we’re playing hard to get. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to get got in the first place,” I explained.
“Naw. It’s not that.”
Yes, Sal was that stupid.
“Do we need to call an ambulance?” This came from somewhere to Vance and my left then Luke materialized and came to stand by Vance. He looked down on Sal.
“Yeah,” Vance responded, “although I’d rather let him bleed to death.”
“Shit,” Sal moaned.
Luke pulled out his phone. I listened to Luke calling the control room and asking for the ambulance and the police. While I did this I thought about the current situation.
The good news was, Vance hadn’t figured out I was a virgin.
The bad news was, Vance had been stopped at a really good part.
I turned to Vance. “How long is this gonna take?” I asked impatiently.
I felt his eyes on me in the dark. Then I saw the flash of white as he smiled. Then his arm came around me and he pulled me to him. I could focus on him better at closer range and caught his arrogant grin close up.
“Probably awhile, Princess. Longer ‘cause I’ll have to get stitches.”
My breath fled my body.
When I sucked in air, I asked, “Why?”
“He tagged me. Thigh, just skimmed. I’ll need to have it looked at.”
“You’re hit?” Luke said from beside us.
“It’s nothing,” Vance said and I saw Luke nod, apparently that was good enough for him.
“Crowe,” I said, weird feelings going through me, feelings I never felt before and feelings I didn’t like.
“It’s nothing,” Vance repeated.
“Crowe! It is not nothing! You’ve been shot!”