More gunshots.
“Fuck!” he shouted, ignoring the pain and willing himself to his feet. He couldn’t focus his eyes, but moved in the direction he knew she was.
Still gripping his gun, he took a single step and fell again. Please, God, let her be okay.
Readying himself for another attempt to get upright, he closed his eyes, paying no attention to the crushing pangs in his chest.
He felt familiar fingers on his face. Amber. “Emmett? Oh God. No.” Her panicky words blew away his despair.
She’s alive.
“He’s been shot.” Bryant’s serious tone didn’t worry him any. Thank God, she was okay.
He tried to speak, but could only grunt. The pain he’d backed down moments ago by sheer will returned with a vengeance.
“Don’t try to sit up, Emmett.” Cody was alive and kicking.
His heart had never felt such relief, such joy.
He opened his eyes, forcing them to focus. Luckily, this time they obeyed, and he saw his family—Bryant, Cody, and her, Amber, their woman.
The looks in his brothers’ eyes were too familiar. He’d seen it in combat in the troubled stares of fellow soldiers gathered around the fallen.
He resigned himself that this was it, his time. He was dying.
A calmness, warm and sleepy, billowed inside him.
Amber was crying.
He reached for her hand.
She wrapped her fingers in his. “Talk to me. What do you want, Emmett? What do you need?”
Need and want? Simple. More time with her. Much more. War was hell and fate had chosen this moment for his exit. But she was alive and safe. He had no doubt his brothers would make certain she stayed that way.
He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay. He needed to let her know how much he loved her. But his throat wasn’t cooperating.
Emmett stared at her beautiful face, and then the world began to spin. Faster and faster.
“He’s passing out.” Cody’s voice sounded so remote.
Even more, Bryant’s words were distant, faraway, beyond the horizon. “Compress his wound with both hands.”
“Please. Don’t leave me, Emmett. Stay with me. Oh God.” Amber’s sobs faded into the vast empty space he was plunging into.
My brothers will take care of you, little one. Good-bye, my love.
Spiraling down, down, down…
* * * *
Calling on his field training, Cody continued compressing Emmett’s chest wound, harder during his inhalations and softer during his exhalations. The biggest risk now for his brother was a collapsed lung.
He looked over at Amber, who was in a state of shock. All the color in her face was gone.
“Sweetheart, listen to me. He’s still breathing. I don’t need you passing out on me, too. Understand?”
No answer. Her eyes remained wide with horror.