Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,90

neighbor’s German shepherd had been run over by a truck and reduced to a sack of blood and broken bones.

The wound was open, the size of her fist, butchered flesh flayed away from the terrible exit hole. Blood was seeping out fast. It had to stop. She didn’t know much first aid but this she knew. The bleeding had to stop and it had to stop right now. There was nothing to stitch him up with, even if she knew how, which she didn’t. No idea how to put a tourniquet around a shoulder.

No, the only possible thing was to put pressure on the wound and bind it until he could receive medical care.

And that would hurt like crazy.

Hope was holding the sweat suit top. She met Luke’s eyes. “I’m going to have to do this. Pack your wound. And it’s going to hurt.”

He held her gaze. If possible, his face was even grayer than before. “Now might be a good time to say that I think I love you. No, scratch that. I know I love you.”

Hope nearly lost her hold on the soft material. Her mind turned entirely blank with shock. “What? I —”

But he looked so awful, in such pain, that she couldn’t continue. First priority here was to staunch his bleeding so that this wonderful brave man who’d just crazily said he was in love with her would not die on her. After declaring his love. That would really suck.

“Hold on,” she said shakily as she mapped out in her head what to do. Place the folded up material directly over the wound — thank God the jacket was clean — and wrap one arm of the jacket over his left shoulder and the other around his chest and tie the two arms together across his back. Good thing the material was super stretchy otherwise the two arms would never have met across that broad back. “Ready? You’ll have to hold still.”

He nodded and she pressed the wad of material over the terrible wound. Luke held rock steady but a hissing moan escaped him and he turned a color she’d never seen on living flesh.

Hope took his hand, pressed it over the material and grabbed the two arms. She shuffled until she was behind him, stretching the two arms until she could tie a tight knot over his back. Every muscle in his body was taut and quivering. She pressed a kiss he probably couldn’t feel over the shoulder blade and shuffled back around to look him in the face.

“What’s next?” she asked.

“Calling it in.” He held up his phone. “That spell you cast will still hold, right?”

He was joking. Surely he wouldn’t — couldn’t — joke if he were dying, right? She nodded shakily.

His left hand had no grasping power. He simply placed his cell in the palm that was lying on his lap, limp and still, and went to his contact list and pushed an icon.

“Speakerphone,” she said. “On low.”

He nodded and slid the volume control way down.

He called it in to 911, identifying himself as a former police officer with the Portland PD and giving the address. “We’re pinned down and I am wounded. Be prepared for an armed response. Don’t know how many hostiles.” He closed the connection. “They’ll be here in ten minutes.”

Hope watched Luke’s face carefully. “Do we have ten minutes?”

“I hope so. We —”

A fusillade of gunfire interrupted him and he threw himself over her reflexively, grunting with pain. He shouldn’t be moving with a wound like that. The gunfire raked the house, left to right and right to left. The windows were bulletproof and simply starred but the bullets went through the walls. It was a sustained fusillade, violent and terrifying, smashing furniture and ceramics. Bits of wood and glass floated in the air.

And not a sound of the shots, just of the damage.

“They don’t know where we are,” he murmured into her ear. She could feel his heartbeat against her back, steady and regular. Her own heart was hammering so hard she was afraid it would beat itself right out of her chest. “So they’re just pumping in bullets. And damn, they’re all silenced.”

“Can you check the security cams?”

His head bowed as he looked at his cell, scrolling through, jaws clenched. “Nothing. It’s got to be a fucking —”

“Drone.” They said the word at the same time. Hope had no idea what that meant, if it was good or bad. Bad probably. It also meant that they