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  I drop to my knees and spill Kiley to the floor, throwing my body over hers. The air smells like sulfur and my ears are ringing. Alex and the woman are down, and Gabriella is struggling to stand up. The men are standing over them a second later. One helps Gabriella to stand. Kiley is making noises beneath me and I think she’s okay. My mom is crying and down beside me.

  “I’m okay, Mom.” I run my gaze over my niece. “Kiley’s okay too.”

  My mom stands as I scramble to my knees. I lift Kiley to my mom while keeping an eye out on what’s happening at the end of the hallway. One of the men kicks the woman’s gun away and takes out his cell phone. The other man is over Alex. He shrugs out of his jacket, wads it up, and pushes it against Alex’s chest. Alex isn’t moving. Gabriella stops yelling in Spanish. It feels as if I’m hearing everything through a tunnel, but I understand what the man is saying.

  “Get the doctor here STAT. Two down, one alive.”

  My gaze jerks to the woman. Her eyes are open and lifeless. Gabriella walks over to me as I stand and use the wall for support. “I will take care of your mother, Señorita. Attend your man.”

  Gabriella is crying. I look between her and my mom, whose expression is panicked. She has a struggling Kiley in a death grip. “Mom, go with Gabriella. Alex needs me.” Some of the shock leaves my mom’s face and she nods. I don’t watch the women leave because my focus is on Alex.

  I sink to my knees beside him. “Hold this here and use as much pressure as you can. We need to get him into the other room where we have supplies,” the man who removed his jacket says. I press down on Alex’s chest as told.

  Another man enters the house. “We’re clear. The house is secure.” He looks at Alex and the woman. “Danita must have snuck into the car with Gabriella. Dr. Santos is on his way. He said to call an ambulance if we can’t wait for him.”

  The man beside me speaks again. “We’re moving him to the other room.” He looks at me. “You got this.” My hands are next to his and all I can do is nod as he takes his away. There’s so much blood and it’s soaking through the material at an alarming rate. “What about his leg?” I ask.

  “Shit,” he mutters. Another jacket is handed over. He applies pressure to Alex’s leg while the other two men carry him. I focus on Alex while they talk about the house’s security.

  I can’t press hard against Alex’s wound while we’re in transit, and there’s so much blood that the jacket is a sopping mess. We pass through the kitchen to a small hallway that has two doors. One is open and looks to be a laundry room. One of the men opens the other door. There’s a steel table large enough to hold Alex. They lift him to the table and one of them immediately begins opening cabinets and removing supplies. He hangs an IV bag from a hook on the wall and begins prepping Alex for the IV.

  “Here,” another man says and removes the jacket from Alex’s chest and replaces it with a thick towel. I press down again. A blood pressure cuff is wrapped around Alex’s other arm and an oxygen mask is placed over his face. These men know what they’re doing, but it does little to comfort me.

  “After I have a vein, we’ll look at the wounds. Jason, cut his clothes off.”

  They remind me of a surgical team. The room reminds me of an emergency room. This is Alex’s world. People get shot. People die. Kiley and my mom could have died. All of this runs through my mind as I apply pressure. Alex’s lips are blue. He’s unresponsive and I think he might be dead. Not yet. He can’t die. No, Alex, don’t leave me, I repeat in my head. I’m gasping for air and crying when one of the men asks me to move aside. I can’t do anything but stand frozen.

  “I need to check the wound. His pulse is weak,” he explains. If Alex has a pulse, he’s alive and that becomes my new litany. I move back and let the men take over.

  “I’m Cal,” the man who inserted the IV tells me. “I was a Navy Corpsman.” Alex’s chest wound is bubbling blood. Cal grabs an odd plastic pad and covers the wound. “The bullet punctured his lung but not the heart or he would be dead. The defibrillator pad is sticky and will stop the wound from sucking air. I can also peel it back and let air escape if too much builds up in the lung cavity. I put a dose of Propofol in the IV line. Dr. Santos will be here shortly. Do me a favor and hold Alex’s hand. If he comes to, talk to him and keep him calm. The Propofol relaxes his brain and it’s possible he’ll wake up. I don’t want him fighting us. I need to look at the leg wound.”

