I looked down and almost laughed.
She had shot me in the stomach. Right where I’d already been impaled once before.
“Seriously?” I pressed a hand to the growing red stain that seeped through my shirt.
I couldn’t feel it.
Shit.
I couldn’t feel it.
“Where’d they go?” Karen waved her gun at me again, but I was already falling to the floor.
Ciara and Lucas were gone now, too. I couldn’t see them anymore, but they’d been there. I saw them.
The window. The window was closed. They had to have gotten out.
“No matter,” Karen snarled down at me. “You’re going to die. That’s good enough.”
She walked away, and I heard the door open and slam against the wall again while she fled.
I didn’t take my eyes away from the window, though. Screams filled the air all around me, but I didn’t even blink. I couldn’t. My fingers were soaked in blood, and every second took more of my life away. But none of that mattered.
They were safe.
The window.
The window was closed.
My students, my kids were safe.
Lucas was safe.
Nothing else mattered.
I thought everything was done, gone. Until someone pressed on my stomach and all of the numbness vanished in a roar of searing pain that tore through my body.
“No,” I groaned as I began to shiver uncontrollably.
I opened my eyes, not realizing I’d closed them, to see Lucas there. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his hands pressed down as hard as he could.
“Google says to put pressure on gunshot wounds,” he stated as calmly as he could. “I’m going to keep you here, Miss James. Because you promised me I could have a sleepover. And I don’t get to have one if you die, right?”
I tried to answer him, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open anymore.
“I’m right, I know I am.” He sniffled, but didn’t move his hands. “You’re not allowed to die. Because then, I’ll be stuck with only Carter. And you haven’t talked to him yet. You have to hold on, Miss James. You have to hold on for us.”
I tried. I really did, but I think I died somewhere along the way.
22
Carter
Cameron had a better line of sight on the situation than I did. Hell, I didn’t even have my uniform on, and I’d barely had time to grab my bulletproof vest from the backseat of my truck before the chaos broke out.
“Where’s Lucas?” I grabbed Chris by the shoulder as he rushed by following the orders of a cop that stood directing everyone where to go. “Where’s Avery?”
“It’s Karen Zucker,” he gasped for air. “She had a gun and she ran straight for Avery’s class.”
Less than five minutes had passed from the time the call came in. Two minutes since I’d gotten to the school. Both of my brothers stood at my side. Cameron, wearing a SWAT vest and a sniper rifle hung around his chest. Casey, wearing a black shirt and jeans, looking like he belonged even if he technically didn’t.
“How’d you get through?” Casey just shrugged and looked around. “I think they knew who I was. I dunno.” Yet, the fire in his eyes and the way his jaw ticked told a different story. Probably one where he’d bullied his way through, and I found myself beyond thankful that he did.
I pushed by another uniformed cop and walked straight up to my chief, ready to do whatever I had to.
“You can’t go in.” He turned to my brother and shook his head. “None of you can.”
“I’m not going in,” Cam snorted. “I’ll be on that rooftop. My men are gonna go in.” Cam, who technically worked for the Birch Police Department, didn’t even blink or hesitate in challenging his boss. “You might be able to convince Carter not to go into that building, but we’re wasting time.”
He walked away without another word, but he did whistle sharply, and the rest of his men fell into step with him. For about a second, I watched as Cam and the others discussed a plan, but then everything flew into motion all at once.
A gunshot rang out. One solitary gunshot.
Pandemonium erupted as the students were still being evacuated through the front and side doors. Never in my life did I expect to see students running as low to the ground as they could, with their hands held up to show they weren’t armed.
My breath hitched, and I had to put my hands on my knees. I knew where the shot came from. Knew it as soon as I heard there was an incident that it had to be Avery. It just had to be. She’d do anything to protect Lucas. She snuck into his room in the middle of the night and helped him change the sheets on his bed when he had an accident. I’d heard her promise him more than once that she would make sure I didn’t find out.
She loved him, and I loved her even more for it. I knew the rules, the protocols that kept me from running into that building blindly. I strived to follow them, but the thought of losing Avery superseded all of that.
“Look.” Casey grabbed my shoulder and hauled me up. “Isn’t that the little girl that Lucas has a crush on?”
Wildly, I turned to where he was pointing to see Ciara and the rest of her class crawling from behind the building.
“Officer Carter!” Ciara screamed as soon as she saw me. “Lucas went back for Miss James!”
When she pointed behind the building, I took off without waiting for anyone else. I grabbed my off-duty weapon from the holster on my hip while I ran, faster than I’d ever thought possible. I got to Ciara’s side to see that she had tears in her eyes, and all of the rest of the students were following her lead.
They stopped, waiting until I took a breath before anyone said anything.
“It’s Mrs. Zucker, Officer Malone.” Another student in the class spoke. “She has a gun in our classroom.”
Ciara’s breath hitched, but that didn’t stop her from taking control. “We got out through the window. Lucas went back in to get Miss James, though.”
Fear overwhelmed the momentary pride I felt for Lucas refusing to leave someone behind or in danger. I refused to lose him, to lose either of them. But I had a job to do. So, with a grim expression, I pointed to Chief Townsend and spoke to the entire class.
“Hands over your heads, guys. Go straight to him and tell him everything you know.”
Ciara speared me with fierce eyes. “You promised to keep him safe.”
With those haunting words, I left Ciara and the others to head in the direction of Avery’s classroom. Inside the building it wasn’t an issue, but I had to stick my head up against every single window to check the outside.
My phone started to vibrate at the same time that I came up on the first open window, so I ignored it in favor of looking inside, and I fucking lost it.
Avery was on the floor laying in a puddle of blood, and Lucas had his hands pressed against her abdomen.
Her eyes were closed, and in the second it took me to react, I heard Lucas speaking slow and steady to her.
“You have to hold on, Miss James. You have to hold on for us.”
I was through the window in the next instant, with Lucas staring at me with dead eyes.
“She’s not talking anymore. If I move my hands, the blood just keeps pouring out.”