Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
No answer. The air felt wrong. Too still. Too heavy. We took the stairs two at a time. Her door was cracked. That was when my heart stopped.
Adrenaline rushed through me. I pushed it open.
The atmosphere hit me all at once. Heat, it was entirely too warm. Char didn’t like it hot, she preferred to bundle up and breathe in cooler air. The odor of something chemical, something sharp and wrong permeated the space. My eyes took a second to adjust to the low light, and when they did, my world shattered.
Char was on the floor.
Not just on the floor, though. She was limp, her limbs slack at angles that made no sense. Her shirt was bunched up under her ribs, her jeans half unbuttoned.
And over her… there he was.
Her ex.
Hands already on her waistband, eyes wild, mouth twisted in something ugly and desperate.
“Police!” Lamonte shouted.
The man’s head snapped up. Everything happened at once. He lunged.
Not at Char. At Lamonte.
I moved on instinct, dropping to my knees beside Char as Lamonte intercepted him. I barely registered the crash of bodies, the grunt of exertion, the sound of furniture tipping. We were trained. Lamonte could handle this, Char needed me. Her life depended on it.
I was already checking her neck for a pulse. Nothing.
“No,” I breathed.
I pressed harder, fingers searching. Frantically, checking her wrist. Nothing.
“Char,” I said, louder now. “Char, hey. Stay with me.”
Her lips were blue. My hands shook as I tilted her head back, clearing her airway, counting in my head as I started compressions.
“One, two, three,” my breath coming in pants as the exertion begins. Putting the pressure on someone’s chest in order to restart the heart wasn’t easy. It took power. Sometimes even cracking people’s ribs. I didn’t want that for her, but I would do whatever she needed to get her blood flowing once again.
Behind me, there was shouting. Cursing. The sound of a struggle. I couldn’t turn around. I couldn’t afford to. Char needed my focus.
“Come on, baby,” I said, my voice breaking as I counted. “You don’t get to leave. Not like this.”
Something exploded behind me. There was white powder bursting into the air. I felt a faint dusting against my own skin.
“Dante!” Lamonte coughed.
I flinched but didn’t stop. “Stay with me,” I told Char. “Stay with me. Don’t give up. This isn’t how you go out, baby.”
The man yelled something incoherent. I heard Lamonte gag, heard him stumble. I should’ve turned.
I didn’t. I trusted him. I trusted him like I trusted myself to survive any situation. We were the good guys nothing would happen. We weren’t in a war zone.
The popping went off and I knew the sound. Gun shot. The sound was wrong, too loud, too close, too final.
I spun just in time to see Lamonte stagger back, his hand flying to his neck.
Blood poured through his fingers.
“No,” I screamed. “No, no, no!”
The man bolted for the door. I drew my weapon on reflex, firing twice as he disappeared into the stairwell. I didn’t know if I hit him. I didn’t know anything except that Lamonte was on his knees, blood pooling on the floor, and Char still wasn’t breathing.
“Lamonte!” I shouted rushing to him, but not quickly enough.
He dropped to the ground hard, then shook his head, waving me away with a blood-slicked hand. I took my hand and removed his briefly. Bullet has an entry wound but no exit. This was not a graze like I hoped. I put his hand back in place and went to grab my radio but Lamonte cut me off.
“Don’t,” he rasped. “Stay, stay with her.”
He grabbed the radio on his shoulder strap with shaking fingers. “Officer down,” he choked out. “Shots fired. Suspect fled on foot.” I heard the crackling then the dispatch response as Lamonte rattled off our location.
He crawled toward me, dragging himself across the floor until his back pressed against mine, solid, warm, and very present.
“I got the door,” he explained hoarsely. “You got her. Dante, keep compressions. Help is coming, brother.”
I let out a roar just once, sharp and ugly, then forced all the emotions down.
I couldn’t fall apart. Not now.
I resumed compressions, my arms burning, sweat dripping into my eyes.
“Come on,” I whispered. “Please.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Lamonte’s breathing was labored and wrong behind me, each inhale a struggle.
“I’m gonna be okay,” he kept repeating, like he was trying to convince himself. “You hear me? Marines don’t go out like this.”
I wanted to argue. To turn and help him. To do something other than feel helplessly torn between two people I cared about.
Char’s chest finally shuddered. A weak, broken gasp tore from her throat.
“EMS is almost here,” I told her, though I didn’t know if she could hear me. “You’re not alone. I’ve got you.”
She didn’t open her eyes, didn’t choke out, didn’t really change much except the small, barely noticeable change to breathing again.