  I hold myself together and take Alex’s hand. My hands are covered in his blood. Cal checks Alex’s leg. One of the men says something that I don’t quite catch and then leaves the room. My focus is Alex. He’s still as death, his fingers cold. They’re always warm. I associate warmth with Alex. “Please God,” I pray. “Don’t take him. Please don’t take him.”

  Cal speaks when my prayer fades, “The leg wound doesn’t look too bad. It obviously didn’t hit an artery and the bullet passed through. With two wounds, he’s lost a lot of blood. I have the IV drip as heavy as it can go.” It’s two seconds after Cal says this that Alex’s body starts shaking violently. “Hold him down,” Cal yells.

  I practically lay over Alex’s chest while Cal holds his legs and the other man holds his shoulders. I continue praying, crying, and praying some more. It seems like forever before Alex’s body goes limp again.

  I’m afraid to look because I expect to see the same vacant eyes the woman had. When I finally gather my courage, Alex’s eyes are closed and his face is still. His chest rises and I breathe again.

  The third man who left a few minutes ago returns with a fourth man. “This is Stevens. He has O negative blood. He’s a good man to have around in these situations,” Cal says. “Jose, apply pressure here on the front and back of his leg and I’ll set up for a transfusion.” Cal has Stevens sit down in a chair against the opposite wall and begins removing more items from the cabinets.

  I return my gaze to Alex’s face, which is still covered by the oxygen mask. His lips don’t appear as blue. I almost begin crying again when Dr. Santos enters the room. If anyone can save Alex, it’s him.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Celina

  “I DON’T SUPPOSE ANYONE has sterilized their hands,” Dr. Santos says while shaking his head and offering me a tight smile. He slips on gloves and then moves in beside me to check the chest wound. If I thought Cal was calm, he has nothing on Dr. Santos. The man goes about his exam in slow motion. He checks Alex’s eyes and his fingers. He adjusts the oxygen level and then moves down to the chest wound. He asks Cal questions and seems confident in what Cal has done so far.

  After checking Alex’s leg, he walks to the black bag he sat down when he entered and removes items. He methodically places them on the counter beside everything else that’s taking up room. He fills a hypodermic needle and administers the medicine to the IV line.

  The doctor nods in my direction. “I need to remove the bullet. You can stay or go, but if you pass out, you’re on your own.” He’s in full doctor mode and the gentle man who examined Kiley is gone.

  “I’ll stay,” I tell him. “Am I in your way?”

  “Stand at his head and you’ll be fine.” His tone softens. “How is little Miss Kiley?”

  I think he’s trying to keep me calm. “She’s good but still not talking.”

  He smiles as he arranges surgical instruments on a towel that he tears out of plastic wrap. “One day soon you will say she talks too much…” His voice trails off and he begins giving Cal instructions. Cal helps him move the cart holding Alex so he can reach the instruments he needs. “Let us remove the bullet so Alex can heal, sí?”

  “Sí,” I whisper.

  I stand quietly for the next hour while Dr. Santos works. After the bullet is out of Alex’s chest, Dr. Santos hums softly to himself. With every minute I watch him work, I fall a bit more in love with the older man. If I hadn’t seen his bedside manner with Kiley, I would think he’s wasted on children. He never hesitates. I know he cares for Alex, and this must be reall
y hard. You wouldn’t know it by watching him.

  Cal begins the blood transfusion at the doctor’s order. Alex’s blood pressure begins to rise. The doctor assures me that it is still low because of the medication he used to put Alex fully under. I hadn’t noticed.

  At one point, Gabriella enters and informs me she is checking on me for my mother. She quickly leaves after I give her a brief smile. What must my mother think? A woman was killed in front of her and Alex was shot twice. I never told my mom who Alex was or what he does for a living. I’m sure she’s figured it out by now. My heart is torn in two.

