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Dagger strolled over to me, holding his stomach.
“Did you get hit?”
He stared at me for a moment, the color draining from his face just before he collapsed. I dove for him, catching him under my arm before he could hit the concrete. Easing him down slowly, I moved his hand out of the way, then lifted his shirt. Blood was pumping from a stomach wound.
“Fuck!” Dagger wasn’t going to make it if I didn’t do something right now. Wiping my bloody hands on my pants, I pulled out my phone and dialed Andy.
“Boss?”
“I need medical,” I barked into the phone.
“On my way.” Andy hung up, and I pressed my hand against the hole in Dagger’s stomach. I eyed the blood that already soaked through his black shirt, knowing it was too much. He must’ve been hit in that first wave of shooting before he could take cover. I looked behind me at Hawk, whose blood was draining into the barrel beneath him. His eyes were still open, watching me even in death. I would’ve killed the bastard eventually, but it would’ve been much slower and much more painful. The fucker had gotten off easy.
Wren was going to be devastated by this news, though, and the thought of breaking it to her made pain lance through me. I would protect her from everything if I could, but my life was dirty as shit, my business done in the darkness. Long ago, I’d made peace with how I earned a living.
Peddling pussy was great.
It was legal.
It was lucrative.
Drugs, on the other hand, I got a high from selling them. There was so much money to be made, but so many lives got ruined by it too, like those of my dealers.
I shook my head and pressed a little harder into Dagger’s torso. It made him moan, but he was still out cold. Before Wren, I was hard, driven, cold-blooded, but my Little Bird had opened my eyes to some shit that I can’t ignore now. I couldn’t ignore everything that had happened. Her brother was dead because of me. I looked down at Dagger. He might die because of me too.
Dropping my head, I waited for Andy. And then I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid—I prayed. I pleaded with whatever entity out there or up there that Andy would arrive quickly.
I looked toward the entrance when I heard a car pull up. A door opened and shut, then Andy walked in, a jump bag in his hand. He scanned the area efficiently, then came our way.
He stopped on the other side of Dagger and motioned for me to move my hands. As soon as I did, blood gushed.
“I need to stop the bleeding,” he said, ripping open the medical bag and rummaging through it. He pulled out an endless mountain of gauze, then proceeded to rip the sterile packs open. I followed his lead, tearing open the plastic and pressing the cloth to Dagger’s wound.
“More pressure,” Andy barked, reaching one-handed into the jump bag again. Both our hands were slick with blood, and I wondered if this would cause Andy to have flashbacks of his time in Afghanistan.
He pulled out a disposable pre-filled syringe, then jabbed it into Dagger’s thigh. I felt his body suddenly go limp beneath my hands.
“It’s morphine,” Andy said. “It relaxed him.”
“How bad is it?” I asked, nodding down to the hole in Dagger’s abdomen.
“GSW. Nicked an artery. Once I slow the bleeding, I’ll turn him over and look for the exit wound. Just keep that pressure on there.”
I did everything Andy asked of me, watching as more and more color drained from Dagger’s face. His blood wrapped around him on the floor, creeping in my field of vision on all sides. Once Andy was satisfied the bleeding had slowed enough, I helped turn Dagger’s body. Andy inspected his back and swore.
“The bullet didn’t come through. He needs surgery, and that is beyond my skills. He has to go to the hospital.”
Fuck. I avoided them for my men when I could, especially when their wounds came from fucking shoot-outs with rival drug dealers.
“Let’s get him to the car.”
Together, we lifted and placed him in the back seat of the town car.
“Go,” I told Andy. “I have to take care of this.” I gestured to the warehouse. Andy nodded, got into the driver’s seat, and peeled out of there. Fuck, I hoped Dagger made it. He’d been with me for years, and his loyalty wasn’t something that could be easily replaced.
Stalking back into the warehouse, I pulled both of Sanderson’s guys into the middle of the concrete floor, then dragged Sanderson’s corpse out too. The next job was getting Hawk down. After moving the drum out of the way, I strode to the wall where the rope was tied off and began to undo it. As soon as gravity helped me, I stood back and watched Hawk flop to the floor. Picking up his hands, I dragged him into the pile of bodies, then stripped out of my clothes, adding them to what was going to be a spectacular fire.
Back out at the car, I cleaned my face with some pre-moistened towelettes, changed into a spare set of clothes I kept in the town car, then grabbed the red gasoline can and the matches. I spread the accelerant around the building, making sure to soak the bodies the most. They needed to burn so hot that not even dental records could help them. Just for good measure, I ripped out a couple of the henchmen’s teeth too.
