The weakness overwhelmed me, and I felt my knees give out. Instead of falling like a broken soldier, I moved to my knees. My vision began to blur. The ground seemed to rise up and hit me in the face.
“Cane!” Crow’s voice erupted in my ears. “Help me carry him.”
“No,” Cane said. “Let him die—”
“Help me,” Crow hissed. “Now.”
I felt myself fall forward, the blood soaking my clothes. Before my face hit the concrete, I felt someone catch me.
I felt Crow catch me.
Five
Crow
Cane helped me lift and put Bones into the back of the car along with Conway.
“Bones!” His friend was there in a flash, shaking him vigorously. “Don’t you fucking die on me. Wake up.” He smacked him across the face.
I’d just felt his pulse. “His pulse is still strong, but we’ve got to get him to the hospital.”
“Shit.” His friend heaved with sudden sorrow. “No…I’m not going to lose you. Fuck no, that ain’t gonna happen.”
I hadn’t even had a chance to check on Conway yet. “Cane, drive.”
Cane followed my orders and got behind the wheel. The engine was still on, and the car was still drivable.
Bones’s friend hopped into the passenger seat.
I got in the back with Conway and Griffin. “Conway—”
“I feel like shit, but I’m fine,” he said, hardly able to open his bruised eyes. “Sapphire…she’s okay, right?”
I didn’t have the strength to tell him the truth, that his wife had been captured and I had no idea where she was…along with his baby.
“Father?” Conway opened his eyes wider, focusing on my face when he didn’t get the answer he wanted. “Tell me she’s alright.”
Max turned around to look at us. “We got her. The boys took her to a safe house.”
I snapped my head in his direction. “You got her?”
“Yes.” He turned farther to look at Bones, seeing his body shift and vibrate with the movements of the car. “Fuck. If he dies, I’m coming after you.” He turned his eyes on me, full of threat. “This man is the greatest guy I know, and he was never good enough for you. Yet, he’s the one who saved your ass. You better kiss the ground he walks on when he’s back on his feet.” He faced forward again. “Bones had two of our men take her and the butler from the house and head north. She fought the entire time, so they put a syringe in her neck to put her to sleep. The drug was safe for the baby. She’s fine.”
Conway breathed such a deep sigh that his voice shook. “Thank fucking god.” He closed his eyes and swallowed the lump I knew had to be in his throat.
I turned to Bones next, seeing the man who saved my life…and my son. He was still breathing, but his skin was starting to pale. I ripped off my vest, yanked a strip of fabric from my shirt, and tied it over the wound. I applied pressure and kept him stable, placing my hand against the window so his head wouldn’t bump into it. He was an enormous man, at least fifty pounds heavier than me, but I made it work. I’d despised this man for so long, was so relieved when he was finally gone, but now…there were no words to describe what I felt.
I was indebted to him.
He didn’t have to tell me about the hit on Conway.
He didn’t have to risk his life to save my son.
He didn’t have to save Sapphire.
But he did it anyway.
Now I owed him…I owed him big-time.
Bones was taken into emergency surgery the second we got him to the hospital. I wasn’t given any information about what they were going to do. The priority was keeping him alive, and from the loss of blood he’d just suffered, I didn’t know what was going to happen. Normally, I wouldn’t care.
But now, I needed him to live.
Conway was checked in and immediately sent for scans and blood work, but the doctors never considered him critical.
Thank fucking god.
Once everything was under control, I finally had a moment to talk to my brother.
“I can’t believe we’re both alive.” He had a cut down his arm, which had been bandaged up. His left eye was black and blue, like someone had slammed the butt of a gun into his face. “So, what the hell happened? Why is Bones involved in this?”
I looked past his shoulder and saw Bones’s friend in the waiting room. He was a thick man Bones’s age, and he was on the phone with an agitated expression on his face. He rubbed his temple, clearly distraught over what had just happened. “I stepped into the open to blow out the driver of the car. If Conway got away, I knew I would never find him again. It was stupid and suicidal, but I didn’t know what else to do. I just had to stop them. That’s when a guy kicked the gun from my hand and pushed me to the ground.” I looked away from my brother, remembering that moment clearly because time had slowed down. I pictured my wife as a widow, spending the rest of her life alone and mourning me. I pictured my daughter’s children, my grandkids I would never meet. I thought of the life I wouldn’t experience because my time had been cut short. “I thought that was the end, Cane. Bones got in the way…and took the bullet.”