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"Kid running away He our guy?" Jake asked flatly as he ca up the beach with Bear by his side

"Fuck!" Bear shouted when his eyes landed on Pup "I told you we shouldn’t have waited ten "

I looked to Jake and tipped lea so dark and so brutal that I wouldn’t want to ever findend of that stare He turned and disappeared through the trees

I lifted Pup intoto be as careful as I could not to touch the wound on her shoulder She was breathing but still unconscious "I’ll pull the van around," Bear said "And I know you’re busy saving the girl and all, but do you know you’ve been hit?"

"I don’t give a fuck," I said, fully registering that I’d been shot

And more than once

Bear ran off and by the time I made it to the front of the house with Doe, Bear was already there with the van He opened the back door and jumped in as I reluctantly handed Pup over to hi the doors behind ing myself between the front and back seats so that I was eye level with Pup

"The boy!" I shouted, re Pup’s son just as Bear hopped back in the driver’s seat "We need to find him He’s two or three and he’s…" I started to describe hiuy?" Bear pointed a tattooed finger to the passenger seat where Pup’s kid had gotten up onto his knees and peeked his head over the seat "I don’t think anyone’s had the stranger danger talk with hie un the truck in drive

"Hi Mommy," the boy said "You sick?" Sammy asked

"Mommy just had a fall She just needs so in irl was unconscious

Sa his tiny little teeth "K," he said, before turning around and plopping back down on the seat

"Seatbelt kid," Bear ordered Sammy stretched the belt over his lap but was lifted off the seat when it sprang back Bear leaned over and inserted the belt into the buckle for him and took off down the road

Pup stirred, just a shtly "Preppy?" she asked in a whisper, glancing up at the rearview ?" Pup asked

"You’re veryued

"Why do you say that?" I asked

"’Cause," she pointed out "I see Preppy…" she trailed off

"Stay with me, babe Stay with me," I told her as we pulled up to the hospital But it was too late Her eyes rolled back in her head and she slipped back into unconsciousness

When Bear pulled in under the eency overpass, he rushed out to open the door for us He stayed back with Sa and motioned for us to follow her to a roourney "Sir, sir are you fauy in a white coat cut off Pup’s clothes and push an IV needle into her vein I didn’t kno to respond Of course, she was my family, but how the fuck could I nant I’er to a chair in the corner "Sit," she ordered She shouted over to the people in scrubs and infornancy, which erupted into a chorus of voices, all shouting special instructions over one another

When the nurse noticed that I was still standing she placed a hand on my stomach and pushed me toward the chair I took a few sidesteps toward it, but still wouldn’t’ sit When the nurse noticed that her white glove was coated in red she lifted her other hand and pointed to the bloody pal more annoyed than concerned

"Don’t matter," I spat "Just take care of her" I craned my neck around the nurse who then stood up on the tips of her sneakered toes, waving the bloody glove in runted I didn’t care if I died