Chapter 5 #4
It was only light, but she squeezed back, and he felt it against his heart. She was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine.
He was glad that he’d come down by himself, and that Caleb hadn’t come down with him like he sometimes did. If Caleb had been here and gotten hurt… No. It wasn’t worth thinking about. He was safe. This woman would survive.
Everything was fine.
It was fine.
The moment the two ambulances stopped in front of the building and the paramedic came in, chaos erupted. Everybody wanted to be looked at, and the crying got louder, the buzz in the air heightening.
Two of the paramedics descended on Sebastian and the woman. Sebastian crawled backwards on the ground, giving them room. He slipped a little in the small pool of blood that had started spreading from underneath her.
He swallowed hard as he lifted his blood-covered hand.
“Excuse me, sir? Can you stand for me?”
Sebastian blinked. “What?”
“Your arm is bleeding. Are you bleeding anywhere else? Do you feel any numbness or pain anywhere?”
“Oh. No.” Sebastian climbed to his feet unsteadily, his legs wobbling. The paramedic that had approached him helped him to the nearest table so he could use it as an anchor to keep himself upright.
“Did you hit your head on the way down?” he was asked. Fingers pulled at his eyes, and a light was shone in them. “Are you dizzy or feeling disorientated at all?”
Sebastian jerked his head away with a scowl. “I’m fine.”
“What about your arm?”
“I don't know.”
“Let's have a look.”
Sebastian nodded numbly. He could still feel the burning sensation on his arm, but he didn't know what it was.
“Looks like a bullet grazed you,” the paramedic said, turning Sebastian's arm to get a better look through the hole in his shirt. “You're very lucky.”
Lucky. Yes, he’d been lucky. Luckier than the woman they were hauling into an ambulance on a stretcher. Luckier than he had any right to be.
The paramedic dropped a small bag onto the table and pulled out some gauze. He tipped some disinfectant on it and moved back to Sebastian with it and a Band-Aid.
Sebastian watched the ambulance lights turn on and the taillights disappear into the sea of cars. “Is—is she going to be okay?” he asked, feeling numb.
“They’ll do what they can. She’s in the best care.”
A non-answer. It was part of a generic set of responses—Sebastian knew because his line of work had them too. Pre-programmed responses to certain high-pressure situations to help keep things calm and steady.
“Sebastian?”
Sebastian turned his head to see Quinn pushing past the cops and other personnel that were swarming the small space. He was sans jacket, his black shoulder holster and firearm stark against the white of his shirt. His slacks accentuated his strong hips and thighs, his every stride confident.
Seeing him shouldn't have made Sebastian feel safer.
Quinn had only ever destroyed him. But that grey gaze made everything better.
The tension in Sebastian's body released, and all he wanted to do was crawl into those arms because he knew how it felt.
Quinn was a warmth all on his own, a shining beacon among the darkness in the world.
And Sebastian hadn't been good enough for him.
“Are you hurt?” Quinn asked. “Does he need a hospital?” he asked the paramedic.
“No,” the paramedic said cheerfully. “Once I’m done cleaning, it will just need a Band-Aid. No stitches required.”
He wouldn’t have been so cheerful if he’d been the one shot, Sebastian thought darkly.
“I can finish that,” Quinn said, plucking the disinfectant-soaked gauze from the paramedic’s hands, along with the Band-Aid he had in his other hand. “I need to ask him a few questions.”
The paramedic just shrugged and left them alone, moving on to the next victim.
Sebastian blinked as Quinn gently wiped the area, his fingers careful around the graze.
“Did you get hurt anywhere else?”
Sebastian wanted to ask why he thought he had any right to the sliver of panic in his voice. Quinn didn't care what happened to Sebastian. He never had. “No.”
Goosebumps ran across his skin as Quinn’s fingers wrapped around the back of his arm to hold him steady while the other hand continued to clean the blood.
“What happened?”
“I don’t really know. I came down for some coffee, and then someone opened fire.” It had happened so quickly; Sebastian wasn't even sure who had done it or how it had started. “Came from outside the building if that helps?”
Quinn glanced up through half-lidded eyes before his focus went back to what he was doing. Sebastian was pretty sure it was clean enough now, and he could stop touching.
He kept quiet.
“Why is someone trying to hurt you, Seb?”
“Don't call me that.”
Quinn didn't look up at that. “Answer the question.”
“They met me?”
