She let go of my wrists, her hands closing over my shoulders as she dragged me up and slammed me down onto the pavement, again and again, the blows to the back of my head scrambling my thoughts.
She was muttering, every word worse than the one before. “Have to find Royal. Once I deal with Royal, I'm free. Kill Royal and I'm free.”
“J.T.!” I screamed again. “Someone help us!”
“Shut the fuck up you little bitch!” Vanessa let go of my shoulders to deliver a ringing slap across my face. Damn, that hurt. Her hands closed around my throat and she squeezed. Hard.
I scrabbled at her arms, clawing, pulling, desperate to get her off. My lungs burned for air, no scream escaping my open mouth. Lights flashed, my head buzzed. Thunder rolled in my ears and everything went dark.
I blinked my eyes open to find Vanessa gone. I couldn't have been out much longer than a few seconds. Two deputies were by the hood of the car, wrestling with Vanessa. The thunder hadn't come from the sky, it had been pounding feet. Help had arrived. I could only hope they weren't too late.
I rolled over, crawling to J.T.'s prone body. Even in the dim light of the alley, I could see the blood. Too much blood. His shoulder was a mess, and the knife was still buried in his side, all the way to the hilt. I wasn't touching the knife. I'd probably do more damage taking it out when I didn't know what I was doing.
Dragging myself to sit by his head, I gathered the skirt of my sundress and pressed the wad of cloth to his shoulder to stop the bleeding. The best I did was slow it. He was running out of time. Pressing harder, I spoke to him, trying to hold him with me. “J.T., hang in there. It's going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. Just stay with me, J.T.”
No response. Nothing. I glanced up to see the deputies cuffing Vanessa as she twisted and pulled in their hold. I yelled down the alley, “Did you call an ambulance?”
“On the way,” one of them shouted back.
“Did you hear that?” I asked an unresponsive J.T. “You just have to hang on a little longer and the ambulance will be here. Just hang on. Please, please, hang on.”
I wanted to be done with crying, but hurting all over and covered in my best friend's blood, tears were all I had. I shut out everything else and leaned on the blood-soaked pad of fabric, pressing on his shoulder and praying I wasn't making it worse.
Knees hit the pavement. Arms came around me. Royal. I turned my face into his neck and wept harder.
His hands came over mine, nudging me to the side as he leaned on the pad I'd made of my skirt, pressing it into J.T.'s shoulder. “I went down to the parking lot to wait for you. I saw the lights and started running.”
I choked back my tears enough to fill in the blanks. “Vanessa thought he was you. Someone told her to kill you. She stabbed him. Twice in the shoulder and once in his side. The knife is still in there. You have to be careful Royal. You shouldn't be here—”
I could feel the hysteria taking me. I was covered in J.T.'s blood and now Royal was out in the open when someone wanted him dead. He couldn't be next. Not Royal. “You have to go. She was trying to kill you. You have to go, Royal. Go to Heartstone where you'll be safe. You can't— You can't—”
“Shh. It's okay, sweetheart. There are cops everywhere. Look up and see. We're safe. And I think the ambulance just got here. Everything is going to be okay.”
I did as he said, raising my head to see two more officers had joined the two who'd caught Vanessa. The first two were leading her down the alley to their vehicle, lights still flashing red and blue. How had I missed those? All I could see was J.T. and the blood.
More lights had joined them. The ambulance. Finally.
Everything was a blur of voices and hands. Strangers in blue nudging me back from J.T., asking if I was injured. I couldn't focus. My head ached, my vision was blurry. Royal pulled me to my feet, taking most of my weight, and led me off to the side, away from the paramedics working on J.T.
“Where are your keys, Daisy?”
My keys? Why did he need my keys? “In the car, I think. On the floor. Passenger side.”
He leaned me against the wall and disappeared. A spike of panic went through me. I didn't want Royal out of my sight. He'd appeared like a dream. Maybe he was one. Maybe—
And he was back, unlocking the alley door to the bakery.