At the stillness of her body and her blood-soaked clothes, fear crushed through him as though someone had taken a grenade to his stomach and hollowed it out. “Nakia? Baby? Wake up, baby.” He heard the tears in his voice, but he didn’t care who was there to witness it. He held her tightly against his chest and had to repeatedly remind himself not to hold her too tight or hurt her in any way.
“Justin, put her down and allow the medics to help her,” Colt told him gently.
He looked up at his brother and impatiently wiped his eyes when his vision was blurred by his tears. “I can’t…I can’t…” he whispered brokenly. He closed his eyes and fought back the tears. When he opened them again, he forced himself to gently shift Nakia onto his lap. Despite the medics hovering beside Colt all looking down at him, he was determined to examine her himself. No one was touching her but him.
He slowly ran his palm over her chest where most of the blood seemed to be pooled. However, he realized two things at once: one, the blood wasn’t from any wounds on her chest, and two, she had a faint heartbeat.
“Jay?”
He felt lightheaded with relief at the sound of her soft voice and the sight of her gorgeous gaze staring up at him. “You scared me, baby. Don’t do that shit again.”
She blinked and blinked again more rapidly before dissolving into a fit of sobs. “They killed Carlos and Laurent,” she cried brokenly.
“I know, baby. It’s going to be okay.” He would’ve promised her anything at that moment to ease her pain. It was killing him that she was hurting, and he could do nothing about it.
“Sir, we need to examine her,” the medic explained hesitantly.
Nakia gripped his bicep with both hands as though telling him not to let them touch her. “Jay?”
“It’s okay, honey,” Justin coaxed. “Just let them clear you so they can look after everyone else who got hurt.”
She stubbornly clutched onto his arm, and the medics were forced to perform their standard checks around her hold on him. They asked her questions, and she answered them with her face tucked into his neck.
Justin didn’t even try to dissuade her need to cling to him. He knew he needed it just as much as she did.
“Hey, they are moving Carlos and Laurent now.” Colt knelt beside them to tell them what was going on. “Carlos is still alive and is being rushed to the emergency room. He was shot in the chest, and a bullet grazed his head. He was wearing a vest, thank God. Unfortunately, Laurent wasn’t so lucky, as he took a bullet to the head.”
“What about those bastards over there? Any chance of us getting them in an interrogation room?” Nakia’s fingers dug into his arm with increased anxiety, and Justin tenderly soothed her by rubbing her back. However, he wanted Colt to ensure the police allowed them access to the men who’d attempted such a bold kidnapping. And if Melissa had anything to do with this, he would ensure that bitch suffered.
“There’s nothing there,” Colt was saying. “They’re all dead.”
“What the hell? Were they such wusses that they folded on a little contact?”
“They were shot,” one of the medics told them.
Justin first held Colt’s gaze before both looked down at Nakia, who was staring off at something behind the medics. She refused to look at them or contribute to the conversation in any way. Justin decided to shelve the conversation for now. If Nakia had killed them, the bastards deserved it. He still couldn’t wrap his head around her ability to get so many shots off in such close confines.
Baldacci and his men would pay for killing those guards. Hopefully Carlos would survive, but they would also pay for every bit of discomfort Nakia was feeling now. He forced the medics to wrap up their review and left Colt to deal with the police. As soon as he placed Nakia in the front passenger seat of his car, she suddenly seemed to come out of her dazed state.
“Can we go to the hospital please?”
“Sure, baby.” Justin hovered over her as he remained by her side in the open front passenger door. “Where do you hurt?”
“It’s not for me. I want to be there for Carlos.”
“I know you do, but you’ve been through a lot today. I’ll get Colt to keep us posted and you can visit him tomorrow if all goes well,” Justin offered instead.
“I really don’t have the strength to debate this with you,” she said softly. “Either you take me to the hospital, or I catch an Uber.”
Justin could only shake his head at the swift changes in her mood. “You’re so damn stubborn.” Despite his rebuke, there was no real sting in his voice. He was worried. Justin started to waiver about taking her to the hospital for an entirely different reason. She looked ready to collapse.
“Yeah,” she agreed weakly.
Almost four hours later, Justin was beginning to rethink his sanity where she was concerned. Not only did she refuse to see any doctors, she also refused to lie down in the hospital bed he’d secured for her use while they were there. Since they’d been in the hospital waiting room, she’d gone from leaning on him and needing his support to impatiently pacing about room and demanding progress reports from the nurses every few minutes. Justin, and he was sure the nurses felt the same, had never been so glad to see a doctor in his life.
“He’ll probably have an extended stay with us, but he’ll recover from his injuries,” the doctor informed them and Carlos’ family, who’d come en mass to see him. “He’s stable, and you’ll be able to see him once they secure the ICU.”
Later, after a visit with Carlos and his family, Justin drove them to Colt’s ranch.
Chapter Twelve
Nakia protested the entire journey, but there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going back to her apartment. She also tried protesting when he took her to his suite of rooms on the ranch. However, when he reminded her that he hadn’t slept in three days, she settled down surprisingly quickly. He left her to get settled in the room before meeting his brothers in Colt’s office.
“Jesus, you look like shit.” Matt wrapped his arms around Justin in a bear hug.
“I’ve been working in a hellhole. What’s your excuse?” Justin teased. He deliberately tried to keep his voice light, but he was seriously worried about his older brother. Matt was only two years older than he was, and yet, he seemed to have aged ten years since Justin left on his mission. Not only was his hair thinning out, but he also seemed to have gained an extra sixty pounds. Although Matt had only been in the army for a few years, his work on the ranch had always kept him fit. Matt, despite not being as tall as him and Colt, had always been lanky and lean. To see him now, overweight and with an unhealthy pallor, Justin was worried. He looked over at Colt and knew that after they cleaned up the mess with the mob, they were going to have to deal with whatever the hell was going on with Matt.
“Not all of us have a trust fund that allows us to go out and play soldier.” Matt laughed, but Justin didn’t miss the bite behind Matt’s repeated complaint. He could never understand why Colt had always been okay with his inheritance, while Matt had always been bitter about it. His maternal grandmother had been unapologetic and eccentric as fuck. None of them knew why she gave Justin her entire fortune and had left nothing to her five children or the other twelve grandchildren among them.