Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Let me see,” I ordered, pushing at Winston’s hand.
He didn’t move it.
And as I took in the blood spurting out around his fingers, I didn’t make him.
No. The gunshot wound had affected her artery in some way, and pressure was the only thing at this point that was saving her from bleeding out.
I did assess the rest of her, and then started issuing orders.
She had a beam across her left upper thigh and hip. A heavy one.
And by the way that her leg looked as I palpated around it, it was very likely that she’d broken the hip and the femur.
The sound of an approaching helicopter had me pointing at a few people, directing them on what would happen once it landed.
The flight medics arrived, and then things moved fast.
I went with them, my baby sister now under my care until we got her to the hospital.
And I wished to hell that I hadn’t had to experience it.
Never in my life would I forget having to work a code on my sister and watch her die before my eyes.
Never.
• • •
FELIX
I felt awful.
I shouldn’t have allowed things to get out of hand as they did.
Sure, originally, that’d been my goal—to piss her off and let her know how I felt when she left us behind.
But seeing the look on her face as she all but ran out of the hospital? That would haunt me forever.
My phone rang, and Tammy gave it a disgusted look.
I answered it in seconds.
“Kent,” I murmured as I dipped a fry into the ketchup.
“We have a code four coming in via life flight. Gunshot wound to the neck. Possible broken femur and hip,” Jessica, the night nurse, said. “Can you come back?”
I looked at my pizza I’d just gotten delivered to my table by a disgruntled night employee who looked like she’d rather be anywhere but at work when it was this damn cold.
“Sure,” I said. “How far out are they?”
“Not far,” Jessica said. “Like maybe five minutes. Dr. Drew said to page you.”
“Who?” I asked, confused for all of two seconds before understanding slapped me across the face. “Val?”
“Oh, yes. Her. Sorry. I forget that y’all are on a first-name basis.” Jessica snickered.
Of course, pissy and hell bent on making my life hell after catching me in a closet with the new intern, Tammy had told everyone and their brother what she’d seen. Except, she’d only guessed, which had pissed me off because she’d made both of us look bad.
And that wasn’t something that I wanted for Val.
Val, despite her leaving me, deserved to become a doctor. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t make it hard for her, though.
“What’s Val doing with this patient?” I asked.
“She didn’t say,” Jessica said, back to business.
I pulled my wallet out and threw a twenty on the table for my half of the pizza.
“Gotta go,” I said as I took two slices off the pizza and double-fisted my way out the door.
I arrived at the hospital in three minutes—thankful that the pizza place we’d agreed to head to was so close—and arrived just in time to see Val burst through the door covered in blood.
My heart literally sank.
Then I saw where her hand was at.
She was holding a female’s hand, talking quickly and quietly to her.
She let go when I arrived and backed away as the flight medic gave me a recap on what happened.
Gunshot wound to the throat. Possible clipped artery. Broken femur and likely hip.
There were also contusions and a few other random hurts, but ultimately that was the bulk of it.
They took the woman into the trauma room, and I stuck behind only long enough to say, “Are you okay?”
Val swallowed and nodded before saying, “Save my sister, Felix.”
Her sister.
Fucking shit.
• • •
Three hours later, scrubbed clean of blood, I took a seat on the chair in the OR waiting room.
“Any news?” I asked carefully.
She looked like she’d break at the first sign of more trouble.
Something I wouldn’t be responsible for.
“No,” she answered quietly.
Too quietly.
She sounded like the ghost of herself.
“I’ll go check,” I said as I went to do just that.
I came back ten minutes later with news.
“She’s doing fine. But they’re having to pretty much give her a new hip,” I said. “It’s shattered. Neck wound is fixed for now. But they might have to repair it later once they get her hip fixed up. It was a quick and dirty job because they had to get to the hip. Bone shards pierced the artery that…”
She nodded as I recited everything, her face a mask of pain.
“Her man was hurt, too,” she said softly. “His name is Winston, and he’s a billionaire.”
I blinked. “As in Winston Osborn?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“He’s a big-time dude,” I said.
She nodded. “He is.”
We sat in awkward silence after that.
I was unsure of my welcome, and she was quiet.