Quinn ran his finger over the unmarked skin around where the bullet had grazed, a tiny butterfly touch that sank deep inside Sebastian. “Be serious.” He gently wiped away the blood on Sebastian’s hand. His was touch was almost too much, making everything sharp and sensitive.
“What makes you think I wasn't?” He shrugged, and Quinn's fingers slipped away from him, leaving behind nothing but cold. “You don't actually think what happened the other day could be connected to this?”
“What's your explanation, then?”
“Bad timing? How did you guys get here so quickly?” Sebastian asked, glancing to where Grady was talking to some bystanders who hadn’t been injured.
“We were already on our way,” Quinn said, “to talk to you.”
Sebastian’s smile was small and self-deprecating. “Well, here I am.”
Quinn placed the Band-Aid over the graze and pressed the sides down, smoothing them out. “Okay?”
“Yeah, it just stings.”
“I want to talk to you about—” Quinn cut off as Grady joined them.
“You know, I try to avoid seeing your ugly mug on a regular basis,” Grady said in greeting. “Why is it that I’ve had to see it twice in three days?”
“We're both just lucky, I guess,” Sebastian said dryly.
Grady sighed and shared a look with Quinn. “Odds are good that you were the target, Devlin. Since the preferred result is for you not to die, it means you’re now under our protection.”
“I’m sorry, can I get those words in writing? Did you just say you’d prefer I not die?”
“Fuck off.” Grady pursed his lips angrily. “I don’t like you, but I didn’t become a cop just to stand by and let anyone get themselves killed. Even you.”
“Your love is so heartfelt, Donehue. We should get married.”
Quinn scowled. Sebastian bit back the response he had to that look. Quinn had no right.
“You have two choices, Casanova—safe house or an armed escort.”
“Option none of those,” Sebastian said. The last thing he wanted was a cop following him around every day.
Hunter would pitch a fit since it would make him harder to access without questions.
And he saw too much of Quinn as it was—at least it was only ever on opposite sides of a courtroom and not somewhere that Sebastian couldn't hide from him. Being catapulted back into his orbit through Will and Peyton had been the worst kind of coincidence. The last thing he wanted to do was find more reasons they would have to keep running into each other. “You don’t know for sure that this had anything to do with me. Why don’t you work that out first, then call me? ”
“Before or after you get attacked again?” Quinn asked sharply.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s it,” Sebastian argued. “We're in central Sydney; there are psychos around every corner. This was pure coincidence.”
“You can’t be that na?ve,” Quinn said. “This wasn’t some random act of violence.”
“Your bad opinion of me doesn't have any bearing on this,” Sebastian said, trying hard to keep the snarl out of his voice and remain civilised. “Random acts of violence happen every day, and since you're, you know, a cop, you should know that.”
“This was targeted,” Quinn said tightly. “Nothing you say will convince me otherwise.”
“Good for you.” Sebastian fucking hated how good Quinn's instincts were. Sebastian knew it was targeted. He hadn't worked out how, exactly, but he knew it was. They didn't know that, though. And he and Hunter would work it out without their help. He didn't need to owe Quinn anything.
Grady snorted. “You can deal with this. I’m going to go talk to the tech.”
Sebastian resisted the urge to flip him off as he retreated. He only didn’t because he was an adult and also because Grady wouldn’t have been able to see, which meant zero satisfaction.
“We don’t need your permission to watch you,” Quinn said.
Sebastian rested his arms across his chest, his hands holding onto his elbows. “Good. Great. So do that, then. Can I go now?”
“Don't be like this.”
“Like what? I told you everything that I know.”
“Don't insult me.”
Sebastian sucked his cheek between his teeth to stop himself from replying to that. The last thing he wanted was to be in the media because he'd gotten into a verbal argument with a detective. He could already see the vultures circling.
The headache forming at his temple throbbed harder.
Quinn sighed and rested a hand on his hip loosely. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk?”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“Don't make me arrest you.”
“On what grounds?”
“I met you,” Quinn deadpanned. “Please?”
Sebastian went to run a hand through his hair and hissed when his arm twinged. “Fine. My office.” He didn't need a witness to this fucking train wreck.
Quinn followed Sebastian down the long corridor, taking note of everyone that stopped to stare, or point, or whisper.
He hoped they didn’t think they were being subtle.
Quinn had left his jacket in his car, so his shoulder holster and badge were out for everyone to see.
It could also have been the fact that Sebastian was only wearing pants and a white singlet instead of his usual attire.
Quinn was sure the gossip mill would be going crazy after this one.