  I love this man. I think I knew it the day we retrieved Kiley. The feeling is even stronger now. Today, Alex never hesitated when he placed himself between a bullet and my family. What kind of man would do that? The crazy woman talked about the men he’s killed and the women he’s slept with. If she weren’t dead, she could scream it from the roof tops and it wouldn’t matter. Alex is loyal and brave and a hero.

  How do I leave him? How do I stay in this world and keep Kiley safe? The answer is simple really. I can’t. What’s happened today proves it. Alex will understand. He knows this isn’t the right place for Kiley. What he won’t know is that it will tear me apart until the day I die.

  Dr. Santos breaks into my thoughts when he says, “That is all I can do for now. Alex is in God’s hands.”

  I look into the eyes of the tired doctor and then to Alex. He is deathly pale, but he’s breathing regularly. My shoulders fall forward and I put my head down. I can’t stop my pent up emotions from erupting into tears. Dr. Santos removes his gloves and wraps his arms around me. “You are a very strong woman. Alex is lucky to have you.”

  This only makes me cry harder.

  “We need some iced tea. Cal will stay with Alex while we take a break.”

  I can’t look at Cal and I absolutely don’t want to face my mother. Delaying the inevitable will only make things worse and right now, I don’t care. Dr. Santos drops his arms and hands me a tissue. I wipe my face, kiss Alex on the temple, and walk out.

  Alex’s blood is still on the floors and I truly realize how much he lost. I inhale deeply trying to gain control of myself. If Alex can survive losing this much blood, I can survive seeing it.

  This day is a nightmare and it’s proven again when we enter the kitchen. My mother and Gabriella are there. My mom’s still in shock. I introduce her to Dr. Santos. She doesn’t ask too many questions. Of course that will change when we’re alone. Gabriella fills all of us large glasses of iced tea.

  “La niña is in my bed. She could not keep her eyes open. She seems no worse for wear,” Gabriella adds when she’s seated.

  “Thank you,” I say and look at her puffy lip. It doesn’t appear to be too bad. “How is your head?”

  Gabriella smiles. “I have a hard head, Señorita. I will live.”

  Dr. Santos grumbles, stands, and insists on examining Gabriella’s head. My mother looks at me and I know the first totally truthful conversation I’ll have with her since everything with Kiley began is only minutes away.

  My mother pats Gabriella’s hand. “We will leave you in good hands, Gabriella. Thank you for everything. I need to speak with my daughter privately.”

  No one stops us as we leave the room. I feel as if I’m two years old and dragging my feet. I lead my mom to Alex’s apartment. We carry our tea with us. My mother has always done whatever it takes and remained strong no matter what life throws in her path. Working a night job and caring for my dad is who she is and I owe her the truth.

  We sit on the couch, turned toward each other. “Start at the beginning,” she tells me. Her hand shakes as she lifts her glass to her lips.

  I start the day Pauline called. This time I leave nothing out. I put my mom in this situation and I’m coming clean.

  Chapter Thirty

  Alex

  I’M IN PAIN. MY entire chest and my fucking leg hurt. My eyes are blurry. A warm hand settles on my shoulder and I blink a few times so I can see Moon’s face. He looks concerned as I attempt to place bits and pieces together in my brain.

  “Celina,” I say in a throaty voice that doesn’t sound like mine.

  “She’s fine. So is Kiley and Mrs. Thomas. Celina will be back in here shortly and she’ll be relieved that you’re awake.”

  “How long has it been?” I try to lift my arm, but it hurts my chest too badly.

  “Two days since you were shot.”

  “Fuck.” I close my eyes and try to remember what happened. “Danita?”

  “Dead.”

  “Is anyone else injured? Gabriella?”

  “No, just you.”

  I close my eyes and the slideshow plays in my head. Each scene one I never want to relive. Celina’s huge eyes when she grabs Kiley from me. Going to my knee after Danita shot me in the leg. Trying to cover Celina and her niece. The fury in Gabriella’s eyes. The smoke that filled the hallway.

  No, never again.

  “How did she get in?” I ask Moon without opening my eyes.

