Ride Wild(49)

Seconds had passed at most, but Slider couldn't breathe for needing to  get to Cora and Sam. He went to the floor next to where she was curled  around his son. "Cora, are you okay?" Ignoring the glass under his  knees, he put his hand on her back. "Sweetheart, are you okay? Sam?"

"Christ, who's hurt?" Dare yelled, all kinds of commotion happening around Slider that he couldn't even track.

Because Cora and Sam weren't responding. Why weren't they responding?  Slider turned Cora over . . . and found the whole left side of her  sweater soaked with blood. He couldn't tell where she'd been hit through  the thick fabric, but his hands went to her anyway. "Jesus, Cora! Oh,  God. Oh, no. Somebody call nine-one-one!" Slider didn't even know what  he was saying, he was horror and devastation personified, especially  when she still didn't respond.

Sam moaned. "Dad?"

"Sam, thank God!" Slider cried, torn between these two people he loved.  He reached for him before he noticed the blood covering his own hand.  Cora's blood.

"I got Sam," Alexa said, crawling up to them and examining the boy. "It's his arm."

"Dad? Is it over?" Sam said, his voice a raw scrape, his shirt streaked red.

Lifting Cora's sweater, Slider tried to assess her wounds, but the  material was so fucking thick and he feared jostling her too much trying  to take it off. "Yeah, buddy," he managed. "Hang in there. You're gonna  be okay. I promise." When his brave little boy gave a shaky nod through  his shock and tears, Slider called, "Scissors. I need scissors. And  towels."

"Is Cora okay?" Sam asked, panic lacing into his voice for the first time.

"Yeah," Slider managed. "She's strong. She's a fighter. You hear me,  sweetheart? You're a fighter. Damnit." His own voice cracked, because he  wasn't sure which of them he was trying to convince.

"That's right," Alexa said, the words wobbly as she pressed her hands to Sam's arm. "She is. She's gonna be okay."

After what was probably seconds but seemed like hours, someone finally  brought him everything he needed, and Slider didn't even know who. And  then he was cutting off Cora's sweater to find two gunshots to her left  arm, a shot to her side, and a fourth through her upper chest, high  enough to almost be her shoulder. Shaking and pleading, he pressed  towels to the most serious wounds. Because, Jesus fuck, she had more of  them than he could even address. Nonono this is not happening. Please,  God. I just found her.                       
       
           



       

"Sam's arm is bandaged," Alexa said, grasping a clean towel. "Is it okay if I put pressure on Cora's?"

God, Alexa was his angel tonight. "Please," he rasped. The word wasn't  even all the way out of his mouth before Al was right there, her hands  helping to staunch the flow.

Maverick crouched beside him, his face a mask of rage and shock. "Ambulances are ten minutes out. Can I help here?"

"I . . . I don't know," Slider said, his mind reeling. Ten minutes felt  like a lifetime. "I don't know what else to do." The admission was like a  knife to the heart.

Mav's blue eyes burned. "Just hang in there and keep doing what you're  doing. Haven and Caine are also hit. But we're going to get everyone the  help they need."

"Haven, too?" Slider rasped, knowing how much that would tear Cora up.  But before he let Mav respond, he gasped. "Ben! Where's Ben?" How the  hell had it taken his head so long to think to ask?

Grasping his shoulder, Maverick looked him in the eye. "Phoenix has him  upstairs. He's fine. And the club's on its way." Dark meaning hung on  the words. They were going to fix this. And thank fuck the clubhouse was  so close.

But Slider shook his head, grief raging inside him. "Go. Go now. Go get  those fuckers before they get away, Maverick. This does not get to  happen!" he shouted, Cora's blood starting to soak through the towels.  "You know they'll just keep coming if you don't."

"I know, man, but I'm not leaving you all unprotected."

As if Mav's words beckoned their brothers, a monstrous roar sounded out  in the night. The sound of two dozen motorcycles descending like the  hounds of hell.

