Love Me Reckless (Love Me Dangerous #2)

Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

SAWYER

A gun fires and glass shatters all around us. We land on the floor at the foot of the bed. Kirilee screams. I cover her with my body while another gunshot explodes.

Sheldon cries out and tumbles backward.

“This is Finn River Security! Drop your weapon!” a man calls from the doorway.

I hear voices outside the room—more security agents—and an icy breeze whistles through the broken glass.

“What’s happening?” Kirilee whispers.

A man in a dark suit moves swiftly into the room, leading with a sleek black pistol. He continues to where Sheldon is wheezing on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom.

“I’m with Kirilee, we’re unarmed!” I call out.

A second agent files in from the doorway. It’s Agent Fisher.

From inside the bathroom, the gun skitters across the bathroom’s tile floor. “We’re clear!”

Agent Fisher barks into a radio. “We need an ambulance.”

A sickly dread pools in my chest. Sheldon’s been hit.

A female security agent enters the room. “Ms. St. Claire? ”

“We’re over here!” she says.

The female agent walks around the bed to where I’m still holding Kirilee on the floor, her gun raised and ready.

“We’re not armed,” I say again.

“Move away from her and spread your hands and legs on the floor,” the officer says to me.

I do as I’m told, and another guard kneels behind me to frisk me. “He’s clear.”

“We need to get you out of here,” the female agent says to Kirilee while the other agent wrenches my arms behind my back and cuffs me.

“Stop! What are you doing?” Kirilee cries out as the female agent helps her to her feet. “He’s not a danger.”

“This is for your safety,” the female agent says.

“It’s okay,” I tell Kirilee over the radio chatter and shouts coming from where Shel went down because the sooner we get out of this room, the sooner I’ll be able to hold her again.

I’m yanked to my feet just as Zach leans through the doorway. He and I lock eyes for an instant before we both turn our attention to Sheldon sprawled on the floor near the bathroom entrance. He’s flanked by Agent Fisher and the first agent, who is compressing a wound on his chest with a towel that is soaked with blood. More of it pools in the space between his arm and his rib cage. He’s breathing fast and his face is pale.

Kirilee is being led from the room, her protests sharp in my ears. The agent with me hurries me along, but my eyes stay locked on my brother. Panic fills me. He’s hurt. There’s so much blood.

Outside the room, a pair of medics hurry down the hall, one carrying a large kit and the other a collapsable stretcher. My head pounds and the lights feel too bright.

The medics brush past us. I twist from my agent’s grasp to watch them slip into the bedroom, but the agent jerks on my arm, pulling me along. Reluctantly, I let him lead me into the living room. The glass door where I entered the house is still open and the room is icy cold. The tall safe door is still ajar and the couch cushion rests where I found it in the middle of the floor, the evidence of violence that hardened my resolve.

Everyone is talking at once. Zach’s voice rises above it all, urging them to let me loose.

“Let me go to him,” I beg, feeling helpless. “Please.”

“Medics coming through!” The two men in blue uniforms carry Shel from the bedroom. His still body is strapped to the stretcher, with a bag of IV fluid tucked in next to him.

“Shel!” I cry just as my cuffs come free.

“Go,” Zach barks in my ear.

I hurry down the stairs and chase after the medics who are halfway through the front door. Outside, the hum of an approaching helicopter fills the air.

This is all happening so fast.

When I finally catch up with the medics, I reach for Shel’s hand. It’s cold, sending a chill up my arm. “I’m here, brother.”

His face twists in agony. He sucks in a sob. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Shel.”

“I just… wanted to start…” His breath catches. “…fresh.”

He’s so pale.

“…like you.”

The medics lower Sheldon to the grass. I fall to my knees alongside him, ignoring the helicopter swooping closer.

“It’s not too late!” I shout over the grind of the chopper. “Stay with me and I’ll help you.”

“That night…” He huffs a series of breaths, his teeth bared against the pain. “…Wes wanted to take her away.”

He’s going back to that horrible memory, when Wes had come around and I took off, not wanting to be anywhere near him. “That’s all in the past. We survived, and that’s all that matters.”

“I hid in the car,” Shel says as if he didn’t hear me. “I wanted to go, even… if it meant leaving you. ”

What is this nonsense? I tighten my grip on his hand and will him to look at me. “That’s not important, okay? Just stay with me.”

Sheldon grabs my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong. “It was never your fault.” His voice is scratchy, like it’s costing him effort.

The medics curl over Shel as the helicopter lowers, blasting us with rotor wash. I have to shut my eyes and hide my face in my shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay, Shel. I’m here.”

With the growl of the chopper in my ears and flying dust pelting my face, the medics lift Sheldon, severing my hold on him, and race him to the chopper. I try to go after them, but I’m jerked backward. It’s Zach.

“Stay down!” he yells over the roar.

The chopper’s blades blast us with grit and exhaust. We cower there on the grass until the chopper lifts off in a powerful roar of sound and blasting wind.

A figure rushes from the house, her silhouette backlit by the glow from inside. Kirilee barrels into me. I wrap my arms around her and pull her tightly against my chest. Together we watch the chopper’s blinking lights and hulk of black metal slip into the night.