Unlawfully Yours (Lawless MC #1)

13

There’s a small group of kids playing on the sidewalk across the street on my way home. They’re kicking a ball between each other outside Vivid Ink, the tattoo shop. One of them kicks it too hard and it rolls out into the road, a car narrowly missing one of the boys as he runs out to retrieve it.

The car horn blares, the driver cursing out the window as he drives by.

“Boys! Be careful,” I call from the other side of the road, “don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Sorry,” one of them shouts back.

I carry on walking and I don’t register the squeal of tyres until a large grey van barrels past me, screeching to a halt in the middle of the road.

I whirl around just as the sound of gunshots crack through the air. Four consecutive shots ring out in close succession, the smell of burned rubber permeating the air as the van’s tyres squeal as it speeds away. Before it disappears down the road, I catch a quick glimpse of the license plate and take off in a run across the road. People’s screams and shouts adding to the chaos that surrounds me as I see two of the boys from before lying on the sidewalk.

“Somebody call 911!” I shout as I push my way through the crowd that’s beginning to build. “Can everybody please back up. I’m a police officer, give us some space!”

I drop down to my knees beside the boy that is crying in agony, clutching his shoulder while a patch of red spreads through the left side of his shirt.

Christ, he can’t be any older than ten or eleven years old.

“Hey, bud. Can you hear me? What’s your name?” I ask, removing my jacket and placing it under his head to make him more comfortable.

“K—Kit,” he says breathlessly, his blue eyes wide as they stare up at me.

I force a smile. “Kit, my name’s Allie, I’m a police officer. I’m going to help you, okay? I just need you to stay as calm as you can, stay awake and breathe nice and steady for me, alright?”

He gives me a shaky nod.

“Kit!” A familiar voice shouts and I look up to find none other than Killian Hunt standing over us, his eyes wide with horror as he stares down at the boy.

“I’ve got him, I need you to check the other boy.” I nod to the boy lying to the left of us, his eyes closed, his body motionless. My best guess is that he’s already dead, and I can only hope it was quick and as painless as possible for him. Right now, I need to make sure this boy doesn’t end up with the same fate.

“Kit, I need you to take your hand away from your shoulder, I’m gonna take a quick look, okay?”

He nods again, slowly removing his shaky hand from his shoulder that comes back stained in red. I’m able to peel the collar of his shirt back just enough to see his injury. There’s no exit wound on his back which means the bullet is still lodged in there somewhere.

Checking over the rest of him, a bullet seems to have grazed him on his left side just below his ribs, thankfully not causing too much damage. My main concern right now is his shoulder which is bleeding profusely.

Killian returns, dropping to his knees on the opposite side of Kit. I find his eyes and with a simple solemn shake of his head, I know that the other boy is dead.

“K—Kill?” Kit asks.

“Right here, champ,” Killian replies, stroking back Kit’s dark hair that sticks to his sweaty face.

I don’t know how Killian knows this boy, but right now I don’t care. It seems to be a comfort for Kit to see a familiar face.

“I need to put some pressure on your shoulder to stop the bleeding, okay, Kit?” I look up from him to Killian. “Killian, I need your shirt.”

Without hesitation, he pulls off his kutte and tugs his shirt over his head, leaving him in a plain black tank. “Here,” he says, holding out his shirt which I press firmly onto Kit’s shoulder.

Kit’s eyes dart between me and Killian, his thick lashes wet with tears. “I’m s—scared.”

Keeping pressure on his shoulder with one hand, I clasp his hand with my other, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Hey, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, okay? You’re gonna be fine. Just stay with me.”

He nods, his eyes glazing over with tears and my heart aches for him. “I don’t wanna die.”

Those four words tug at my heart.

“You’re not gonna die, I won’t allow it. The ambulance is on its way, okay?”

He nods, his eye flicking to Killian. “I want my dad. Where’s my dad?”

“We’ll get him, champ. Just hang in there.”

Deja vu hits me out of nowhere all of a sudden. I can remember saying those exact words as I sat on the back of the ambulance, watching them take my dad’s body away in a body bag.

I want my dad…

To my relief, the sound of sirens grow nearer and a minute later, two ambulances are pulling up alongside us.

“He’s been shot,” I tell the paramedic as Killian moves back to allow him and his partner room. “I tried to sustain the bleeding, but he’s lost a lot of it. It looks like the bullet is still in his shoulder and he also has a graze from a bullet on his left side.”

“What’s the boy’s name?”

“Kit. His name’s Kit.”

I glance over to find Killian talking on the phone, his brows furrowed as he paces back and forward restlessly.

“Kit, my name is David, I’m a paramedic. We’re going to move you onto the stretcher now, alright?”

“Okay.” Kit nods.

“Thank you, we’ll take it from here,” David, the paramedic tells me as the two paramedics manoeuvre Kit onto the stretcher and place him into the ambulance.

“Can I ride with him?” Killian asks, coming to a stop beside me, pocketing his phone.

“Are you family?” the paramedic asks.

“Um, no.”

“Then I’m afraid not,” he says, closing up the back doors of the ambulance.

Killian goes to argue but I place a hand on his arm. “We can follow behind, okay? Let’s go.