Read Online SEAL Protected by Rosa Foxxe - Free Book Online

away from me and into the crowd. Within seconds I lost sight of both him and the man as they moved.
     
    “-And I’d, of course, like to thank my lovely daughter, Michelle,” my father continued. I managed a plastered on smile and gave a little wave to the crowd. “Michelle, why don’t you join me up here?” Obediently, I skirted the edge of the crowd and walked up to stand beside my father. My gaze found his guards, but none of them seemed to notice that something was off about myself or the crowd. Standing next to my father I couldn’t see Tom or the man in the midst of the other guests. I tried not to let my worry show through.
     
    “Now if only she listened that well all the time,” said my father. The audience laughed and I held my plastered smile on my face with a great deal of effort. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tom. He was standing at the edge of the stairs with a tight frown. I wanted to signal him, but I didn’t know how in front of the crowd.
     
    From the audience there came a sudden gasp. I jerked around to face the people just as the angry man stepped out of the crowd. He had a gun.
     
    Everything then seemed to go into slow motion.
     
    “Michelle, get down,” shouted my father. His guards moved, but it wasn’t fast enough. The gun went off, but it wasn’t my father it hit. It was Tom. He had jumped in front of the gun. Tom hit the ground. People screamed and my father’s guards rushed forward. They were shouting. Two more gunshots went off. The crowd scattered. The angry man dropped, blood dripping from a head wound.
     
    The world went muted as I ran to Tom, my hands shaking. Blood poured from the wound on his shoulder. It stained his jacket and blood pooled on the floor beneath him. I dropped to my knees and stared for a second.
     
    “Oh God, Tom,” I croaked as it sank in. I unwound the fancy scarf around my neck and used it to block the flow of blood. Tom hissed as I bore down on the wound – blood seeped up and stained my hands and my dress. My vision was blurred from tears which ran hot and fast down my face. Make-up stung my eyes and made them tear up farther. I could barely see. It didn’t matter. I knew I had to keep the pressure going.
     
    “Someone call an ambulance,” I screamed into the scattered and panicked crowd. My voice cracked, scattering high-pitched shards into the air above me. The people around me did not listen. They did not care about anything but themselves. I pressed harder against Tom’s bullet wound as the blood seeped between my fingers. I gasped for air as broken sobs left my throat. His eyes were fluttering. He would lose consciousness soon. I could not – would not – let him die.
     
    “Help me!” I screamed. A strong hand gripped my arm and I looked up through blurry eyes to see my father, his face contorted. “Daddy, help me,” I said, my voice dropping to a pleading whimper. He nodded and pulled out his phone. As he dialed he crouched beside me.
     
    “I need an ambulance to Walter Hall, this is an emergency - a man has been shot.” Hot tears continued to pour down my face. I choked back another sob. My entire body was shaking and I was losing my grip on Tom. The blood was coming faster again. He would die if I could not keep the wound shut. Two hands pressed on top of mine, securing the scarf over Tom’s wound. My father frowned, his lips pressed as tightly together as his hands pressed over mine.
     
    “Stay strong, Michelle, we’ll save him.” I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. We sat together in silence, listening to the noise around us. The crowd was starting to calm down. The guards were in place. At one point, one of my father’s guards tried to take him away from me. He refused. But even that seemed so far away. My entire focus was on Tom’s heartbeat, Tom’s breathing. I had to focus on Tom. I would not let go of him.
     
    Then the ambulance was here. The paramedics pulling me off Tom even as I begged that they did