I dropped to my knees between Lauren and Bones, the gunfire muffled by the sounds of my own desperate pleas.
There was blood everywhere.
His.
Hers.
So much blood.
I reached out, my hand trembling as I pushed her hair away from her face.
“Riggs,” she whispered, her lip shaking as she spoke my name.
“Shhh,” I sighed, bending over her and kissing her. “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay,” I chanted. I lifted my head and stared at the blood saturating her shirt, trying to locate where the bullet hit her. “You just have to stay with me, okay, Kitten? You need to stay with me,” I begged, lifting her head into my lap. “Please stay with me.”
I lifted my head and saw Jack rushing toward us.
“Call an ambulance.” I screamed.
“The baby,” Lauren struggled and I peeled my eyes away from Jack and glanced at her stomach, reaching over her and placing my hand that was covered in her blood, over her belly.
“Pea’s going to be okay but you need to hang on for her,” I said, my voice rattling.
“Her,” she whispered, closing her eyes.
“No, don’t close your eyes, Lauren!” I cupped her face with my hands. “Lauren, look at me,” I ordered.
She fought to open her eyes, the color draining from her face as she bled in my arms.
“Kitten, please,” I cried, lifting her head against my chest and rocking back and forth. “I was going to tell you how I felt.”
“Riggs,” she whispered, forcing me to look down at her. “If it’s me or the baby,” she gasped, short of breath. “Promise,” she struggled.
“No, stop, don’t talk like that. You’re both going to be fine. You hear me? You’re going to be fine and so is the baby!”
“Choose Pea,” she rasped, tears falling from the corners of her eyes as they looked up into mine begging me to do as she asked.
“I choose the both of you…always, forever.” I bent down and kissed her lips softly. “I’m sorry, Kitten. I’m so sorry,” I murmured, pulling back as her eyes drifted closed. “Lauren? Lauren! No!”
“Riggs, the ambulance is here. You gotta move out of the way so the paramedics can do their job,” Jack said from somewhere close. I lifted my head as the sirens sounded and the ambulance pulled into the lot. The paramedics jumped out, one grabbing a medical bag, the other pushing the stretcher toward us as the second ambulance pulled in.
“Her first, she’s pregnant,” Jack demanded. That’s when I saw him crouched down next to Bones, his hands covered in his blood as he tried to apply pressure to his wound. “Stay with me Bones. No one’s dying on my watch, you hear me,” Jack growled. “No one.”
“Sir, you need to step away from her so we can work on her,” one of the paramedics said to me.
“Please help them,” I pleaded, kissing Kitten one last time before gently sliding her head from my lap.
“How far along is she?”
“Uh…” I tried to think, running my fingers through my hair. “Seven months,” I answered.
“We have to hook her up to a monitor immediately. She’s losing a lot of blood,” the other paramedic shouted. “We have to get her out of here,” he continued.
I watched for a moment as they worked on Lauren, cutting her shirt open to find the wound and then turned back to Jack who was standing near Bones covered in his blood. I watched as they lifted my brother onto the stretcher before I stepped toward him. I glanced down at Bones as he gasped for air.
“Thank you,” I whispered, placing my hand over his and squeezing it slightly.
“Own…it,” he said, barely audibly before the paramedic covered his face with a mask and raced with him on the stretcher to the ambulance.
He shouldn’t be riding alone.
He never let me ride alone.
Not once.
“We’re ready,” the paramedic said behind me and I turned to Jack.
“Go, I’ll ride with Bones,” Jack said, reading the guilt on my face as he wiped the blood covering his hands onto his shirt. I nodded before following the paramedics running with Lauren to the ambulance.
I sat helplessly on the bench inside the ambulance. I couldn’t even hold her hand, forced to sit there and watch as a stranger fought to keep Kitten and Pea in my life.
I closed my eyes and everything hit me like a ton of bricks.
Every single memory.
Every single dream.
The first words she ever said to me.
What’s the matter handsome? Why so serious?
All the times I teased her and all the ways she gave it right back.
You’re despicable.
Oh baby, I love it when you talk dirty.
Kiss my ass, Riggs.
Anytime, Kitten. Anytime.
That first night I brought her to the clubhouse and brought her into my world.
Well now you’ve got me here, what did you plan on doing with me?
If only I knew we’d end up here…
I’m sorry, Kitten.
The night we made a baby.
Came here for a reason, Kitten, now it’s time to tell me what that reason is.
It doesn’t matter.