INICIAR SESIÓNClaire’s POVLilly had both arms around my neck when Teo said, “Karen, is somebody in the room with him now?”I stopped trying to ease her onto the cushion beside me. Across the room, Nick turned toward Teo so fast the gauze slipped from his eyebrow. He caught it against his chest, leaving a red smear on his shirt.“The doctor?” Teo asked. “And somebody’s watching the door?”Lilly lifted her head. “Mommy?”“I’m here, baby.” I rubbed her back while Nick crossed to Teo. I could hear Karen’s voice coming through the phone, too faint to understand, and watched Teo press his fingers into the bridge of his nose.“Tell security I’m coming. They can check my license. Whatever they need.” He listened again. “Call me if anything changes. Anything.”“What happened?” I asked when he lowered the phone.He looked at Lilly, then at Nick. I tightened my arm around her.“Is Rafe alive?”“Yes,” Teo said immediately. “He’s alive.”Marge leaned forward from the other end of the couch and picked up Lilly’
Teo’s POVThe car door slammed behind the clubhouse.“Rear camera!” I shouted.Evan was already switching feeds.On the monitor, the gray SUV sat outside our maintenance gate. A man climbed out of the passenger side while the driver backed the vehicle toward the fence.The passenger reached inside and pulled out a rifle.“Everybody away from the fucking windows!”The first shot came through the kitchen.Glass exploded against the cabinets. Somebody screamed. I heard a chair overturn, followed by the unmistakable sound of a child crying.Lilly.I ran toward the kitchen with Emilio right behind me.Marge was already moving.She had a pistol in her right hand and Lilly tucked against her left side, the little girl’s face buried against her shoulder. Claire was reaching for her daughter while Taryn pulled Leanne away from the broken window.“Inside hallway!” I shouted. “Storage room, now!”“Already fucking going!” Marge snapped.Another round punched through the wall beside the refrigerat
Claire’s POVThe phone went dead against my ear while Nick was still on the highway.I kept it there anyway. He’d told me not to go near the windows, that somebody had called the hospital asking about Rafe and whether I was there or leaving with Nick. He’d said Teo was with him and they were coming straight back.He hadn’t known who made the call.That was the part that kept turning in my head.“Mommy?”Lilly stood at the end of the couch holding the pink rabbit she’d slept with since Grant’s funeral. One ear had gone flat from being washed too many times.“Come with me, baby.” I put my phone in my pocket and reached for her hand.She looked at the window over the pool table. “Why did that man pull the curtain?”“Because I asked him to.”“Why?”I couldn’t keep feeding her stories about somebody cleaning or about the sun being too bright. Not when she had seen Rafe carried away with blood on his shirt.“Someone’s asking questions about us,” I said. “Until we know why, we’re staying in
Nick’s POV“Did you get him back?”The surgeon looked at me, then at Teo. “Yes. We got him back.”My knees nearly gave. I caught the back of a waiting-room chair with my right hand, hard enough to make it scrape across the floor.“Rafe lost a tremendous amount of blood,” he continued. “We controlled the bleeding, but his heart stopped during the operation. We had to resuscitate him again.”“How long?” Teo asked.“We got a pulse back within several minutes.”“That’s not what I asked.”“I know.” The surgeon didn’t look away. “Even a short interruption in blood flow can cause complications. He’s receiving medication to support his blood pressure. He’s on a ventilator, and he’ll stay sedated while we monitor him.”None of it told me whether Rafe would open his eyes.“Brain damage?” I asked.“It’s too early to know. Right now, we’re watching his heart, lungs, kidneys, and neurological responses as closely as we can. The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours are critical.”Teo pressed the h
Teo’s POV“Come on, you stubborn son of a bitch!”Rafe’s chest sank beneath my hands.I pushed again.And again.Blood soaked through the knees of my jeans. The prospect beside me had both hands pressed against the dressing on Rafe’s side, but it wasn’t stopping the bleeding.“Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”I stopped long enough for the prospect to give him the breaths he’d been trained to deliver, then went straight back to compressions.Rafe’s eyes were closed. His mouth hung slightly open.I couldn’t stand looking at it.“Come on, brother. You don’t get to fucking quit.”Nick grabbed Rafe’s shoulder.“Rafe! Open your eyes!”“Nick, get your hand off him!”“He was just fucking talking!”“I know! Now move!”Nick stared at me.I had never shouted at my president like that. Not once in all the years we’d ridden together.I didn’t give a shit.“MOVE, NICK!”He stumbled backward.I went back to counting.My arms were burning. Something popped beneath my palms, and I nearly stopped.I
Nick’s POV“If that son of a bitch had reached through the fence and grabbed her, which one of your men would’ve stopped him?”Claire stood in the middle of the kitchen, shaking so hard she could barely hold my phone.Rafe had come to tell us the prospect on gate watch couldn’t identify the pickup. He hadn’t gotten another word out before Claire went after him.“Claire, nobody came through the fence,” he answered.“Then how the fuck did somebody get close enough to take Lilly’s picture?”“We’re trying to figure that out.”“Trying?” She laughed, wiping at her wet cheeks. “That’s what everybody keeps telling me! You’re trying, the police are trying, Nick’s trying. Meanwhile, my daughter can’t even go outside without some bastard watching her!”I stepped between them.“Claire, Investigator Torres is still on the phone.”“I know he’s on the phone!”She turned away, pressing my cell against her ear.“I’m sorry, Investigator. No, I wasn’t yelling at you.”Taryn stood beside the table holdin







