No!
A tugging in his gut told him he shouldn’t wait. He needed to say the wordsnow, before it was too late.
“Love…you.” Adrian uttered the words out loud.
It was the first time he’d said them to a woman who wasn’t his sister.
He looked to where Jenna had been standing. His heart dropped into his stomach when he realized she hadn’t heard his precious words at all because the doors to the ambulance had already slammed shut.
Chapter 9
Jenna’s hands were covered in Adrian’s blood. Her pulse raced and her body trembled as adrenaline still spread through her system.
The situation was so surreal, she was still trying to process everything that had happened.
One minute, she and Adrian were talking and laughing. The next, Jenna was crouching down to avoid flying bullets and screaming for the man she loved.
“He’s a fighter.”
She tore her gaze away to look at the man behind the wheel. “I know,” she told Ben quietly.
Adrian was more than a fighter. He was one of the strongest men she’d ever known.
Even the mighty fall sometimes.
Ignoring the negative thought, Jenna glanced back down at the stain on her hands. Her stomach clenched with terror. The merethoughtof him not making it out of this alive had her heart stuttering and her lungs breathless.
Adrian was shot. I have his blood on my hands. He was shot, and then they took him away.
“I’ve known him a long time,” Ben spoke up again. His knuckles became white as his grip tightened around the steering wheel. “Adrian’s survived things most people wouldn’t. He’ll make it through this, too.”
Jenna studied the man’s odd expression. He seemed confident in his statement, but at the same time he looked worried. And the tone of his voice…
It was almost as if he were trying to convince himself that Adrian would be okay, rather than her.
He lost so much blood.
For the millionth time since it happened, Jenna ran through the steps she’d taken to stop the bleeding. The homemade tourniquet had seemed to help. Between that and the speedy arrival of the EMS crew, heshouldmake a complete recovery.
Of course, that was assuming the surgery to remove the bullet went off without a hitch.
It’s only a flesh wound. They’ll go in, extract the bullet, and sew him back up. Easy peasy.
Looking out the passenger window, Jenna mentally replayed those words over and over, until her pulse slowed, and her breaths steadied.
She glanced down at her watch and wondered if he was already in surgery. She’d wanted to go with him so badly, but contrary to what they showed in the movies, most EMS departments didn’t allow third parties to ride in the back with the patients.
Too much liability.
That meant she was relying on Ben to get her to the hospital, and he’d needed to stick around to tell his officers how he wanted the crime scene to be processed. By the time he was finished delegating and giving orders, the ambulance was already long gone.
Chomping at the bit to get there, Jenna turned back to Ben and asked, “How close are we to the hospital?”
“It’s not far.” He kept his eyes straight ahead. “But I need to make a quick stop first.”
He’s making a stop? Now?
“I don’t mean to be rude, but do you think you could just drop me off at the hospital and then go do whatever it is you need to do?”