Page 86 of Wicked Shadows
“He’s gone!” Nick yelled. “He’s fucking gone. There’s a hidden hallway behind this fucking room!”
Shadow bolted toward the garage, where he’d left Elle waiting. Where he thought she’d be safest. Where she was now a sitting duck for an evil man who would kill her simply out of spite. He jerked the door open and flew into the open room, seeing the ladies huddled together in terror. All he could see was Elle—he had to get to her and protect her from Bone’s wrath. An arm extended toward Elle. A finger slid across the trigger. A second passed while Bone focused his aim.
A shot rang out, the noise amplified by the echoes, quickly followed by a second shot. The first one tore through Shadow’s upper side, and the second bullet hit his upper chest. Shadow stumbled as he turned, using his body as a shield for Elle. He raised his gun, seeing Bone was injured worse than he originally thought, and fired six shots into his body—the final shot hitting his head.
The white-hot pain seared his torso, making it hard to breathe. The room began to spin, and his vision began to fade as he turned to Elle. Every move he made took tremendous effort and used up what little strength he had left.
“Elle,” he choked out then coughed. He looked down and saw blood on his hand.
Her eyes were wide, filled with fear, and her face was wet with rivers of tears. She wanted to run to him, to comfort him, but she was frozen in place by the growing bloodstains on his shirt. The two enormous spots were quickly becoming one. Her gaze traveled up his body to meet his eyes, and she snapped out of her haze instantly. The sparkle in his eyes that made him unique, that enhanced his entire personality, was fading.
He collapsed to the floor as Nick emerged from the hidden hallway, and Axle appeared in the doorway from the kitchen. “Call an ambulance!” Nick yelled and ran toward Shadow.
Elle lurched from where she’d knelt on the floor and sprinted to his side. “Devon,” she cried repeatedly while stroking his face and hair. “Talk to me, Devon. Stay with me.”
Sirens rang out from many blocks away, but Elle only heard her own wails when Nick yelled into his phone.
“Tell them to hurry! He has no pulse—I’ve lost him! He’s dead! Man down, we have a man down!” Nick dropped his phone and began doing chest compressions, yelling at his friend to hold on with each push. “Don’t you dare die on me now.”
Axle opened the roll-up door and flagged down the ambulance. The paramedics rushed to his side and took over CPR from Nick. Elle watched in shock and anguish while they attempted to revive him. Chest compressions continued once they had him loaded into the back of the ambulance.
“I’ve got no pulse, no respirations. Pupils are nonreactive to light. Patient is nonresponsive to pain stimulation. We’re running emergency with lights and sirens. Have the trauma team on standby for our arrival,” the paramedic relayed through his radio. The back doors of the ambulance were closed, and they sped away.
