I pulled myself off and pushed up on my hands and knees, scooting toward them, my hands slipping on Darius’s blood flooding the floor.
“Fuck!” I shouted, making it to them as they rolled this way and that. Rivers’s face was now blue, his legs kicking in panic and agitation. Darius was grunting, the noises full of exertion and pain. I got my hands on the knife still in Darius’s side in order to use it on Rivers and get him off Darius, but they slipped free over the warm blood. “No,” I whispered, going for it again just as sunlight hit the scene.
I looked up to see Ren charging in, Lee and Hank behind him, Eddie and Luke following.
Thank God.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
“Ambulance!” I shouted. “Darius. Shot and stabbed.”
Ren hauled Rivers off Darius and dragged him away.
I didn’t look to see what Ren was doing, although I distractedly heard a fist thudding into flesh then flesh thudding into a wall (or the floor).
Instead, moving urgently, I slid on the blood to get closer to Darius who was on his back and not moving.
Lethargic, panting, my heart beating so hard it was painful, I didn’t need the knife to sink it into Rivers and help Darius, so I left it where it was but pressed a hand to his wound. I lifted my other hand to his chest and got in his face.
“There’re here. There’re here. You’re gonna be okay,” I told him.
Darius stared at me and I could hear Luke saying, “Gunshot wounds. Stab wounds. Head wound. It’s bad. We need a medic immediately.”
I felt hands on me and heard Lee speaking.
“Ally, let me get to him.”
I reached out and grabbed Darius’s hand. With effort pulling it to his chest and pressing in, I got even closer.
“You’re gonna be okay. The ambulance is coming.”
He kept staring at me.
I pushed in at his chest with our hands. “Talk to me.”
“You’re gonna be okay,” he repeated my words quietly.
For some reason, hearing his voice sent relief sweeping through me.
“Yeah. Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m gonna be okay.”
“They’re here,” he said, his voice weak.
Shit. Shit. Fuck.
“Yeah. They’re here.”
“So you’re gonna be okay.”
The hands on me grew urgent. “Ally, honey, let me in there.”
I ignored Lee and said to Darius, “Yeah.”
“’Cause they’re here,” Darius said to me.
I pressed harder to his wound as his blood flowed over my hand.
“No.” I shook my head. “Because you saved me.”
He held my eyes and lifted a hand to my face. “Yeah.”
I pressed my cheek into his hand and held his other one tight.
It was then, he closed his eyes and his lips curved in a smile I did not like.
“Finally,” he whispered. “Salvation.”
Then his hand fell away, landing at his side.
Lifeless.
After that, I threw my head back and screamed.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Pain in My Ass
The drug having worn off, my faculties back to mostly functioning, I sat in the hospital waiting room with the rest of the crew, Ren holding me close to his side with one arm, my hand held to his chest in his.
I had my head on his shoulder.
By the way, the hospital waiting room part of the Rock Chick Ride?
Not my favorite.
Ever.
And this one particularly.
They’d had a look at me when they brought me in. I was fine, still drugged, but I lost it when they tried to clean Darius’s blood off me.
I struggled, spat, clawed and no one could calm me. Not Ren, who tried first. Not Hank, who got in there with Ren. Not Indy, who Lee pulled Ren and Hank away so she could get in because he thought she would do it.
She couldn’t.
The person who did it was my mom.
And she did this by putting her hand on the nurse’s arm and saying, “She needs it. Let her keep it. We’ll see to her when the time is right for Ally.”
The nurse didn’t like it, but she moved away.
I stopped fighting.
So I still had his blood on me, there, in the waiting room.
Because Mom was right. I needed it. I needed some part of him with me.
I knew this sounded weird.
But I didn’t give a fuck.
Ren, being Ren, said nothing about the blood even though now it was on him.
And we were waiting.
All of us.
Indy and Lee. Eddie and Jet. Hank and Roxie. Jules and Vance. Ava and Luke. Stella and Mace. Hector and Sadie. Tex and Nancy. Marcus and Daisy. Roam and Sniff. Mom and Dad. Indy’s dad, Tom, and his girlfriend, Lana (incidentally, Lana was Mace’s Mom; so yeah, we were incestuous—whatever, it worked). Tod and Stevie. Buddy and Ralphie. Smithie and LaTeesha. Annette and Jason. Jules’s uncle Nick and her friend May. Jimmy Marker. Brody, Monty, Matt, Ike, Jack and Bobby. Blanca, Rosa, Carlos, Elena and Gloria. Dom and Sissy. Vito and Angela. Willie Moses. Brian Bond. Darius’s Mom, Dorothea. Duke’s wife Dolores. And even Stella’s band, Floyd, Buzz, Pong, Hugo and Leo showed up.
A motley crew of cops and crooks, bounty hunters and baristas, PIs and rock stars, hot guys and Rock Chicks.
Darius’s people.
Darius’s family.
And last, Shirleen was sitting beside me.