CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
Across from her, the paramedics loaded the stranger onto a stretcher.
The sight of him strapped down, pale and unmoving except for the frantic work being done around him, twisted something deep in her chest. They lifted him into the ambulance, slammed the doors, and seconds later, it sped away with the sirens screaming.
Moments later, Seth reappeared with a paramedic and a police officer.
The officer began introducing himself and asking Charley for a statement, but Seth cut in first.
“Statement can wait. She’s injured.”
The officer took one look at the blood on her sleeve and backed off with a nod.
The paramedic crouched in front of her. “Ma’am, can I take a look at your arm?”
Charley tried to push her sleeve up, but the movement sent a sharp bolt of pain through her, and she sucked in a breath. “Just cut it,” she said.
The medic didn’t hesitate.
As soon as the fabric fell away, Seth muttered, “Fuck.”
Startled, Charley looked down.
The skin along her upper arm was split in a long, angry gash, the blood darker now, still slowly running.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking between Seth and the medic.
Seth’s eyes met hers. “You said you did that when you hit the ground?”
She nodded weakly. “That’s when I felt it.”
The paramedic made a low sound in the back of his throat and looked at Seth, then shook his head.
Seth stepped closer. “Charley, this isn’t from falling.” He glanced at the wound, then back at her. “This is a bullet graze.”
For a second, she just stared at him. The words didn’t register right away. They just hovered there until a cold rush of shock swept through her, and her gaze dropped back to the burning gash on her arm.
“Are you saying I got shot?”
Both men nodded.
The medic spoke gently, but there was no softening the reality of it. “Looks like the second shot clipped you.”
Charley’s breath left her in a shaky rush.
“You need to go to the hospital,” the medic said. “That’ll probably need stitches, and possibly a tetanus shot.”
She felt her chest start to tighten, and she tried to draw in a breath, but it felt like there wasn’t enough air. Her vision narrowed, and a wave of dizziness slammed into her so hard it felt like the ground shifted beneath her.
“Charley?”
Seth’s voice sounded farther away now.
She tried to look at him to tell him that something was wrong, but everything went black.
◆◆◆
Pierce stood at the edge of the grinder with the hose in his hand.
The afternoon sun was turning the concrete into a damn skillet beneath the BUD/s recruits.
Sweat, seawater, and misery hung thick in the air, mixing with the sharp bark of instructors and the strained grunts of men pushing their bodies past their limits.
“Keep those legs up,” Pierce called, spraying a hard stream of water over the line of recruits lying on their backs doing flutter kicks.
A few groaned. One muttered something under his breath that sounded a whole lot like a prayer.
Pierce ignored it.
“Welcome to the show, gentlemen,” he said dryly, sweeping the hose back across them. “You want to be SEALs? Then stop looking like you’re auditioning for a funeral.”
A couple of the stronger ones managed a half-assed burst of effort, legs coming up higher as water hit their faces and soaked through their shirts. The rest looked one breath away from dying where they lay.
Good. Not that he wanted them dead, but pain had a way of teaching faster than speeches ever did.
He turned, about to hand the hose off and send them into the next round of punishment, when movement at the far edge of the grinder caught his eye.
He did a double-take and saw it was Ray. When he met his gaze, Ray waved him over. That alone was enough to make something in Pierce’s gut tighten.
Ray would never pull someone away from the grinder unless someone were bleeding, dying, or a war were about to break out.
He handed the hose off to another instructor without taking his eyes off Ray. “Keep’em moving,” he muttered, already striding away.
The moment he got close enough, Pierce could see the tension radiating off his friend.
“What's going on?”
Ray glanced toward the recruits, then back at him. “Let’s talk over here.”
Pierce followed him a short distance off the grinder and into the thin strip of shade cast by the side of the building. The second they were out of earshot, Pierce stopped. “Ray—”
Ray held up a hand, stopping him. “I need you to stay calm and listen to everything I say before you react.”
Every muscle in Pierce’s body went tight. “That’s not how you start a conversation if you want a man to remain calm.”
“I know.” Ray blew out a breath. “But I need you to hear all of it before you lose your shit.”
A cold unease slid down Pierce’s spine. “Just say it.”
Ray held his gaze. “I just got a call from Seth. There was a shooting across the street from the foundation. At the bus stop.”
For half a second, Pierce’s brain snagged on the words without making sense of them.
Then Ray said the one thing that shattered whatever control he had left.
“Charley was involved.”
It felt like somebody had driven a fist straight through Pierce’s chest.
“What?” The word came out rough.
Ray stepped in before he could say anything else. “She’s okay.”
Pierce stared at him.
“She’s okay,” Ray repeated, firmer this time. “Listen to me. Seth said she’s okay, but did say that it looked like a bullet grazed her arm. He’s riding with her to the hospital now.”
