Her fingernails dug into the dirt. Someone landed a kick to the back of her knee that made her gasp. Aches and pains thumped on every inch of her body. She groaned when the men battling above her rolled on top of her, pinning her thighs down for a second before rolling off again.

With all the patting, she crawled and reached out and her fingertips finally hit metal. Flipping to her stomach, she watched the fight rage above and beside her. She held the gun steady. She could not miss, but she could not wait for a better angle either.

Her lungs compressed and her chest tightened. She rolled fully onto her back and followed their movements, trying to track each body and mentally separate one from another. She saw a window and took the shot.

The second after the bang rang out, blood ran and pooled on the ground. Making a rough noise, Connor rolled onto his back until he lay next to her.

She could see his chest rise and fall but those beautiful dark eyes drifted shut. “No!”

She scrambled to sit up. Footsteps pounded around her. Ben came into view, then Sylvia. Evan and Connor hadn’t moved again.

“Connor!”

She’d shot him. The sentence played over and over in her head.

He panted and lifted his head. “Not me.”

She ran her hands over him. Realizing she still held the gun, she dropped it, freeing up her arms to cradle him. “There’s blood.”

He looked at the red covering his hands and wiped a splotch off his cheek. The whole time he shook his head. “Not my blood.”

He had to be in shock.

“Maddie, move!” Ben yelled the order.

She saw his arm come up, and Connor rolled on top of her. Darkness blanketed her and she struggled to breathe. He could not be her shield. She shoved and fought, trying to lower his body. Somehow make it smaller.

A whooshing sound echoed in her ears. When she opened her eyes again, Connor still lay on top of her with Evan sprawled next to them. The silence only lasted a few seconds before Connor shifted off her and went to Evan’s side. Working quickly, he grabbed the jacket Jenna handed him and pressed it against Evan’s wound.

Evan jackknifed and his eyes grew wide. Connor gagged but he held on.

She couldn’t make her brain digest any of it.

Ben and Jenna moved around, bringing Connor more material to press against Evan’s seeping wounds. Sylvia talked with someone on the phone.

Maddie sat motionless with her bloodstained hands on her lap.

Not his. All that blood but none of it was hers or Connor’s. All that training, everything Evan taught her paid off . . . and she used it against him.

Ben and Connor shouted directions at each other. Maddie tried to get her legs to move. To get up and hold something or pass something.