DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete Second Book

PART 11, SECTION 11

With Haley still clutched in his arms, Ian moved to raise his gun.

But his wrist was tangled in Haley's limp legs.

Jason fired.

He hit Tyler just below the cheekbone. Tyler spun violently backward with the impact. A portion of his skull separated from his head with the bullet's exit and shards of broken teeth whacked against the refrigerator. He fell heavily, dead before his body slammed onto the floor.

"Before I could raise my gun," Ian explained, "Jason had already fled out the door. "I fired I don't know how many times, but by then he'd taken cover. He'd seen the look on my face, I'm sure of it, and he knew that I would kill him."

While Jason, terrified of what Ian would do if he tried to arrest him at such a moment, raced to his military SUV and sped off with the rest of his squad, Ian rushed to Tyler. He was still clutching Haley to his chest.

"But he was gone, Ash. Tyler was already dead. I knew it but I just couldn't accept it. I still can't. All I knew then was that I could still feel Haley faintly breathing. I had to get her to the bunker where I'd kept my medical kit. At that moment I had to focus only on saving her, and I just shut everything out."

It was only as Ian stood and made for the basement door that he saw Danielle standing behind the kitchen counter. She had chased after Tyler, probably trying to stop him from going upstairs, and she had obviously arrived just in time to see everything that had happened. She didn't move. Her eyes were wide, fixed on Tyler's body and the blood pooling around it, and her face was deadly pale. She didn't make a sound. Then, her eyes drifted to Haley. Her blank expression didn't change. She was obviously in deep shock.

Ian grabbed her by the elbow and ushered her down the basement stairs.

"We have to get into the bunker, right now, Danielle. Open my medical kit and find the coagulant. Haley needs us. Haley needs us."

Ian hurried into the tunnel, holding Haley in one arm while firmly guiding Danielle, and burst into the underground bunker. But Danielle did nothing but collapse to her knees at the edge of the cot where Ian lay Haley.

Their daughter was bleeding badly. Blood was now gathering at her lips in a sickly pink foam.

Ian rifled through his medical kit, unwound a spool of gauze to first try to staunch the blood flowing from Haley's chest.

But when he pressed against the wound, she'd already stopped bleeding. Her hands were empty. The bronze horses she'd been clutching had fallen. 

Haley was dead.

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