Chapter 6

 

At first, Lila did not even notice the form that suddenly appeared beside her. She was too busy trying to stop her own blood from dumping out of her. She gritted her teeth together, hard, trying to force the pain away. If only that stinging, that red-hot spear being continually driven into her flesh, would go away, it would make things so much easier.

 

She felt a hand fall lightly on her shoulder, and she scrambled frantically to escape it, fear overtaking her thoughts and replacing them with one objective: get away. She shrieked again. Damn, she thought hazily. Bec would never believe I could scream like that. She moved with surprising speed from flat on the floor to backed up against the wall. The grip the stranger had on her shoulder tightened, and his other hand snaked around her back and grabbed her upper arm.

 

Her resistance shocked Brian. She was strong. He could feel her well-muscled forearm strain under his hold as she tried to pull herself away from him. With the adrenaline that he knew was rushing through her body, he quickly became aware that she would succeed in throwing him off if he didn’t act quickly.

 

“It’s ok!” he said soothingly. His heart was thudding in his chest so loudly that he was almost positive she could hear it. “I’m not gonna hurt you, I want to help you. I’m not one of them.”

 

Her struggling quieted, and she looked over at him for the first time. His striking blue eyes found hers and held her gaze. Those kind eyes, full of worry and fear, for her sake. She could swear she’d seen those eyes somewhere before. They were so familiar… She reluctantly tore her gaze away from them and examined his face. That strong jaw line, and the sandy blond hair that framed his face with slight curls, she knew she had seen them before. She gasped as recognition hit her like an electric shock.

 

Brian groaned inwardly. She knew who he was. Before she could react, he covered her mouth with his hand, shaking his head very slowly. She understood immediately, and nodded. He removed his hand with a sigh of relief.

 

“I’m going to help you.” He reached for the first aid kit that had been thrown at him, and opened it up.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

 

“Don’t thank me until we get out of here.” He wiped the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand.

 

“I need to pull up your shirt a little to get at the wound,” he said uncomfortably. “Not much. But I don’t want to surprise you.”

 

She nodded. “I don’t care. I can’t afford to be modest when I’m laying in my own blood.”

 

He forced a laugh. “I guess not.” He peeled up her shirt, trying to ignore her wince as it stuck to the wound. The bullet had penetrated her left side. It could have been worse, but any fool could see that if she didn’t get to a doctor within a few hours she would probably die. One could only lose so much blood. I just have to get the bleeding under control, he thought to himself. Yeah, no big deal. No problem. Brian wished for the thousandth time that Kevin were there.

 

“How bad is it?” she asked him after a moment.

 

“I don’t think you’re going to lose any vital organs or anything,” he said with a crooked smile. “But you are losing a lot of blood. We have to stop the bleeding.”

 

He looked up. “I need some water bottles and towels!” he hollered to thief number two, who was trying to keep an eye on them and the others at the same time. He opened his mouth to tell him off, but his partner glared at him.

 

“Give him what he needs.”

 

Angrily, he chucked a six-pack of Evian water at him and several rolls of paper towels.

 

“Cloth, if there is any,” Brian said darkly. He shielded his face with his arm as a volley of towels from some unknown source came flying at him. Brian unscrewed the top to one of the bottles.

 

“I’m going to dump this on the injury to try and clean it off a little. It’s not refrigerated, so it shouldn’t be too cold.”

 

“Go for it,” she rasped.

 

He proceeded to pour out the contents of the bottle over her side. She had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.

 

“Sorry,” he said hastily.

 

She just shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”

 

He took one of the cloths and pressed it firmly against her side.

 

“How do you feel?” he asked her, smoothing her hair back away from her face. He was startled at the heat in her forehead. She felt like she was on fire.

 

“Like I’ve been shot,” she said with a chuckle that turned into a groan.

 

“Easy,” he said with a smile. “I guess it was a stupid question.”

 

“I’m sick,” she told him, seeing his expression when he touched her forehead. “I have the flu or something. I came here to get medicine for it.”

 

He nodded in understanding. “Lousy timing, huh?” He studied her face for a moment.

 

She was pretty. Not gorgeous, but definitely pretty. Her blue eyes looked strained with the agony she felt, but he was sure that under normal circumstances they were one of the first things that one would notice about her. She had the build of an athlete. He wasn’t sure what kind, but she was definitely stronger than the average girl. He caught sight of her calf muscles, and was impressed. Whatever it was that she did, she did it a lot. It wasn’t easy to get that kind of muscle tone. He snapped himself out of his daze and realized that he didn’t even know her name.   

 

“Well, you know who I am, so why don’t you tell me who you are?”

 

“I guess that’s fair,” she said with a weak smile. “My name is Lila. Lila Kikter.”

 

Before he could reply, the sound of sirens filled his ears.

 

***

 

 

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