Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [170]
“Stop! Police!”
He was being pried from the woman, but she managed to turn the gun on herself. Bang! Becca screamed. Maggie vaulted to the couch where Becca sat, white-faced and shaking and crying. “It’s okay, baby, it’s gonna be okay.” She held her tight, rocked with her child and saw Detective Henderson’s face through a haze. Her head was pounding; the air smelled of blood and hot metal.
“Shit, it’s a goddamned war zone in here,” Henderson said. “Call the paramedics!” he ordered a uniformed man.
“They’re here.”
What seemed like dozens of uniformed men and women, weapons drawn, burst into the room. Immediately they set about helping the injured, and Maggie was torn between holding her child, her lover, or her sister. Tears ran down her face and she trembled inside. Please God, let them live. Let them all live.
“I need oxygen over here.”
“This one is still alive—who the hell is it?”
“Eve Lawrence,” Maggie said woodenly, seeing Eve’s body oozing blood, her eyes behind broken glasses staring up at the fluorescent lights. “She…she was the one behind it all. She even shot herself…so that you’d think we did it, I suppose.” Was that possible? Had Eve been so desperate that she would wound herself then try and kill both Marquise and her?
“She saved my life,” Becca said, looking at Marquise, who lay, blood pumping from her chest. The floor was sticky and purple with a spreading stain as a paramedic worked feverishly over her, trying to staunch the blood, applying an oxygen mask. Policemen and women were everywhere. Maggie, holding Becca, inched toward Thane.
“Get the kid out of here,” Henderson barked.
“I’ve got her,” Henderson’s partner said, offering a tentative smile as she embraced Becca. “I’m Hannah. You must be Becca.”
“Mom—”
“It’s all right, honey.”
“Let’s go into the other room.” Hannah helped Becca out of the crime scene and toward the front of the house.
“I’ll be right there,” Maggie promised.
Maggie! I love you. You know that, don’t you?
They were placing Mary Theresa on a stretcher. “Christ, it’s that television woman!”
“I need to talk to her,” Maggie demanded.
“She can’t hear ya. Get her into an ambulance!”
Goodbye, Maggie…
“No!”
I’m so tired…I…
“We’re losin’ her,” one of the paramedics said.
“NO! NO!” Maggie wailed, throwing herself at the stretcher, feeling strong arms pull her back. “You’re going to be fine. Mary Theresa, can you hear me? Hang in there!” She was sobbing, choking with the knowledge that Mary Theresa was dying. Pain tore through her and she felt a rending in her soul, as if part of her had been ripped away. “Oh, God, no!”
“Shit, she’s going.” Running, two men carried Mary Theresa on the stretcher out of the room and to the waiting ambulance, but Maggie knew in her heart that she’d lost her sister forever.
“Get her out of here,” Henderson said. “Have her checked at the hospital for injuries and shock.” They were talking about her!
“I’m not going anywhere!”
“Lady, please—”
“Just wait. Thane?” She dropped to her knees where Thane was being worked on by a paramedic.
“He’s lost consciousness.”
“Get him to the ambulance.”
Fear, as cold as death, scraped over her heart with steely nails. “I have to be with him.”
“He won’t know it.”
“Don’t care. Let me ride with him. Thane, can you hear me, love? Thane…I love you…” She thought she saw a twitch of his lips, but she couldn’t be sure…he was pale and bleeding and…
She felt someone place a blanket over her shoulders, found a way to connect with Becca again, and started praying like she’d never prayed before in her life.
She couldn’t lose Thane now. Not ever again.
But it was out of her hands.
Somewhere deep in the void he heard her voice. “Thane, can you hear me? Love?”
Love? Was that Maggie’s voice? Pain screamed through his body and as he opened one eye, light, white and blinding, flooded his senses.
“Thane? He’s trying to open his eyes! Becca, look. Oh, God, Thane, we thought, I mean…” she was crying, her voice cracking.