  “She followed Gabriella to the store and hid in the backseat until Gabriella pulled into the garage. Apparently, she had a key to the car from long ago. She should have died from heat stroke while she waited for Gabriella. More’s the pity that she did not.”

  Yes, more’s the pity. I can clearly see the crazy gleam in her eyes. She wanted to kill us all. I can only be thankful that Madison wasn’t here. Danita hated her. I allow the images of everything that happened to imprint on my brain. I need them there. I deserve them.

  My tone is hard when I speak again. “I don’t want to see Celina.” I open my eyes and even though it hurts, I turn my head so I can see Moon fully.

  He places his hand on my shoulder. “That won’t be possible. She’s stayed with you through the surgery and only left a few minutes ago because her mother insisted. She loves you. You’re aware of that, right?”

  I can’t laugh because it will kill my chest. Of course I fucking know that. “I love her too. She can’t stay here and I need you to get her to my sister’s home immediately. I’ll transfer money to her account. Enough so she can begin a new life. That’s how much I love her. I’ll keep her safe just as I do my sister.”

  His pulls his hand away. “This discussion needs to take place with Celina.” Moon’s voice turns as hard as mine. He isn’t happy and I really don’t give a fuck.

  I lift my head, which hurts like a bitch. “No. I want her gone. Now. They don’t belong in our world. That baby could have easily been killed. Get them out, Moon.” I refuse to back down. He owes me this. I have followed him practically my entire life. It’s time for him to fucking follow me.

  “Okay.” He paces a few feet and then turns back to me. “I agree with you, but you’re wrong about not talking to Celina. She deserves the chance to say goodbye.”

  I don’t say another word, I just hold his gaze.

  “I’ll put it in motion. Rest. I’ll return when it’s done.”

  Relief swamps me and exhaustion takes over. I lay my head back against the pillows. The pictures continue flashing one by one.

  This is my hell.

  Cal comes in and fills me a glass of water when I ask for one. He also adds an injection to the intravenous line. I can’t even fucking bring it to my mouth. He helps without saying much and I know Moon told him to sit with me. I don’t like it, but I’m too weak to fight. I eventually doze off. I have no idea how much time has passed when I open my eyes again. The door opens and before I can say anything, Cal leaves. I’m not happy to see Celina.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” I tell her. I close my eyes because it’s too hard to look at the sadness I see in hers. I know they’re a reflection of mine.

  “You’re wrong,” she says in a surprisingly firm voice. I shouldn’t feel surprised because I know how strong she truly is. “I need to thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  I open my eyes long enough to see her wipe her tears away. I’m the last person sh
e should ever cry for. The bed dips and she places her hand on mine. Slowly she uncurls my fingers so she can slip hers between mine.

  “I’m leaving with Kiley and my mom in a few minutes. A private jet is taking us to your sister’s home where we are to make a new life.” She wipes more tears away. “I won’t see you again. I couldn’t leave without—” Her voice hitches as she fights breaking down completely. “Without telling you thank you,” she manages to get out. She leans down. It takes everything I have to lift my arm and pull her against my shoulder. I don’t care about the pain.

  I try to pull up my terrible images so they will get me through this. Celina’s magic makes it impossible. After she’s gone, I can wallow in the punishment for my sins. A punishment I will live with forever.

  “I love you, Alex,” she whispers.

  I breathe in her scent for the last time. I memorize the sound of her heart beating. I don’t tell her I love her but I repeat it in my head. I love you, I love you, I love you.

  “My sister will take care of you,” is what I say.

  “What about you, Alex? Who will take care of you?”

  I run my fingers through her hair and refuse to think about the rest of my life. “Be happy, Celina.”

  She pulls away. Her eyes are red from crying and her hair is wild. I lock this image of her into my brain and hope it will come back from time to time. Even with the hurt and heartache, her love shines.

  She turns her head and lifts up until her lips join mine.

  “I love you,” she whispers again.

  I close my eyes and let her go. She moves away from the bed and I keep them closed until I hear the click of the door. My bedroom is empty without her, my life emptier.

  I will live this hell to keep the people I love safe.