“Get an EMT!” I shout to Jane and Derrick as they pull up.
The girl tries to say something to me but it comes out a gurgling mess so I lower my head, asking, “What was that?”
“My… brother,” she croaks. “Where’s my brother?”
I look up at Jane as she comes closer and crouches down to the girl.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” she asks.
“Fe-Fe-Felicity.”
“Okay, Felicity. Help is on its way.”
She turns her head to me, the light in her eyes slowly disappearing. I can feel her life dissipating into nothing and my gut churns. It’s not fair for someone this young to die. She should have lived another sixty years or more, growing old, getting married, carrying a baby, being a mother, a grandmother. She shouldn’t have been shot and left to die in the middle of a dirty road.
“Stay with me,” I tell her, pressing harder on her stomach and swallowing past the lump building in my throat.
“My brother, Brandon, he… he…”
Her chest lifts on a breath and I wait for it to rise and fall again, but it doesn’t. Her body stills, her eyes open and lifeless.
“Felicity? Felicity!”
The sirens of the ambulance blare in the background but I can’t move my eyes from her face. I should have gotten here sooner, I should have done more. This isn’t right, someone this young shouldn’t be dying on the streets. This is my fault for not keeping the streets safe, it’s my job to do that and I’m failing.
“Sarge?” I ignore Jane as she tries to get my attention, I ignore the EMTs as they kneel down next to me, checking her vitals. I want to scream that there’s no point in them checking because she’s dead. There’s nothing they can do to bring her back.
My hands lift from her stomach as they prepare to put her on the gurney and I stare down at them. The red blood coating them flowing to my fingertips and dripping down to the road. I watch the drips, each one making me that much more angry. I’m gonna find who did this and make sure they’re put behind bars for a very long fucking time.
I move my head, the hardness of whatever I’m lying on causing an ache in my neck. My head feels fuzzy and it takes all of my strength to lift it to see where I am. I crack my eyes open, bringing my hand up to my face and wiping the sleep away from them.
The streetlight shining through the window has my heart rate spiking and my body shooting up from the position that I’m in. Where the hell am I?
“Kitty?”
I gasp and spin around, my eyes connecting with Charlie’s as he sits behind his desk, a glass of what looks like whiskey in his hand.
“Charlie?” I grab onto the edge of the sofa to center myself, taking a calming breath. “What happened?”
His face is a blank canvas, not one emotion showing and it’s when he looks like this that scares me the most. I can never get a read on him, never know what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling.
I pull the jacket that lays over my legs up and around my shoulders, warding off the chill in the room. Although I don’t know if the chill is in the room or if I’m imagining it because of Charlie’s vibe.
“Why did you come here?” he asks, bringing his glass to his lips and taking a sip, his eyes not leaving mine.
“What?”
He huffs out a breath and places his glass down, running his finger around the rim. “Why did you come here?”
“I…” I bite my lip, wondering if I should tell him what’s going on in my mind. “I don’t want to be at the compound right now, it’s just… too much.”
He tilts his head to the side; the only indication I get that he’s heard me.
My leg starts to bob up and down involuntarily as I wait for an answer, although I don’t really know what to expect. It’s not like we’re together. We just fuck, he made that clear a long time ago. Why did I even come here?
“I should go.” I stand up, leaving the jacket on the sofa and walking to the door. The ten steps there feels like a hundred and as soon as my hand is on the doorknob, he calls out.
“Stay.”