But there was no way in fuck I was sheathing this weapon when we were in the middle of an active threat.
Sure, it was unlikely another round of Colombians would come roaring around the corner, but I wasn’t about to take any chances.
The EMTs had ripped her jacket and shirt, exposing a silky bra I should have enjoyed removing later. Instead, some fucking EMTs were ogling my bride’s tits and I couldn’t even punch them for it. Not when I saw her breathe. It was the first time I realized shewasn’tdead, and I had to press a hand to the cold stone steps to prop me upright.
She lived.
There was blood everywhere and I wasn’t sure how they saw anything, but after another few minutes, I helped them move her onto a stretcher.
As they rolled her down to the ambulance, I recognised that I wasn’t hearing anything. I turned around, saw Aidan Jr. had been shot and was being worked over by another EMT, Lena was sobbing, Conor was clutching his arm, and I didn’t hear any of it.
I didn’t hear the sirens.
The whispers of the audience we’d gathered even though the fuckwits, after a drive-by, should have stayed inside.
I didn’t hear the wheels of the gurney on the stones as Aoife was taken to the ambulance.
I heard nothing.
I should stay. I knew that.
In the ultimate of ironies, because this life was like that, I hadn’t been shot. Looked like Aidan Sr. hadn’t either.
The good really do die young,I thought.
We needed to get to work. Needed to handle this threat, but I wasn’t capable of anything.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t. Capable. Of. Anything.
I was an intelligent man.
My fortune, and that of the Five Points, had soared thanks to that intelligence. Thanks to my reasoning, and my business savvy. I knew where to apply pressure on our allies, how to twist the arm of our enemies. I was needed here to rectify this wrong, but Aoife needed me more.
“Sir?”
Someone grabbed my arm and shook me. I was too dazed to react this time. Too dazed to smack the shit out of anyone who touched me.
They were the first words I heard, though.
“…coming with us? Need to leave. Urgently.”
I realized I was holding up the ambulance. Not that they usually waited for shell-shocked grooms, and in her state, I knew they wouldn’t ordinarily allow people to travel with them.
But I wasn’t just anyone.
I was a Five Points man, and Aoife was my bride.
Shit worked differently for us.
I jumped on board the ambulance, knowing that if I got in the way I could endanger Aoife’s life, I resented my six-foot-four frame more than ever as I tried to make myself as small as possible. Not easy.
There was a short counter beside Aoife’s gurney, and next to that, a kind of seat. I folded my form into that tiny ass enclosure, sitting sideways so I wouldn’t be a burden in the limited space.
Seconds after I settled myself, the ambulance took off and my heart rate went along for the ride too.
***
Aoife