Lace & Lead

“In a second you’re going to have to duck,” he said, fully aware that Stone could hear him, uncaring if he did.

Her lips moved. Which way?

“Just breathe and choose.”

Again, the nod.

Oh, gods, please don’t let him miss. He’d lived for years on his instincts. He couldn’t fuck up now.

Stone was still gloating, some petty speech about the way he’d wait for Peirce to fail before shooting him.

Like Aerian roulette...

Emma wouldn’t look away from him. I love you, she mouthed.

“One...” he called out to her, keeping his voice steady.

If he missed, he didn’t care if Stone lodged a bullet in him or not.

“Two...”

His fingers tightened on the handle of the knife. He couldn’t miss. Wouldn’t miss.

“Three!”

Chapter 12

“Will he be okay?” Emmaline asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Kai nodded and Douglass patted the seat next to him. They’d been waiting at the med-centre for almost four hours. Peirce had gone into surgery minutes after they’d arrived with a Lawmen escort—an apparent perk of taking down a man like Stone.

The instant she’d pitched her weight to the side, she’d seen Peirce’s arm flash forward. But she didn’t stop to check on Stone. She was only focused on reaching Peirce.

He was bleeding out in a steady stream, unable to feel Stone’s wound. She’d ripped off her own shirt and pressed it to his side, praying it would be enough. Kai and Douglass had rolled up moments later, taking in the scene in seconds. Kai had fired a single bullet into Stone’s head, despite the obvious knife sticking out of his throat, while Douglass and Emma loaded Peirce up and they tore back to Monterrey as fast at the Stallion would go. Douglass had called in everything on the way and before she knew it, the roads to the nearest centre were cleared and an escort followed them in.

Still, it had taken forever to reach the place. Peirce was pale and clammy by the time they’d wheeled him out of the room. She hadn’t even had time to say goodbye before he was whisked away.

And now she was trapped in this purgatory, waiting for news that would make or break the rest of her life.

“The waiting’s the hardest part,” Douglass sympathised.

She just nodded and began counting the tiles on the floor for the thirteenth time.

“Hey, boss-man’s strong,” Kai chipped in. “There’s no way he’d let an asshole like Richard Stone take him down. Not when you’re waiting out here for him.”

She smiled a little at that one.

Another hour passed. Two. Three.

She was about to hunt down one of those registration robots when Peirce’s surgeon stepped out into the waiting room. “Mr. Taggart’s family?”

They all rushed him. It must have been intimidating, come to think of it. Douglass and Kai in their full body armour, weapons still strapped to their backs. She, in nothing but blood-soaked pants and an oversized shirt Douglass had thrown to her on their way into the centre. She must have looked feral.

It didn’t matter.

“Is he okay?” she blurted out, praying to all the gods that he was.

The surgeon smiled soothingly at her. “He’s fine. We were able to close everything back up. He lost a lot of blood, but with a few transfusions, he’ll make a full recovery. He was heavily