Tricks (Take It Off #6)(46)
Author: Cambria Hebert

He laid the gun down and took off running.

My gun followed him until he was out of sight.

On my way over to Wallace’s body, I stumbled. The damn room was really spinning and it was getting darker in here.

“Tucker,” Charlotte worried and appeared at my side, slipping her body beneath my arm and lending support.

“See if he has a phone. I gotta call the Feds.” Our phones had been confiscated before we got here, and I had no idea where they were.

“Sit down,” she demanded.

Sitting down seemed like a pretty good idea. I lowered myself down against the wall, at a vantage point that I could see the room and watch the men I knocked out. They wouldn’t stay that way much longer. We were going to have to move. Soon.

The breath hissed between my teeth when I leaned against the wall. Charlotte stood and yanked the green shirt over her head. My eyes fixated on the peach lace cups that supported her perky tits.

What? I was shot, not dead.

The way her creamy flesh practically spilled out of the tops of the cups made my mouth salivate.

‘Course this really wasn’t the time for a quickie.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked her.

She kneeled down and pressed the shirt to my wound.

“Shit!” I cursed.

“Don’t be a baby,” she scolded, pressing harder.

Don’t be a baby she says. “I have a bullet embedded in my side and you’re pushing on it.”

“We need to stop the bleeding,” she said. “Push!”

I placed my hands over hers and added some pressure.

Her hands felt warm. It was nice. “You know,” I said, leaning my head against the wall, “in a movie, it’s usually it’s the guy who takes off his shirt to stop the bleeding of his girl.”

The side of her lip curled up. “Good thing this isn’t a movie.”

“If it was, you’d be my girl,” I said, tugging on the end of her hair.

Clearly I was becoming delirious from loss of blood, likely shock and too much adrenaline pumping through my system. I was starting to spout those pretty words I didn’t know how to say.

“Please don’t die,” she whispered, her voice cracking.

“Die?” I scoffed. “This is nothing. Did I ever tell you I walked ten miles carrying a guy who was shot?”

She nodded. “Yeah, you told me.”

“Did I tell you I had been shot too?”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

I smiled. “Takes a lot more than a bullet to kill me, darlin’.”

Charlotte’s palm was warm when she cupped my cheek and smiled.

“I need that phone.”

There was a black phone in the inside pocket of Wallace’s jacket, and she spun, holding it up triumphantly. I grinned and tried to remember the number the Feds gave me.

Charlotte shrieked.

I opened my eyes. Wallace was awake and had his hand wrapped around her ankle, trying to pull her feet out from under her.

I lifted the gun and shot him. He yelped and let go, rolling onto his bleeding arm.

The side door to the building burst in and people began swarming the room. I launched up off the floor, holding out both my guns, and put myself in front of Charlotte.

“Freeze!” a deep voice yelled, pointing a gun at me.

It was the cops. It was about fucking time.

One of the Men in Black came through the door, weaving around all the men dressed in black with the word SWAT across the back of their jackets.

“They’re with us,” he called, motioning toward me and Charlotte.

“What took you so long?” I barked as he approached.

“We need the medics!” he yelled, and people went off to do his bidding. “Did you get the drive?” he asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, we got it.”

Charlotte handed him the drive out of her bag. He slipped it into a clear bag labeled evidence. Everyone in the room was looking at us and I was starting to feel like the big man on campus until I realized they weren’t looking at me.

Charlotte was standing around in her bra, giving every man in here a show.

“Hey,” I said to the man in black.

“It’s Carson,” he said, giving me a name.

“Carson, you mind giving my girl here your jacket?”

He chuckled and draped it around her shoulders.

“Keep that shit covered up,” I told her as the medics rushed into the room, surrounding me with their tools.

She moved aside, giving them space to work, but I kept my eyes on her. Even when the room began to spin and my eyes grew heavy, I didn’t look away.

Shouting filled the distance and commotion erupted around me; people crowded in and blocked my view. I heard her call my name… I tried to answer…

Shadows descended, cloaking me in solitude, and then there was no more.

28

Charlotte

The sound of white sneakers squeaking over a polished floor reverberated out in the hallway. The room was dim, but the florescent light just outside the door made it difficult to sleep. Well, that and the fact I was sitting in the most uncomfortable chair known to man.

Every time I closed my eyes and attempted sleep, I heard the sound of gunfire and felt Tucker jerk against me as the bullet meant for me ripped into his side. After a while of struggling to sleep, I gave up, instead leaning back in the chair and watching him sleep.

He seemed comfortable. The medicine the doctors gave him kept the pain at bay. As he slept, I took advantage of the fact he was out and studied his face.

It’s funny because I would have thought that looking at his square jaw, dark hair, and straight nose would be like a sucker punch every time I gazed his way. I thought he might be a constant reminder of Max, that being near him would hurt and cause more grief than I already felt.

But it wasn’t like that at all.

Yes, he looked just like Max. However, when I looked at him, all I saw was Tucker. He was a distinct man, an unreplicated version of himself.

When I thought of Max, I smiled. I felt pride we had been together. We made a great team. Together we were unstoppable. There would forever be a piece of me that missed him, a piece in my heart reserved just for him.

When I thought of Tucker…

When I thought of him, heat swam through my middle. Passion like I’d never known before took over my body and caused my hands to ache to touch him. With him, everything seemed unpredictable; everything was unscripted. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought those feelings might be. If anything, they made me feel alive.

All those feelings were good… yet they made me feel incredibly guilty.