“ANDREW! MOVE!” I scream as I scurry behind the couch and press my back up against it. I reach into my coat pocket for my cell phone and realize I left it back in my car.
After what feels like an eternity, the sound of gunfire stops. I slowly poke my head out from behind the couch and see that Andrew still hasn’t moved. I feel something sticky and wet on the front of me and when I glance down, I see that Paige’s white shirt is covered in blood. Since I’m pretty sure that blood isn’t mine, I know I need to go over and check on Andrew. Swallowing my nausea down, I get back on my hands and knees and inch my way toward him, holding my breath and listening for the sound of a gun going off again.
Right now, all I hear is a ringing in my ears from the gunshots, and my heart thudding loudly. As I get closer to him, I feel shards of glass slicing into my palms and knees, but I ignore the pain. All I’m focused on is the man lying on his back staring up at the ceiling.
Please, not again. I can’t handle two dead bodies in one week.
I eventually make it to Andrew’s side and the first thing I see are several bullet holes in his chest. His sweatshirt is now not only stained with beer and food but his blood as well. It seeps out of the holes in his chest and blooms on the sweatshirt in one giant bloodred circle.
With a shaking hand, I reach out and press two fingers against the side of his neck. I wait for the beat of his heart against my fingers, but nothing happens.
Realizing that my fingers are pressed up against the neck of a dead body, I snatch my hand away and scramble backward until my shoulder hits the wall. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I wrap my arms around them and stare unblinking at the man I was just talking to moments ago.
Someone shot him. Someone shot at me. He was getting ready to tell me something important and was cut off by bullets to the chest before he could finish his sentence. Someone out there must have been following me and they didn’t want Andrew to talk.
This is not good. Not good at all.
CHAPTER 7
Lorelei. Come on, snap out of it, baby. Look at me.”
The voice registers in my brain but it doesn’t make sense. That voice wouldn’t be talking to me this nicely. He’d also never call me “baby.”
I feel warm hands on my face and my head is turned so I’m no longer staring at Andrew Jameson’s dead body. Now I’m staring at a well-muscled chest in a tight blue shirt. My eyes slowly travel up and I see Dallas staring at me with a worried expression, his thumb wiping away at something on my cheek.
“Jesus Christ, you’re bleeding. Breathe, Lorelei.”
At his command, I let out a shaky breath and suddenly feel tears pooling in my eyes. I blink rapidly, refusing to let them fall. I don’t know what Dallas is doing here or why he’s being so nice to me, but I will absolutely not fall apart in front of him. That will only give him more ammunition.
Glancing around, I realize it’s gotten dark. The sun was setting when I pulled up to Andrew’s house. I must have been sitting here for a while. I remember sitting against the wall, afraid to go outside in case the shooter was still out there.
Everything comes rushing back at once. Talking to Andrew, a few seconds away from him telling me who killed Richard, and then gunshots. I wasn’t even scared at the time—I must have been moving on pure adrenaline. But now the breaths are leaving my lungs quickly. Too quickly. I feel like I’m going to hyperventilate.
Dallas turns my face back to him and bends his head lower so he’s looking directly in my eyes. “Don’t look over there. Just look at me. It’s okay. Nice and slow.”
Nice and slow. In and out. Don’t think about the fact that there’s another dead body just a few feet away from me or that Dallas has the most amazing gray eyes I’ve ever seen and they’re currently looking at me with gentle concern instead of irritation.
Dallas slides his hands off of my cheeks and I immediately miss their warmth. He reaches down and grabs both of my wrists, pulling my hands up and inspecting them.
“Fuck. Your hands are full of glass,” he curses as he gently starts plucking a few pieces out.
I look down and realize he’s right. I stare unblinking at the palms of my hands. They are covered in dots of blood and tiny shards of glass and they suddenly hurt like hell.
He lets go of one of my hands and quickly reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a handkerchief. He brings it up to the side of my face and presses it against my cheek. I flinch when it touches my skin and feel a small sting of pain.
“It’s all right—it’s just a small scratch. A bullet must have grazed you,” he says calmly.
The look on his face contradicts the softness in his tone. He’s clenching his teeth and a muscle ticks in his jaw. He’s probably angry with me that I came in here, acting like I knew what I was doing, and now a prime suspect is dead.
Shame on Him
Tara Sivec's books
- Shame on Me
- Shame on You
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
- A Vision of Loveliness
- Abdication A Novel
- Already Gone
- Armageddon
- Blood Gorgons
- Bonnie of Evidence
- Buried (A Bone Secrets Novel)
- Confessions of a Call Center Gal
- Conservation of Shadows
- Constance A Novel
- Deadly Deception
- Death on a Pale Horse
- Death on the Pont Noir
- Diamond Girl
- Domination (A C.H.A.O.S. Novel)
- Dragon's Moon
- Elimination Night
- Every Contact Leaves a Trace
- Extinction Machine
- Fight Song A Novel
- Fire Stones
- Gideon's Corpse
- Gone to the Forest A Novel
- Harvest Moon
- Hitman Damnation
- Honey Pie (Cupcake Club)
- Honor Student
- Honor Thy Teacher (Honor Series)
- Honor Thy Thug
- Invasion Colorado
- Kind One
- Light on Lucrezia
- Lionheart A Novel
- Montaro Caine A Novel
- Moon Burning
- Moon Underfoot (A Jake Crosby Thriller)
- On Dublin Street
- Once Upon a River
- One Good Hustle
- One Minute to Midnight
- One Tiny Secret
- One Week
- Operation Caribe
- Operation Sea Ghost
- Pandemonium
- Perfection
- Poseidon's Arrow
- Reason to Breathe
- Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend
- Reasons to Be Happy
- Reunion at Red Paint Bay
- Second Hearts (The Wishes Series)
- Secret Reflection
- So Gone
- Sometime Soon
- Son of Destruction
- Suspicions
- The Antagonist
- The Bone Bed
- The Diamond Chariot
- The Falcons of Fire and Ice
- The Exceptions
- The Infatuations
- The London Blitz Murders
- The Only Exception
- The Persona Protocol
- The Ribbon Weaver
- The Saxon Uprising-ARC
- The Second Virginity of Suzy Green
- The Tudor Plot A Cotton Malone Novella
- The Wonder of Your Love
- The Wrong Path
- Theodore Boone The Accused
- The Con Man (87th Precinct)
- Unintended Consequences - By Marti Green
- Unintended Consequences - By Stuart Woods
- Walk on the Wild Side
- You Don't Want To Know
- You Only Die Twice
- Zone One
- The Abduction
- The Adventures of Button Broken Tail
- SIX MONTHS_(A Seven Series Novel Book 2)
- The Blackstone Chronicles
- Blood from a stone
- Blood on My Hands
- Blue noon
- The Blood That Bonds
- The Body Of Jonah Boyd
- Bone Fire
- Boneshaker
- The Bone Chamber
- The Bone Fire_A Mystery
- The Bone Palace
- Butcher Bird_ A Novel of the Dominion
- By Reason of Insanity
- Border songs