Hard Up(7)

Reaching up, she pulled it free. She was surprised to find it fully loaded, but even more surprised when she found the weight of it… comforting.

Glancing at the door, she slowly stood up.

Before she knew it, she was crossing the bar toward the front door…





4





Twenty Minutes Later





“Vi, snap out of it,” Callum said, his voice gone to gravel. “This is serious. You don’t know what you’ve done.”

The look on her face when she heard his words…

Callum still couldn’t believe that the last few minutes had happened. Just as he’d lain there, waiting for the hitter to fire the final shot, waiting for it all to fade to black…

There was the hot little blonde from the bar, rain-soaked and looking scared as hell. Right before she’d fired a bullet straight into the gunman’s back.

In that moment, watching the mixture of terror and determination on her face, he realized that he didn’t know a damn thing about her.

They were strangers, barely knew each other outside of a one-night stand.

And yet… she’d killed for him.

Vi turned to Callum, swiping at the tears staining her cheeks.

“I… I didn’t mean… the gun went off,” she said, gesturing at the body on the ground.

“You saved my life, Viola.”

She dropped her gaze to the ground for a moment, looking conflicted.

“What now?” she asked. “Where are your friends?”

“Not here,” he said. The pain was beginning to overcome the adrenaline. If he didn’t move soon, he wouldn’t be able to.

Callum felt the blood drain from his face as he tried to stand. A bloom of crimson bubbled up from a wound above his left hip, another at the top of his right shoulder.

“Let me help,” Vi said, moving to brace him as he stood.

She staggered a little under his weight; Callum was a good foot taller than Vi, making her seem tiny and fragile against his muscular frame.

That same determination flashed on her face again as they lurched forward a few haphazard steps.

“Fuck,” Callum said, unsure how they were going to make it anywhere. “Come on, close to the car at least.”

They moved to lean against the bullet hole-riddled Mercedes, blocking them from any would-be shooters on the street.

“You need a hospital,” Vi said softly, gripping his arm and looking up at him.

“No. I need to get to my car,” he said.

“You can’t drive.”

“You can, though.”

“No, I can’t. I’m shaking like a leaf,” she said. “When I crash, which I will, it’s going to be pretty bad.”

Callum grimaced, then sighed. “We have to get off the street. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

“Fine. Let’s go upstairs.”

He shook his head, but pulled his arm from her shoulders and started moving toward Snake’s. “I don’t like it, but we don’t have a lot of options.”

“Go ahead,” she said once they made it in the doors. When she shrugged out of his hold, she turned away and stiffened.

“What?” he asked, distracted by the effort of keeping himself upright.

“Oh… nothing. I’m right behind you, I’m just going to lock up.”

He staggered inside, listening as she slammed and bolted the heavy door behind them. She went to the bar, then opened the till.

Apparently, she was going to count the register while he dragged his own sorry ass up her staircase.

Callum made a low sound, something between pain and annoyance. He headed upstairs.

“Don’t bleed on anything!” she called.

Callum ignored her, more concerned with getting himself up the stairs. He’d been shot before, wounded two different times during SEALs operations.

The pain could be managed for a short time. He just needed to get himself somewhere safe and stop the bleeding.

Gritting his teeth, he braced himself against the wall and half-dragged himself upstairs. Funny, he’d been upstairs in Viola’s little studio apartment before, but he remembered precisely nothing about the kitchen.

Probably because he’d been extremely drunk, and oh so close to closing the deal with the hot bartender he’d been lusting after for months.

When she stepped into her tiny kitchen, Callum was perched on her flimsy kitchen counter, eyes half closed.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Not bleeding on anything,” he grunted.

“Right. Let me get my first aid kit,” she said.

When he didn’t say anything, eyes still closed, she called back to him. “Don’t faint, either.”

“Lot of rules here,” he muttered.

Vi wrinkled her nose and vanished for a moment, returning with a heavy black plastic case. Callum cracked an eye and watched as she opened the case to reveal a wide array of medical supplies.