Always You (Adair Family 3)

He’d been shot in the back.

Because he’d covered me with his body.

“Mackennon.” I leaned down and kissed him, my tears falling onto his chest. “Stay awake, Mac.” I pressed harder on his wound to stem the blood, and he grunted. “Sorry.” I scattered wet kisses along his jaw. “Please.”

“Arro,” he whispered, just as his eyes closed.

Frantically, I searched for his pulse. Too slow. Thready.

“Where is that ambulance?” I cried.

As if in answer, I heard the sirens in the distance.

But Mac’s pulse was fading beneath my fingertips.

“No! Mackennon.” I sobbed over him. “Don’t leave me. I love you. Please don’t leave me. Please. I love you.” Time held no meaning as I begged and pleaded with him, hoping he could hear me, hoping he would fight. The world bled out as I lived inside my fear. Not another man I loved. I couldn’t watch another man I loved die in my arms. “Mackennon!”

“Miss, out of the way.”

“Miss?”

“Get her out of the way.”

Hands grabbed at me, pulling me from Mac. I raged in fury at the shadowy figures holding me back until the picture in front of me started to make sense.

Paramedics moved quickly over Mac.

“Still got a faint pulse. Let’s go.”

I watched as if through a piece of warped glass as they struggled to get his big body onto a stretcher. I saw the blood all over my hallway floor and smeared across my walls. Mackennon’s blood. Sounds grew muffled in my ears as I followed them out into the garden.

Men, policemen, blocked my way as I tried to get into the ambulance with him.

Questions, they had questions.

Fuck their questions!

Then my neighbors were there, and two other police officers had the shooter in their hands. Her ski mask had been removed.

A young brunette I didn’t recognize glared back at me with all the hatred in the world.

“I hope he fuckin’ dies,” she snarled. “His lot took ma Craig, and naebody else gave a fuck. But we did. We never forgot whit happened. And I hope the bastard dies fur it.”

I flew at her.

I think I broke her nose before they hauled me off her.

It wasn’t enough.

At that moment, I wanted to kill her for what she’d done. I didn’t care about her pain. All I felt was fear and rage. In fact, I’d never experienced rage like it.

I heard the threat coming out of my mouth, the words that I’d end her if Mackennon died.

In all my fury and viciousness, it was no wonder I ended up in handcuffs right alongside the bitch.

32

Mac