“O-okay,” I stutter, sifting through his supplies. The preparation floors me, and I glance up at him in the rearview mirror.
He holds me stare as a smirk curls at his lips. “For emergencies.”
“What kind of emergencies require you to have a makeshift wound kit in your car?” Yeah, he’s definitely involved in some highly illegal shit. You don’t do this kind of thing if you’re a teacher or an accountant.
“Less talking, more working.” He clenches his jaw, eyes on the road as he makes a turn.
“Can you try to keep the car as steady as possible?”
“I’ll do my best,” he says. “And you do yours.”
I don’t need to be told twice, so I grab a towel and slip it underneath Ty.
“He won’t feel any of this, right?” He looks back again.
I shake my head. “Not while he’s unconscious. But he keeps coming in and out, so I’m going to have to do this fast.”
He doesn’t answer, but the engine purrs as he floors it, speeding to our final destination.
Taking the bottle of vodka, I twist the cap and pour it over Ty’s wound to clean it as best I can. It’s not perfect, but it’ll help. I take another towel and dab at it. With practiced hands, I clean the knife off as well, then press the blade into Ty’s skin,elongating the wound so I have a bit of room to work. More of the bullet is in view now, and I reach for the tweezers. Sucking in a sharp breath, I tighten them around the base and tug on it gently to be sure there isn’t a rush of bleeding. If there is, I’ll have to leave it in until I come up with a new plan. With the nearly translucent hue to Ty’s face, I can tell he’s already lost too much blood, so I can’t risk it.
Thankfully, the bullet slides cleanly, and I pull it the rest of the way out. It comes out completely intact, and I breathe a sigh of relief. No fragments, no splintering. No heavy gush of blood that would indicate internal damage.
“I got it. I got it out,” I say as much to him as to myself. I can’t believe I actually did that. My first solo surgery and it was in the backseat of a car barreling ninety miles an hour down the highway. Holy shit.
“Why is he bleeding so much?” the man growls, his brow furrowed with rage.
There’s a slow trickle of blood coming out of the wound, and I press another towel to it. “It’s okay. The bullet came out clean and this amount of blood is totally normal. If there was anymore, then—”
He gets out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Until right now, I didn’t even notice we’d stopped. The door to the backseat opens up, and he scoops Ty into his arms, snatching the towel out of my hands and pressing it to his wound. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we?” He completely ignores me as we get to the door of a huge warehouse type building. Its metal siding rattles in the wind, and there isn’t a single window aside from a few aptly placed sky lights on the slanted roof.
“Here.” He thrusts the towel back at me. “Keep pressure on it.”
I fight the urge to laugh. I’m the professional and now he’s ordering me around? You’d think that after I just saved his son’s life, he’d show at least the slightest bit of appreciation, but I’mquickly realizing that this guy lacks even the most basic self-awareness.
He fumbles with a set of keys, and eventually he flips the lock, bursting through the door with a loud and attention-drawing bang. Two men sit at the front of the warehouse playing cards, and they look up at us when we walk in.
“Jesus, Roman. What is going on?” The taller of the bunch rushes toward us, clearing a spot off on the table for Roman to set Ty down.
“Drive-by at the park,” he says flatly as he lays his son back. Taking the towel from me again, he holds it to the wound.
“Ty was hit?” The other guy’s face turns sheet white, and he scrambles for a medkit.
Roman nods. “Once in the stomach. I think he’s stable now, though.”
“What the fuck is all this blood from then?”
“The bullet was blocking his blood flow,” I jump in to explain. “When I took it out, all the backed-up blood was free, so it just seems like he’s bleeding a lot. He’s going to be okay, really.”
All three men stare at me, noticing that I’m here for the first time.
“Who is she?” The tall guy nods his head towards me.
“She’s a doctor,” Roman says. “She volunteered to help Ty.”
“Volunteered?” I scoff. This man either lives in a completely alternate universe than the rest of us, or he’s on some very good drugs. Either way, I can’t bite my tongue. “More like you forced me into your car at gunpoint.”
