The elevator doors opened. Joaquin stepped inside, found a bloody fingerprint on the button for the fourthfloor.
How had the son of a whore foundher?
The seconds ticked by as he waited for her response. He was looking at his phone when itcame.
Not bad. Doors locked. I’m in thebathroom.
Joaquin paced the length of the elevator, bolting the moment the doors opened onto his floor and running to his apartment. He fished his keys out of his pocket, saw blood on his front door, unlocked it. “Mia, I’mhere.”
He didn’t want her to shoothim.
Drops of blood on his floor led him to the bathroom door. “I’m right here. I’m coming in, Mia,okay?”
“I promise not to shootyou.”
But the door waslocked.
Unable to remember at the moment where he’d put the key, Joaquin took a step back and kicked itin.
“He’s here,” Mia said into her cell phone. She lay back in his tub, still wearing her parka, pistol sitting on the floor beside her. “I got blood on yourfloor.”
“You think I give a damn about that? God, Mia, I was afraid I was going to find you dead.” Joaquin knelt beside her, resisting the urge to hold her. “Let’s get you out of thisparka.”
She winced as the coat came off, her pain cutting at him. “I think it’s just a graze. I can’t tell. My ears are ringing. It was soloud.”
“Ibet.”
Her T-shirt was ripped just below her left breast and stained withblood.
“We need to take off your T-shirt, too. Do you trust me withthat?”
“Are … you … kidding?” she ground out from beneath clenched teeth, trying to pull the shirt over herhead.
“Let me doit.”
With the shirt out of the way, he could see that her jeans were torn, too, near her hip. Most of the blood seemed to be coming fromthere.
She unzipped her fly, tried to wriggle out of them, speaking into her cell phone again. “He’s helping me get out of myclothes.”
Joaquin had forgotten aboutdispatch.
“You stay still. I’ve got this.” Joaquin took off her shoes and socks, then tugged her jeans down and tossed themaside.
Two bullet wounds marred her pale skin—one just below her left breast and a much deeper one near her left hip bone. Both were still bleeding, blood staining the white lace of her panties andbra.
He grabbed two clean washcloths, put one in her hand, and guided her hand to the wound below her breast. “Hold it there.” He pressed the other against the wound near her hip. “Can you hear those sirens? The cavalry is almosthere.”
“Yes, I’m still here,” Mia said, talking to dispatch again. “He’s still here, too. He’s giving me firstaid.”
The sirens were right below themnow.
Joaquin saw that she was shivering. “Are youcold?”
She shook her head. “Just …shaky.”
“It could be shock.” He reached with one hand, yanked a clean towel out of his cupboard, and did his best to cover her. “You should staywarm.”
She smiled, looked up at him through those killer blue eyes. “I didn’t think the first time you undressed me it would be likethis.”