Letting My Brother's Best Friend Take My V-Card

AFTER... JESS

The car felt stifling, the air too thick to breathe. I stared out the windshield, watching the ambulance ahead of us, its flashing lights bathing the night in ominous reds and blues. My hands trembled in my lap until Luke grabbed one, his firm grip grounding me just enough to

keep me from spiraling completely.

"She's going to be okay," he said, his voice calm and steady despite the storm swirling around us.

I turned to him, my throat tight, my heart in pieces. "You don't know that."

Luke's jaw clenched, but he didn't respond, his thumb brushing over the back of my hand in quiet reassurance.

Laura had been shot. She had been shot-because of me. Because she tried to save me and the baby. The thought turned my stomach

And Sarah... God, Sarah had been a lunatic. A gun-wielding, delusional lunatic. She'd been in our house, in our lives. How had we missed it? How had I not seen how dangerous she was?

My breath hitched as the tears finally broke free. "When does it end, Luke?" I whispered, my voice cracking. "When do we get our happy ending?"

He didn't answer.

ambulance turned into the hospital, and Luke followed close behind, pulling into a parking

the counter so tightly his knuckles had turned white. He turned as we approached, his

any of us could respond, a doctor

his body rigid. "That's

an ultrasound, and there's

his head. "What the fuck

means she's bleeding internally," the doctor said, his voice tight. "We need to take her

like a punch to the gut. Laura was bleeding inside. They needed to operate. Laura could

back, the edges of my vision blurring. Laura could die

1159

the

at his hair as though trying to physically keep himself together. I

you okay?" His voice was soft, but

streaming freely down my cheeks. The ache in my stomach that I

his voice rising with alarm. "Sit down.