“No…I….” he said, looking back at me. Suddenly his eyes widened and he looked down to my lap, pulling at the tablecloth twisted around me. Finally freeing me from the fabric, he yanked up the skirt of my dress, seeing a bloody mess on my thigh.

“Oh my God, Nina, you’re hit.”

We exchanged fearful expressions just as the next barrage of bullets ricocheted through the room. My brain registered the pain the moment I saw the wound, and a searing sensation immediately radiated from the bullet hole in all directions.

“You’re going to be okay!” Jared yelled over the breaking glass, his face tightening.

The restaurant was being torn apart by bullets. The walls and tables were splintered, the floor covered in glass shards. He pulled the tie from his neck and looped it around my upper thigh, yanking it tight, and then he wadded up the table cloth and pressed it against my leg. The sting intensified as it shot throughout my body, and I cried out in pain.

Jared’s face tensed and he lifted his hand from the table cloth, both dark red with my blood. He put more pressure on it and I cried out again.

He shook his head. “I’ve got to get you out of here.”

He kept his hand on my leg as he backed up to the station beside me, and then slowly leaned his head out. He immediately jerked back, narrowly dodging dozens of shots aimed directly at him. Whoever was outside only had to keep us pinned down until I bled to death, and they would succeed in killing us both.

Jared’s eyes searched the room in desperation. He scanned the ceiling and walls, and attempted to see what was in the back, ducking at another set of bullets. When more firing resounded, I noticed that those shots sounded different, closer.

I pulled his hand from my leg and pressed my hand on the tablecloth, wincing. “Go, Jared. Find a way out.”

“I won’t leave you,” he said, desperate.

I took in a deep breath, trying to focus beyond the pain. “If you don’t, we’re both going to die.”

Jared clinched his eyes shut and pressed his lips together, the clash of priorities sending him into anguish. He turned to me, his eyes midnight blue.

“I’m going to go straight down the hall to see if there’s another way out, and then I’m coming back, okay? I’m going to get us out of here,” he promised.

I smiled and nodded, my eyes glossing over. “I know.”

He grabbed each side of my face and kissed me on the lips first, and then on the forehead.

More bullets cascaded through the building, and the different pitch of gunfire was just behind us. Jared pulled me close and I flinched at our impending end.