Prohibited (Tulsa City Sinners #1)

39. Roberts

Chapter thirty-nine

Roberts

He needed to get up. To move. To call for help. But his breaths were coming so fast, so shallow, that he couldn’t gather enough of them to yell. The cold in his upper abdomen was becoming pain.

No, not pain.

Agony. An agony so intense that he couldn’t help but groan every time he let his breath out.

Blood coated his hands, slicking them with dark crimson. Soaked his coat. The sleeves of his coat. The crotch and the legs of his pants, like he’d pissed himself.

Something vital was leaving him along with his blood and he was helpless to stop it.

He needed to get up. To move. But his body seemed incapable of listening to his command. It was growing colder by the moment.

The hands pressed to his stomach–were those his hands?--were completely covered in blood, as if he had dipped them into a bucket .

“Jesus,” he gasped between rapid breaths.

The red headed woman was suddenly in front of him, moving her lips though he couldn’t quite work out what he was saying.

The one he had left behind at Stanley’s house.

The one who had escaped.

A hallucination. She was a hallucination leaning over him with her eyebrows drawn together, soft pink mouth moving out of sync with the irregular and panicked beat of his heart.

“What happened?” Her voice finally sliced through the thick fog that seemed to be filling his mind and spilling into his ears.

“S-Stanley,” he gasped. “Got me. Evie’s gone.”

“Goddammit,” the woman said, straightening for a moment, fists clenched. “Where are Ryan and Alex?”

“Please help,” Roberts said through clenched teeth, a tear sliding down his cheek.

“Where are they?” she asked, bending forward to look at him with a coldness in her eyes that frightened him almost as much as Stanley.

“Cell,” he gasped. “Locked in.”

Something tugging at him. The sound of clinking.

The keys on his belt.

Feebly, he lifted his arm and tried to shove her away, but she flipped his hand away with a flick of her wrist and held up the key ring.

“Please,” Roberts said with lips that wouldn’t move much. Something warm and wet leaked down his chin .

Drool. He was drooling on himself.

“Goodbye, Lieutenant,” she said. Through the dark haze that was settling over his vision, he watched her walk to the door. She turned to look back at him for a moment, though he couldn’t read the expression on her face.

Then, the door closed.

Roberts tried to scream, but all the came out was a gurgle.