Deviant (Boys of Winter #3) - Sheridan Anne Page 0,3

BLEEDS OUT.”

I feel King flinch by my head, his anger rolling off him in waves as he presses his fingers to the side of my neck, checking for a pulse. “If she fucking dies, I swear to God, I’ll make you relive it every fucking day for the rest of your miserable life.”

My head lolls in King’s lap and as I let the darkness finally claim me, a soft, broken cry breaks through, and that one anguish-filled sob is all I take with me as I say a silent goodbye to what could have been an amazing life.

“MOVE,” a harsh voice tears through the silence before my body is rocked and the pain comes shooting back with a ferocious anger, sending life soaring back into me in a big way.

A loud gasp comes tearing out of me as my eyes fly open to find unfamiliar faces hovering around me. I’m picked up and my body is immediately dropped back down onto a hard surface, my back flat against a table.

“Come on,” the voice cuts through the pain. “Go, go, go.”

My eyes widen in fear. Where am I? Where are the boys? Where are they taking me?

The people start pushing me and I grab at their hands as the searing pain calls for me to pass out again. “Stop. STOP. DON’T TOUCH ME,” I scream, the wild panic tearing through my chest as I fight against their hold, thrashing and pulling. Where are the boys? “Carver? CARVER?”

I hear a loud grunt before his face appears hovering above me, his hand wrapped tightly in mine before he holds me down, keeping me still. “I’m here,” Carver soothes, squeezing my hand until it hurts as he moves with me. “You’re fine. These are the paramedics. You need to let them help you.”

“No, no, no,” I fret, trying to pull myself up off the table. “Don’t let them take me. I don’t want to go. Don’t leave me.”

“No one is leaving you,” Carver says, holding me tighter and making it impossible to move. “I’ll be with you the whole time, okay? Now, lay still before you make it worse.”

Tears well in my eyes and I nod, quickly glancing around to find King and Cruz walking with the paramedics as Grayson remains behind, sitting on the garage floor with my blood soaking through his clothes, staring after me as though he’ll never see me again.

My heart aches for him, but he’s strong, and he’s suffered through a lot worse than dealing with a little bit of blood. Only this time his heart is involved, and from experience, when the heart is involved, that usually means things are beyond fucked up.

Carver reaches out, wiping the tears off the side of my face as we hit the back of the ambulance. The gurney rocks, forcing a sharp breath through my clenched jaw, and as I look up and meet Carver’s pained stare, I see nothing but guilt shining brightly in his eyes.

The gurney rolls into the back of the ambulance and I hold back my screams as Carver gets right in with me, crouching beside the gurney so his face is right by mine as the paramedics do their thing. Something presses down over my face as the back doors of the ambulance slam shut, closing me off to King, Cruz, and Grayson, but something tells me that they won’t be far behind.

The ambulance takes off as Carver squeezes my hand, keeping my attention on him. “You’re going to make it,” he tells me. “You have to fucking make it.”

I shake my head, letting the tears fall free. “I’m dying. I can’t … I’m not going to make it.”

“Don’t you fucking say that,” he roars at me, squeezing my hand so much tighter, so tight that I feel my knuckles pressing together. “You’re going to fucking fight because if you don’t, if you fucking die, it’s going to destroy Cruz. It’s going to kill King, and it’ll fucking wreck Gray, and I won’t let you do that to them. Fight for them.”

A tear falls and lands right on our hands between our faces. “And what about you?”

“If you fucking die on me, Winter,” he says, his gaze boring into mine. “I’ll never forgive you— because we’re not done yet. There’s still so much more that we need to do together, so much that we haven’t even had the chance to start yet, and fuck it, I want it all. You’re stronger than this. You can fight it.”

“The