“Listen to me, Beta,” I snarl, and my mate shudders, like I’ve woken her from a dream. It’s cruel, but all that matters now is her safety, and I make sure her beta knows that as I pin him with my darkest look. “You don’t go home. You don’t call anyone. You drive straight to the mansion and ask for the governor.”
The beta’s eyes crackle with sudden fire. “Yeah, because he’ll be thrilled to have a bullet-ridden, blood-soaked gangster’s car in his drive.”
I grind my teeth, but my tongue is swollen, and I can feel my eyelids starting to droop. There’s a sour edge to my scent, and while I’m soaked in my omega’s sweet slick, even that is starting to fade. My arms are around her, but instead of promising strength and safety, they suddenly flop to my sides like dead weights.
“You have to fix him, Dex,” my mate cries out, clutching my face. Her frightened, watery gaze swims in my vision as I slump back against the seat, my head lolling. “Please don't let him die.”
“I'm not going to....”
Fuck me.I sound like a breathless kitten, and despite the perfect view in front of me, I can’t stop my eyes from rolling back in my head. Diana screams, and the car swerves, the brainless beta almost driving us into a ditch.
“Kill us, and I’ll kick your stupid puppy ass…”
At least, that’s what I’m trying to say. Although the most that comes out is a whimper as darkness swarms over me, dragging me away from my sobbing mate.
CHAPTER SIX
As much as I hate to hear Diana cry, I’m kind of glad she’s too busy fussing over her new mate to notice the route I’m taking. Not that she’d be able to discern the governor’s mansion from a trauma hospital. She hasn’t been out of the facility in a decade, and even if she walked these streets every day of her previous life, they scrubbed her memories during admission. Something her alpha seems to be acutely aware of, given the way he glared at me like I’d personally messed with her head.
Not sure why the facility didn’t scrubhim. Maybe he was such a great actor, they really believed that before they scooped him up, he was a brain-addled hobo living under a bridge. Or maybe they didn’t bother scrubbing the guys in the basement, because once they went in, none of them ever came back out.
Except for Kane, if that’s his real name. It could be bullshit, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who hides behind an alias. Other than pretending to be a homeless bum to get into the facility, he seems to take pride in being exactly what he is. Which is a cigar-smoking, leather-wearing, neck-snapping asshole.
Who somehow managed to break us out of a facility evenmore tightly locked down than a maximum-security psych ward.
Lucky me.
I check the rearview mirror, pressing a little harder on the gas as Diana lifts her tear-streaked face to mine. “Dex!”
It’s a broken wail, and I shift my gaze to the alpha. He’s pale under his bronze skin, the bullet wound in his side oozing dark blood. “It’s okay, Diana. I’m taking him straight to a doctor.”
Tears trickle down her cheeks as she reaches forward, grasping my shoulder. “Help him, Dex. Please!”
I nod, dragging my gaze away from her and turning sharply down a side street. I’m on familiar streets now, but I know I can’t let down my guard. By now, the Carrillos will have no doubt been informed of our escape, along with the GTA of the mini-tank I’m driving, and who knows what they’ll do to get their property back?
“You need to stop the bleeding.” I rummage through the console one-handed until I locate a small medical kit and toss it to her. “Find a gauze pad or a bandage and put pressure on the wound.”
She makes a soft mewling sound, but works quickly to locate a pad and peel it from its wrapper. The danger here is an arterial tear, but the blood is slow and dark, so it’s more likely venous. I watch as she presses the pad to the alpha’s side, her eyes searching for mine in the rearview mirror.
“Good girl,” I tell her. “Now keep the pressure on until we get there.”
She nods and I flick open my burner phone and start by sending an SOS to my brother. Johnny will know to lie low until I can talk to him in person, since his default reaction these days is to run and hide while I clean up his mess. Thrusting aside my frustration with my brother, I send a text to Ben, praying he’s on call and not snoozing in the doctor’s lounge. He’s a resident in the ER at St Luke’s and the closest thing I have to a best friend.He kicked my ass for taking on Johnny’s debts and sidelining my nursing career, but he also sweet-talked the hospital registrar into giving me back my job. Hopefully, he’s got another miracle up his sleeve, because I’m about to turn up on his doorstep with a GSW victim in Donny Carrillo’s car.
It’s only another couple of minutes to the hospital, but like all under-funded government buildings, traffic is congested, parking is limited, and the layout could’ve been designed by a blind man. It feels like I’m circling the drain as I make my way to the rear of the hospital. A dark pall seems to hang over this part of the building, mainly because this is where overflow patients were housed – and often died – during the last pandemic.
I park next to a line of dumpsters, and checking my mirrors, slide out of the car. The metal security door to the old wing of the hospital opens and Ben is standing there, his weary face slack with disbelief. “You said you were coming in hot, but this is insane, Dex.”
I just grunt as I round the car, since there’s no way I can disguise the damage. Even if the cracked windshield didn’t alert him, the bullet holes make it look like I was caught in a killer hailstorm. “You got a cot?”
“Yeah, but who…?” Ben’s question dies away as I open the back door and Diana hops out. She’s pulled her jumpsuit back on, but it’s a crumpled mess of bloodstains and alpha cum, and the scent of her omega slick rises around her like a heady fog. “What the…?”
“Diana, this is Ben. He’s an urgent care doctor here. And once he snaps out of it, he’s going to fix your alpha up.”
At that introduction, Diana whirls on my friend with huge, desperate eyes. “Please, doctor. He’s badly hurt. Can you help him?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m sure we can do something.” Ben gulps as he stares down at her, and I’d smirk at the way he’s cracked like agooey egg if we weren’t in so much freaking trouble. “Let’s get him inside and see what he needs.”
Diana has no reason to trust doctors, but if that fact is starting to dawn on her, she doesn’t show it as Ben helps me lift Kane onto a gurney. The guy is Hummer-sized, and we’re both puffing by the time we wheel him inside. “Name?”
