Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” I barked as I started to run.
Shasha saw it the same time I did.
Eddison was standing over Nastya with what looked like two jumper cables in his hand.
I didn’t bother with pleasantries as I burst through the door of the home that I’d once called mine.
I took two steps into the living room and got a firsthand view of the cables coming to a rest against Nastya’s skin.
A sizzle sounded, then a squeak.
And suddenly Nastya was slumped to the side.
I hit Eddison so hard that he slammed into the wall, his head bouncing off the concrete fireplace as I did.
There was a crack and then a thud, but then I was scrambling on my hands and knees as I made my way toward Nastya.
Shasha now had her on the ground, untied, and he was feeling for a pulse.
I knew the moment our eyes connected that there wasn’t one to be had.
“Nothing,” he said.
I dropped down to my knees and felt for myself.
Nothing.
No pulse.
I placed my hands over her chest, right where the CPR instructor told me to, and began chest compressions.
“Breathe,” I ordered Shasha.
Shasha bent over and breathed for her.
I continued chest compressions.
There was a quiet hiss of air and I looked up in time to see Julia start to back out of the room. “Call 9-1-1. Right now.”
Julia shook her head.
“Siri,” Shasha ordered. “Call 9-1-1.”
“Calling 9-1-1,” the robotic voice droned.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” a female answered.
Shasha spoke.
I continued.
“Breathe,” I urged.
Shasha breathed.
I could feel her ribs breaking as I performed chest compressions.
I’d felt the phenomenon before, of course.
It was hard to do CPR correctly and not break ribs.
But I never thought I’d be performing CPR on the love of my life.
“We have to leave,” I heard Julia whisper.
“You leave, you’re going to be found,” I snarled.
Julia’s eyes came to me.
I knew what I said wouldn’t matter.
She was going to run.
“You’re fuckin’ nuts if you think that I’m leaving my kid here like that,” Rich pushed her.
Julia went flying into the wall, landing much the same as Rich’s kid had, only she tripped over Rich on her way down, and her head smacked straight into the fireplace, right at the corner.
I didn’t spare her any more attention than that, my focus solely on getting Nastya’s heart to beat.
“Check her pulse,” I urged Shasha.
Shasha did, throwing his phone to the floor.
Our eyes met, and I saw the moment he was about to say that she didn’t have a pulse.
Another rib cracked, and the grating sound of the two bones rubbing together was enough to cause nausea to swell in my throat.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I breathed. “Don’t do this to me, baby. Come back.”
“Stop!”
I didn’t stop, because I assumed he was talking to Julia.
That notion was quickly rectified when a movement caught my attention.
Shasha bent down to breathe for her again, getting the rhythm of when to do so rather quickly, and came back up to find the barrel of a gun in his face.
Shasha froze.
An angry howl, one the likes I’d never heard before, came from somewhere to my left.
Then my daughter came out of nowhere and kicked Rich so hard in the crotch from behind that he doubled over.
Shasha used it to his advantage, disarmed Rich, then pushed him over sideways.
He tangled up in a heap next to the other two, moaning and groaning on the floor.
I looked over to see my daughter staring down at me in horror.
“I forgot my laptop,” she breathed.
“Pick up the phone and talk to 9-1-1, tell them what’s going on,” I urged.
I’d think about how terrifying it was that my teenage daughter was here right now with a man that had a gun pointed at a person later.
For now, I had a sole focus.
Crunch.
Another rib broke.
“Dad, they said that the ambulance is right around the corner,” Desi whispered.
She’d heard the crack, too.
Shasha gave her a rescue breath.
He pulled back and placed his fingers to her throat, his eyes closed, and then they snapped open as relief hit them.
“Stop, she’s breathing,” he urged.
I did, feeling for myself half a breath later.
And there it was.
A pulse.
“Goddamn,” I breathed, relief hitting me like a ton of bricks.
“Her sugar is still low,” I said. “Tell the…”
The paramedics entered through the door at a run.
I gave them a rundown of the situation, and they took in the plethora of victims.
“Her first,” I urged, snapping the closest paramedic’s gaze toward me. “Her heart stopped. We performed four minutes of CPR.”
The paramedic dropped down onto his knees as the second one started to go toward the pile of people behind me.
“No,” I said. “This one. Both of you go. I’ll take those. The scene is still unsafe.”
That had them both freezing and turning toward me. “Get her out. Take her to the hospital. Shasha, go with them. Can you take Desi, too?”