Chapter 15
Everyone caught up with them at that moment as she batted the rifle away with her forearm, crunching the bone of her arm but saving her head.
Kevin Ivory shoved his way through the men.
Grisk was there, gun still aimed, but now at her, at least a dozen police officers and several men in suits from the top-floor office surrounded her and Dane.
She glanced around, looking for Joe, and then she saw three men in dark suits flashing fancy leather-bound credentials shoving through the crowd and headed for her-the contingent from the embassy. Joe was with them.
“He needs an ambulance,” she nearly sobbed on the words, her heart pumping, her breath heavy. She didn’t care if they wanted to throw her in jail as long as they got Dane to the hospital. A siren sounded in the distance. Kevin muscled past Grisk and the guns and stood at her side.
Joe said, “On the way. I called as soon as I knew he was shot.”
“Ms. George?” One of the embassy men spoke, still holding his credentials high as if it were a shield against all harm.
She nodded, holding onto Dane’s limp body with two arms, supporting his weight.
She knew tears streamed down her face but she didn’t care.
Didn’t matter who saw her or what they thought.
Noting mattered. Not even Grisk. She was dimly aware of Kevin holding him off, pushing back, literally and with words, ordering the men to lower their weapons.
“Come with me,” the man from the embassy said with authority.
She shook her head. “Dane—”
“The ambulance is here. I can send someone with him in the ambulance, but I have orders to take you with me.”
*****
Wade Grisk shouted at the embassy officials and Kevin Ivory as the EMTs loaded Dane onto the stretcher. She kept hold of him, her hand wrapped around his arm, and followed the stretcher.
“You can’t go with him, ma’am.”
Shana didn’t know who said that, the EMT or the man from the embassy. But it was Joe who tried to remove her hand from Dane. No one wanted to let her go. Not the embassy people, not Wade Grisk, and not even Kevin Ivory.
“Shana, my superior is on the way and I need you to be here to talk to him about Chancy Peterson and answer his questions.” She only half paid attention to Kevin’s gentle plea as she watched Joe get in the ambulance with Dane.
She leaned in one last time, shameless tears pouring down her face as she kissed him goodbye.
He was already hooked up to bags pumping blood back into him, even before he was loaded in the ambulance.
“I can’t believe you didn’t get out of that juice shop,” she whimpered, straining to hang on in spite of Joe tearing her away. “Why, Dane? Why?”
His eyes fluttered, but she was too distraught to hope for a response. All she could do was kiss his face until she was dragged off him. Rough hands grasped her by the elbow and her first instinct was to lash out.
“Don’t hurt her.” She heard Dane’s distinct growl, his eyes boring into someone behind her. “Or I swear I’ll kill you.” His voice faded and he closed his eyes as they put him inside.
Joe hesitated. She could tell he was torn between staying with Dane and protecting him or staying with her to protect her.
“Let her go,” Joe said to the cop holding her arm.
The embassy man in charge put an arm on Joe. She looked at him through her miserable tears and knew it was time to get her act together. She shouldn’t have lost it, not even for a minute when she saw Dane, the love of her life fading, slipping away. He needed her to be strong, rational, smart.
“I’ll be all right Joe. I can take care of myself. You go with Dane. Make sure they take care of him.”
Joe stared back at her for a couple of beats, reached out, and swiped a leftover tear from her cheek and nodded. He looked at the embassy man in charge.
“I’ll be going to the hospital in the ambulance. Can one of you stay with Shana?”
“No, we’ve just been informed we can’t interfere with local police business involving a non-US citizen.”
She’d not heard Joe swear once until that moment.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I have a lawyer. Arranged for it before we came crashing the gate. I’ll make sure he gets here sooner than later.” She smiled at Joe.
“I’m not sure a lawyer is what you need.” He gave a menacing look in Grisk’s direction. He stood arguing a few feet away with Kevin Ivory. They seemed to be at an impasse. She wondered who Kevin was reporting to and where his superior was.
“Gotta go now,” The ambulance driver said. “Get in now or you miss the bus.”
Joe gave her one last look and jumped in the back of the ambulance with Dane. Shana let out a breath, shaky and shallow. Her heart clamored. As the ambulance pulled away, she took a few steps before hands grabbed her arms from both sides and held on, tight and rough, and yanked her backward.
Old-school metal handcuffs clapped around Shana’s wrists, biting into her flesh.
Two uniformed officers dragged her inside Liverpool Street HQ, leading her to the corridor that would take them to the cells. Kevin Ivory and Wade Grisk accompanied the two officers holding her by the elbows as if she were a Houdini-level escape risk. They tossed her inside and locked the door.