The air around Pierce seemed to thicken. His heart was pounding so hard he thought it would jump out of his chest.
He looked at Ray. “What the fuck was she doing at the bus stop?”
Ray scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Talking to him.”
Pierce’s brows slammed together. “Talking to who?”
“The guy,” Ray said. “The stranger. The one who approached her outside the building and left her those notes.”
Pierce went dead still. But Ray kept going. “Looks like the guy was the intended target. According to Seth, the stranger took a round to the chest, and it doesn’t look good.”
Pierce felt every bit of blood drain out of his face. “Jesus Christ.”
He dragged both hands over his head, then dropped them to his hips, pacing once before turning back. “Why the hell was she talking to him alone?”
“She wasn’t planning to,” Ray said. “From what Seth could gather, the guy approached her in the parking lot before she even got to the building. However, she did send Alyvia a text to let her know what was going on, and Alyvia relayed that information to Seth. Unfortunately, she went across the street to talk to him before anyone could stop it.”
Pierce swore viciously under his breath.
His mind was firing too fast, jumping ahead and doubling back all at once.
“Which hospital?”
Ray’s eyes narrowed just a little, like he was measuring whether Pierce was going to make this harder than it needed to be. “Memorial.”
Pierce was already moving. “I need to get there.”
“That’s why I’m here.” Ray fell into step beside him. “I’ll drive.”
Pierce shot him a look. “I can drive my own damn self.”
Ray didn’t break stride. “No, you can’t. Not right now.”
Normally, Pierce might’ve argued just on principle. But right now his hands didn’t feel steady, and his thoughts were too loud, too sharp, too tangled up in images he didn’t want in his head. So he said the only thing he could.
“Fine.”
They walk quickly to the parking lot. As soon as they reached Ray’s truck, Pierce climbed in and slammed the door shut.
Ray hadn’t even fully backed out of the parking space before Pierce was pulling out his phone. He dialed Charley’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.
“Damn it.”
“She may still be getting checked out,” Ray said, glancing between Pierce and the road in front of him. “Or Seth may have taken her phone.”
Pierce didn’t answer.
“Seth said she stayed with the guy after he went down. When Seth got to her and tried to get her somewhere not in the open, she refused to leave the guy.”
Pierce closed his eyes briefly and leaned his head back against the seat. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
That was Charley, though. That was exactly who she was. The kind of woman who’d kneel in the open with bullets flying because somebody needed her. The kind who would bleed and still try to save somebody else first.
It made him want to shake her and kiss her and lock her inside somewhere safe until this whole mess was over.
It also made something deep in his chest ache with a love he hadn’t planned on feeling this fast.
Ray’s voice cut into his thoughts. “Seth said she did pass out, but as soon as they got her into the ambulance, she came to.”
That didn’t surprise Pierce. It was probably shock.
Pierce swallowed hard. “Did he say how bad her arm was?”
“Bad enough that she’s gonna need stitches.”
Pierce stared ahead, every muscle in his body wound too tight. “Whoever took that shot either didn’t care she was there or figured hitting her was acceptable collateral.”
He looked down at his phone again, thumb hovering over Charley’s contact before lowering it. He didn’t want to keep blowing up her phone if she was in the middle of treatment. But sitting here doing nothing while she was in the hospital was eating him alive. He just needed to hear her voice.
“She’s gonna try to tell me she’s fine,” he muttered.
That got the faintest twitch from Ray’s mouth. “Probably.”
“And she won’t be.”
“Probably not.”
Pierce scrubbed a hand over his face. “I swear to God, Ray, if I walk in there and she tries to downplay this—”
“You’ll do exactly what?”
Pierce looked over at him.
Ray kept his attention on the road, but there was the ghost of dry humor in his voice now. “Growl at her? Pace? Threaten to duct tape her to a chair until this is over?”
“All of the above.”
That earned him a short huff of laughter.
It barely touched the panic clawing at his chest, but it broke the edge of it enough for him to drag in a full breath.
They drove the rest of the way in tense silence, the city blurring past outside the windows. Pierce’s mind never stopped moving, circling the same hard truth over and over.
This had just changed everything.
Whatever mystery they’d been trying to piece together had crossed a line. It wasn’t notes, old photos, and strange conversations anymore.
Somebody had opened fire in broad daylight. And Charley had nearly paid for it.
By the time the hospital came into view, Pierce was already reaching for the door handle before Ray had fully slowed.
Ray shot him a look. “Hold up until I stop the truck, man.”
Pierce’s hand tightened on the handle. His pulse was hammering so hard he could feel it in his throat.
As soon as the truck rolled to a stop, Pierce was out the door heading for the emergency room entrance.