Runaway ✔

028 • Dana

Dana froze. The fear was still racing through her body and she grabbed the handle of the shower door to prevent herself from falling. Was this a hallucination again, just like during her first night at the clubhouse? She could hardly imagine, she'd felt relatively safe tonight, next to Juice. Her thoughts shot to the car she'd seen yesterday. Had Juice been wrong? Had Maddox' men been in it?

She tore herself loose from the paralysis, wrapped the towel around her body and opened the door. She breathed heavily, her lips were shaking. It felt like her guts moved past each other as if they were snakes, causing a sharp pain everywhere.

She didn't dare to yell and she held her breath to catch a sound. Should she run away? Her cowardice made her feel sick. Juice could be bleeding to death!

Downstairs she heard someone curse.

You're not imagining things. There's really something going on!

Chair legs scraped across the floor. Were they tying him to a chair? Her eyes flashed through the hallway. That guy must have weapons around, right? She thought about her phone and went back into the bathroom. She'd just picked up her jeans when she heard Juice's voice.

"Dane? Any chance you can give me a hand?"

His voice sounded shaky, pained.

Was it a trap? It felt like her brain was sloshing through her head, it was almost impossible to think. "He's a Son," she whispered to herself. "He's loyal to his club. Even though you're not really tied to them."

"Dana!" She heard him grumble. He was suffering, that was clear.

"Coming!" With the towel wrapped around her, she rushed down the stairs. Her eyes flashed through the living room. Juice leaned against the dinner table, and the back of his light jeans had turned red.

She let out a curse herself. "What the fuck happened? Where are they?"

"There's nobody else," Juice said, his jaws clenched. "I shot myself. By mistake."

"You did what? What the hell is wrong with you, you idiot?!"

"I know, right!" he snapped back. "Can't you just do somethin'? I dunno, makin' sure I'm not bleeding to death? Got the idea I've blown up half of my ass." He swore again and growled something about being in pain.

The situation was too absurd to deal with in a normal way, and the panic still flew through her veins. She had not the slightest idea what she should do, how to stop the bleeding and...

She shook off the dismay, pulled the towel a little closer and hurried to him. The back of the gun stuck out of his waistband and she carefully pulled out the weapon.

"Damn it, Juice. You've never learned to put the safety on?" she grumbled.

Juice grouched something in return and looked over his shoulder. She fell silent when she saw the tears in his eyes. She realized he was in panic. His hands were shaking around the button on his pants, and the red marks around it showed that he'd tried to unbutton it before.

"You're still standing. It won't be that bad," she said, pushing away his hands and unbuttoning it. She'd meant to comfort him, but it sounded like she was sneering at him.

I'm just horrible in trying to comfort people.

She helped him pull down his pants and boxers and she swallowed when she saw the bloody mess on the right cheek. He was awfully bleeding. Had he hit an artery? Where those in your butt? She felt as if she was the world's greatest loser.

Stop the bleeding, she said to herself. She rushed into the kitchen, opened some drawers until she found tea towels and took the pile with her.

"And?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder. "Oh shit. Oh shit man..."

"You will be all right," she said shortly. She felt her stomach turn when she realized the bullet was still inside. How deep would it be? She pressed the pile of towels against the wound, but it turned red immediately.

"I have to call the ambulance."

"No," he said immediately. "We can't give the cops a reason to come in. There's too much stuff around they can't find. Call Chibs." After these words, he moaned softly.

She bit her lip. "Your phone, where is it?"

Although she sounded surprisingly calm, she was anything but. It felt like she was looking at herself from a distance, not having any influence on her acts.

Before Juice answered, she saw the device at the coffee table. She ran for it and turned around halfway because she was afraid that Juice would collapse. A lump appeared in her throat when she saw his pale face.

She cursed and was so distracted that she stepped on the tip of the towel so that the thing was pulled off her body. She ignored her nudity, grabbed the phone off the table and returned to Juice in a hurry.

"You have to lay down," she said. I think. She shoved everything from the table and helped him on top of it. He looked at her, his eyes glazing over. It scared her so much that she started to cry. No, he wasn't dying, was he? Not because of something as stupid as this? While she was acting like a fucking moron? She put pressure on the lump of towels again, and with her other hand she unlocked the phone – thank the heavens there was no password needed – and typed in Chibs' name.