Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,120

but a quick swipe of a clean portion of the towel did the trick, and then she found herself staring down at the hole in his chest. That was all there was to see. Blood did not bubble up to fill the hole and spill over the sides . . . which seemed odd to her. If it weren’t for the fact that she could now see his chest rise and fall as he breathed, she’d think he was dead. But he was definitely breathing. Still, it seemed weird that no blood at all was filling the hole in his chest, she thought, and bent closer for a better look. CJ stiffened when she saw what she thought was metal just an inch or two inside the hole.

“What kind of gun does Jefferson have?” she asked suddenly, resisting the urge to prod the hole and feel if it was actually the bullet she was seeing.

“A Glock 35,” Bricker answered. “Why?”

“Well, that can’t be the bullet, then,” she muttered. Glocks were powerful; the bullet would have gone deeper and— The bit of metal didn’t seem as far down in the wound as it had a moment ago, she realized, and leaned forward again, trying to get a better look. She could hear Bricker and Decker talking quietly with Julius, but her attention stayed glued on whatever it was she was seeing in Mac’s wound. She stared for the longest time and could swear she was actually watching it rising in the hole, though it was incredibly slow. Still, it was moving and was definitely metal. What the hell kind of bullet crawled back out of its victim? And why wasn’t there more blood?

She peered around again, hoping for some help or answers, but only Decker, Julius, and Marguerite were there now. The two men had helped Marguerite to her feet and were half walking and half carrying her to the bed. CJ watched them get her situated and then searched the room for Bricker and Jefferson, but they were gone. Guessing that Bricker had taken the disgraced officer out of the room to wait for the police away from the trauma he’d caused, she turned back to Mac.

The bullet, if that’s what the metal was, was only a quarter inch inside the wound now. If she’d had a pair of tweezers handy that were sterile, she could have plucked it out. CJ actually considered running to the bathroom for tweezers and alcohol to do just that, but wasn’t sure it was a good idea. What if the bullet was like a cork? Maybe it was being pushed out by a fountain of blood that would gush out like a geyser when the bullet was removed. Mac could bleed out in minutes if that’s what was happening. Maybe she should cover the wound and keep the bullet in instead. Dear God, she didn’t know what to do. So, she did nothing. She simply held Mac’s hand and prayed while she waited for help to arrive. She also did her best not to listen to the voice in her head that was telling her he would die, just as her parents had, just as her baby had . . . and she’d be alone again.

CJ had no idea how much time had passed when she heard Julius exclaim, “Oh, thank God. Dani.”

Glancing around, CJ watched a curvaceous woman with long, wavy blond hair rush into the room and head straight for the bed. Dressed in navy blue dress slacks and a sharp white blouse, the woman looked every inch the professional, and CJ recalled Decker mentioning his wife, Dani, was a doctor, an ob-gyn if she remembered correctly. But her presence there was somewhat confusing. Where the hell was the ambulance Decker had called? And why was the woman rushing to Marguerite rather than Mac, who was bleeding out on the floor? She might be an ob-gyn, but that was still a doctor and Mac was in desperate need of a doctor right now.

“Uh, hey,” CJ called out with a frown. “You’re Decker’s wife, the doctor, right?”

The blonde turned silver-blue eyes her way and smiled distractedly. “You must be the CJ Decker mentioned. Hi. Sorry, Marguerite needs me right now.”

CJ nearly goggled at that, but snapped, “So does Mac. He’s bleeding out here. Or he was,” she added with a frown, glancing back to his wound. Still no blood, but the bullet was poking out of the wound now, already halfway out from