"We're covered. Now, go," Slider growled, part of him wishing he could  be the one to wring the life from Dominic's and Davis's necks with his  bare hands. But if he couldn't do it, his brothers would. "And make them  pay, Maverick! Make them fucking pay."

People came and went. Voices shouted and talked. But Slider had a hard  time keeping track of anything besides Cora and Sam after that. Cora,  who lay far too still. And Sam, who'd pulled himself into a sitting  position as he held the towel tied around his left arm.

"Cora," he cried. "She saved me."

"I know, buddy," Slider said, his hands pressed to Cora's worst wounds  as if he could maybe hold her in this world with his skin and his bones  alone. "I know. How you doing? You're being so damn brave, Sam."

"I don't feel brave," the boy said, shaking his head and trying to rein in his tears.

"That just proves how brave you really are," Slider said, filled with a  tragic, wrenching pride in his son's courage in the face of all this  chaos. "And we're gonna save Cora. Don't you worry." But Slider didn't  know if he believed the words. There was so much blood. And she was so  still. And her skin was so pale. How did this happen? How the fuck did  this happen? Martin had them. They saw the police turn into the road  that led to that barn. How the fuck did this happen?

A small moan. Then another. Cora's head turned and her eyelids fluttered.

"Cora!" Sam cried. "She's moving!"

"Can you hear me?" Slider asked, dangerous hope flaring through him. "Oh, God, Cora. Tell me you hear me."

Her lips barely moved. "Sli . . ."

"Yeah, I'm here," he said, leaning close, his heart torn between breaking and flying. "I'm right here."

Her eyelids lifted heavily, her gaze not tracking. Still, seeing that beautiful green again nearly slayed him. "S-Sam. O-kay?"

Aw, God, his heart. His heart was never going to survive this. She'd  been hit four times, and her first thought was for Slider's son. "Yeah,  sweetheart, he's right here. He's gonna be fine."

Sam came closer. "I'm here, too, Cora. It's okay," he said through  silent tears. "Everything's okay. I love you, Cora." Alexa gently  squeezed Sam's good shoulder and he sagged into her embrace. "She has to  be okay."

"She will," Alexa managed. "She's one of the strongest people I know."

And it was true, except . . . the blood, and the stillness, and the  paleness. But at least she was awake. "Keep talking to me, Cora. Keep  talking."

But she didn't say any more.

"Ambulance is here," someone yelled, making Slider realize for the first  time that colored lights from outside flashed on the ruined interior  walls of Dare's living room and kitchen. "Make way."                       
       
           



       

The paramedics came in with their big kits. Multiple teams. And cops,  too. The house was crawling with people. When had all of them even  gotten there?

A man and a woman knelt down next to Slider. The woman examined Sam's  arm, and Slider said, "That's my son, Sam. He's almost eleven. Take good  care of him."

"I will," the woman said with a small smile.

"Sir," the man said. "Let me take over now. I'll take good care of her, too, I promise."

"She's everything," Slider said.

"I know, sir. Let me assess her so I can help."

Slider sat back and removed his hands from her, and it felt so fucking  wrong not to be touching her, not to feel her heat, not to feel her  pulse against his skin. What if he never got to feel any of that again?  He scrambled to her other side, out of the way but still close, so he  could tell her over and over. "I love you, Cora. I love you. Fight this.  Fight for us. I love you."



They took Cora straight into surgery. Haven, too. Yet Slider felt like  he must be the one whose heart was open on the table. The only thing  that kept him sane at all was being with Sam in his little room in the  ER.

The bullet had gone straight through the meat of Sam's bicep, missing  the bone entirely. It was good news, and the doctor assured Slider that  Sam would make a full recovery.

"You were very brave tonight, Sam," Slider said, trying to give him the  attention he deserved, trying to force his focus to remain right here in  the moment with his son. "I'm only sorry you ever had to experience  something like that."