She's Safe Now
HARDIN’S POV
I didn’t know how I was still standing.
The world around me had gone to hell—sirens wailing, rain hammering down like bullets, flashing lights cutting through the night in bursts of red and white. But all I could see was her. Ariana.
She was crumpled in my arms like a broken doll, her skin pale and soaked, her hair clinging to her face. Blood. There was so much goddamn blood.
Some of it was hers.
Some of it wasn’t.
But it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that her eyes had rolled back.
What mattered was that she wasn’t speaking anymore.
What mattered was that I couldn’t lose her.
“Hold on,” I rasped, pressing her tighter against me as I lifted her off the mud. My voice was cracked, shredded from screaming. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you—stay with me, alright?”
Her head lolled against my shoulder, dead weight.
No. No, no, no.
“MEDIC!” I roared into the chaos. “WHERE THE FUCK IS THE AMBULANCE?”
“Right here!” someone shouted, running toward us with a stretcher. “Put her down—”
“No.” I staggered toward the open back of the ambulance myself. “She stays with me. I’m not letting her go.”
They made space. They knew. They didn’t argue. One of the EMTs pulled down the stretcher while another helped guide me inside. My clothes were soaked and streaked with dirt, blood smeared across my chest and hands. But I didn’t care.
Nothing mattered except her.
I laid her down on the gurney as gently as I could. Her head rolled slightly to the side. Her lips were turning blue.
“Get the IV in now,” the medic barked, snapping gloves on. “BP’s crashing. She’s losing too much blood—”
I hovered beside her, gripping her hand in both of mine. It was so small, so cold, already slipping from me.
“No,” I whispered fiercely, leaning down close. “You don’t get to leave me, Ari. You hear me? You don’t get to leave. I waited too fucking long for you—fought through too much. Stay. Stay with me, baby.”
The ambulance lurched into motion, tires spinning through the mud. The lights above us flickered to life. One medic was already cutting open her sleeve, revealing the bloody mess of her shoulder. Another was working on the IV, and a third was checking her pupils.
“Chest wounds stable but she’s losing a lot from the shoulder,” the one near her head muttered. “Get a pressure bandage on—stat—”
“She passed out,” I said, my voice shaking. “She just—just went down. Her mother—” My throat clenched. I couldn’t say it.
Didn’t want to.
Didn’t want to think it.
“Sir,” one of them said, trying to ease me back. “You’re covered in blood, too. Are you injured?”
“No.” I shook my head, clutching her hand tighter. “It’s not mine.”
Not mine.
“Ariana, come on,” I murmured, brushing her damp hair from her face. “You’re the strongest person I know. You don’t get to give up now. You hear me?”
There was no response.
Just the beep of the monitor.
Too slow.
Too faint.
“God, please…” I whispered, choking back the panic clawing at my chest. “Please don’t take her from me.”
They kept working. I barely registered their words. Just watched the blood soak into the gauze, the way her body jerked slightly when they inserted another IV.
“She’s in shock,” one muttered. “We need to stabilize her before she codes.”
I pressed my forehead to her hand.
“I’m right here,” I whispered against her skin. “Still right here. You’re not alone. You never were.”
I wasn’t even aware I was crying until the drops hit her arm.
The rest of the ride blurred. Every time a monitor beeped or dipped, I felt my chest constrict. I kept talking to her. Didn’t stop. Couldn’t. If I stopped, maybe her heartbeat would stop too.
When the doors finally burst open at the hospital, a team was already waiting. They rushed to take her, shouting orders I didn’t understand. I tried to follow, but someone—an orderly or security guard—held me back.
“I need to be with her!” I shouted, trying to push past. “Let me go—”
“Sir—sir—we need to work. Please. If you want her to live—let us work.”
I froze.
That word.
If.
I stumbled back, fists clenched, heart in my throat.
They wheeled her away, and I stood there soaked in rain and blood and silence.
****
I don’t know how long I sat in the waiting room.
The world felt unreal. Blurred. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, even after I’d washed them twice and wrapped them in a towel. I stared at the floor. Then the wall. Then the clock.
The hands barely moved.
I was losing my mind.
Every second that passed felt like a countdown.
Her mother was gone.
I didn’t even get to process that. I hadn’t even had time to look at her face one last time before the medics had dragged me away. She died saving her daughter.
And now… now I didn’t even know if her daughter was going to make it.
“Hardin.”
Ronny’s voice cut through the fog. I looked up. His face was pale, jaw tight.
“She’s still in surgery,” he said quietly, dropping into the chair beside me. “They’re doing everything they can.”
I nodded numbly.
“Gar—” My throat caught. “Garry?”
“Dead. Shot through the throat. William is going to be in jail for a very long time.”
I stared straight ahead.
“Good.”
Silence.
“You did everything you could, man,” Ronny said gently. “You got her there in time. You saved her.”
I turned to him slowly.
“She’s not saved yet.”
He didn’t argue. He knew.
I ran a hand through my wet hair, trying to keep my breathing steady. The blood had dried on my shirt, stiff and dark. I could still smell it. Her mother’s blood. Ariana’s blood.
It was all over me.
“Why did she do it?” I asked, more to myself than to Ronny. “Why would she throw herself in front of the bullet?”
“She was her mom,” Ronny said simply. “That’s what moms do.”
My chest clenched.
A nurse stepped out then, clipboard in hand. I shot to my feet.
“Ariana Miller?” I demanded.
She looked startled, but nodded. “Yes. The surgery went well. She’s in recovery now. Still unconscious, but stable.”
Stable.
It felt like my knees gave out beneath me. I barely managed to stay upright as relief flooded me like a tidal wave.
“She made it?”
“Yes,” the nurse said gently. “But she’s not out of the woods yet. She lost a lot of blood. We’re monitoring her closely.”
“Can I see her?”
She hesitated. “Just for a moment.”
I didn’t care if it was a second. I needed to see her.
***
The room was quiet when I stepped inside.
Too quiet.
She was pale, still hooked up to monitors and wires. Her arm was bandaged, an IV drip in place. The blood had been cleaned from her skin. Her lips were no longer blue, but she was still so, so still.
I moved to her side and sat down.
“Hey,” I said softly. “You scared the hell out of me.”
She didn’t stir.
I reached out, gently brushing my knuckles against her cheek.
“You came back to me,” I whispered. “You fucking came back.”
I leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“I don’t care how long it takes. I’ll be here. Every second. Every breath. You just rest, baby.”
My voice broke.
“You already fought so much. Let me fight for you now.”
I stayed there, holding her hand in silence, listening to the steady beep… beep… beep of her heart.
Alive.
She was still alive.
And I would never let her go again.
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