Chapter 32

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

brADEN

"DANI!" I bellowed as I forced my feet to move and cleared the distance to her in two long strides and dropped to my knees next to her. "NO! FUCK!"

Another shot rang out, echoing in the enclosed space and making my ears ring as tears blinded me and my vision started to darken around the edges. Vaguely, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vicki's body crumple to the ground while I frantically tore my t-shirt off and pressed it hard against Dani's injured shoulder, desperate to stop the flowing blood.

My heart was pounding so hard that my chest felt like it was closing in on itself as I watched the vermillion ribbons seep through the fabric and sluice around my fingers. Putting all my body weight behind it, I pushed the bundled cloth further into her wound.

"GAAAAAAH!" Her wail of absolute agony ripped my heart to shreds as she writhed on the pavement beneath me, her back bowing off the ground.

"Look at me, Dani." My words strained out of my throat, but they sounded muffled, like I was listening to them from under water. "Let me see those beautiful eyes."

Dani's eyelids fluttered open, her panting breaths coming in short gasps as her eyes darted all over the place, unable to focus on anything. Every single one of her pained whimpers and cries felt like a white-hot iron spearing into my chest as a strangled sob wrenched out of me.

"Dani, please," I sobbed as I moved one hand from the shirt and placed it on her cheek, pressing harder on the soaked-through shirt with the other. "Look at me, sweetheart. Please look at me!"

Her head turned in my direction, her eyelids quivering as she moaned in distress.

"B-Braden," she slurred.

"Right here, beautiful," I wept, tasting salt from the tears that were flowing down my cheeks like a river. "I'm right here. Stay with me, Dani. You have to stay with me."

"T-take—GAH!" she cried as she jerked away from me, causing me to lose my grip on the shirt.

"Fuck!" I groaned, frantically grabbing the crimson-drenched cotton and pushing it back into the gaping wound. "I know it hurts, sweetheart. I'm so sorry. But I can't stop. I have to keep pressure on it. Just keep looking at me. Focus on my voice. You can't leave me, Dani. Not like this."

"Is-Isaac," she whimpered. "Take…care…"

"No, don't do that!" I choked out, gripping the side of her neck as I tried to bring her focus back to me. "Do not say your goodbyes! This isn't over, baby. You're going to be okay. You have to be okay! I'm not done. I'm not done loving you. You hear me?"

"P-promise…promise me," she garbled, a sob bubbling out of her throat. "P-please."

"Fuck!" I bawled. "I promise, beautiful. I'll take care of him. But so will you. We're going to be a family. He's going to have brothers and sisters, you're going to be a doctor, and we're going to grow old together. You just have to hold on. Please hold on, baby! PLEASE!"

"T-trying," she stammered, letting out a pained groan. "I…I love…"

"Stop it, Dani," I begged. "This isn't goodbye! It can't be goodbye!"

Fuck, I couldn't do this. I didn't know how to do this.

A sob wracked my body, and I used every ounce of strength I had to keep pressure on the wound as I struggled to keep my wits about me so she wouldn't bleed out before help got here.

Desperate to find something to keep her grounded and focused, I tried like hell to remember the lyrics of "Snow on the Beach," a song I'd listened to over and over again in the past few weeks, and started to softly sing to her in my awful, out-of-key voice about our weird, but fucking beautiful love – the most real and honest connection I'd ever known.

"Sir, I need you to back away from her," a man said as a hand landed on my shoulder.

My head jolted in the direction the voice had come from, and I found a man wearing an EMT uniform standing above me, while another knelt on Dani's other side and started to open his kit bag.

When the fuck had they gotten here? How come I hadn't heard the sirens?

"We've got it from here," he said in a calm, even voice. "You did great keeping pressure on her wound until we got here, but now I need you to move and let us help her. Okay?"

Everything in me was telling me to stay right where I was, to keep putting pressure on Dani's wound. The thought of leaving her side was too agonizing to even consider.

But I wasn't a doctor. I wasn't even a medic. My entire knowledge of what to do with gunshot wounds began and ended with keeping pressure on them until help arrived. And help was here now. So I needed to let them do their jobs and save the woman I loved.

Defying every instinct in my body, I released my hold on the scarlet bundle I'd been clutching like a lifeline and forced myself to my feet.