ChapterTwenty-Two
Oliver
What would have taken us an hour by car takes us a little over twenty minutes in the helicopter, with Kai pushing it as fast as it could go. We come down next to the little shack, and we all jump out, guns at the ready. All of us are wearing vests provided by Jake and Thomas.
No lights can be seen, and no one comes running out of the shack. I look around and can’t see a vehicle either.
“Maybe no one is here,” I whisper.
“Declan, you and Kai go around the back to see if there’s a back exit or windows anyone can climb out of. Holden and Oli, you’re with me. Keep your eyes sharp. Watch out for Harlow and Jax, but assume anyone coming at you is unfriendly,” Thomas orders, and I swallow, trying to clear a lump in my throat.
My nerves are shot and my heart racing, but there was no way I was going to stay behind. All of us Summers kids have practical experience with guns, but it’s been a while since I’ve been to the range, and I can’t say that I’m not nervous about pointing it at a live target. But if Jaxon and Harlow are here, I want to help rescue them.
Declan and Kai disappear around the back as instructed, and Thomas puts his boot into the front door. The flimsy fixture flies open, practically falling off its hinges. He swings his gun around in an arc, Holden going in behind him to cover his back. I reach around the door frame and blindly feel for a light switch. When I feel it, I call out to warn them that it’s going to get a lot brighter in here.
I flick the switch, and the room lights up, showing us nothing. My heart sinks. A noise in the back has us all turning toward a small hallway, but it’s just Kai and Declan.
“The rooms are empty,” Kai says and drops his gun to his side.
“Fuck!” Thomas shouts and kicks at a coffee table in the middle of the floor. It tips over and drags the rug back with it. When I look closer, there seems to be a handle in the floor.
“Wait! Look at that,” I point out, going over to it.
I check that my brothers are covering me before I bend down to inspect it. They’ve all got their guns facing the hidden hatch. Lifting it, I pull it back. I can’t see what they’re looking at, but Holden swears and shoves his gun in his pants, running down into the cellar. Thomas isn’t far behind, but Kai goes deathly pale and runs outside.
“What?” I let the lid drop down to the ground and go around to look. Declan has pulled his phone out and is calling someone. When I see what they're looking at, my knees nearly give way.
Jaxon is face down in a pool of blood. My heart races, and there’s a sense of vertigo that almost overtakes me, my stomach pulsing with nausea.
“No.” The word barely leaves my mouth as Holden reaches down and checks for a pulse. That feeling of déjà vu slams into me, recognizing we did the same thing to him not long ago.
I hold my breath, not hopeful with the amount of blood surrounding him.
They roll him over, and Thomas puts his hand over the wound, trying to stem some of the blood.
”I’ve got a pulse!” Holden shouts. The relief is brief as I hear the helicopter wind up again. “We need to get him to the closest hospital.”
“They’re sending the coordinates to Kai. It’s ten minutes by helicopter. Let’s go. They’ll have a team waiting to receive him.” Declan runs down the steps, and between him, Thomas, and Holden, they lift our brother and carefully carry him out to the chopper.
I look around the room, but there’s no sign of Harlow, so I say a little prayer that she’s safe. We’ll get Jaxon fixed up, then we can continue our search for her. She would kill us if we let him die.
I chuckle at my thoughts, realizing I’m probably a little hysterical. But really, who wouldn’t be at this point? How much stress and worry can we go through in the course of a day before we all start to crack?
“Oli, let’s go!” one of my brothers yells, and I run after them. We lay Jaxon across the floor of the back, and within seconds of slamming the door closed, we’re lifting off. Kai doesn’t even wait for me to get my ass in a seat.
Declan searches one of the storage sections under the seat and grabs a first-aid kit. He pulls out a wad of bandages and hands them to Holden. When Thomas moves his hands away for a moment, he shoves them over the wound. The pristine white bandages slowly turn deep red as Thomas holds them down, maintaining pressure.
“It’s not pumping out blood too fast, so that’s a good thing, but from the sound of his breathing and the blood around his mouth, I’m assuming the bullet punctured his lung. We need to get him to a hospital. I’m not sure how much longer he’s got.” Declan grabs one of those masks that has a breathing bag at the end, and even though his face looks poised and calm, his hands have a shake to them that says otherwise. Thomas, on the other hand, sounds panicked, and it does nothing good inside me to know that two of my big brothers are freaking out. Dec slips the mask over Jaxon’s mouth and starts squeezing the bag. I’m honestly not sure what it’s supposed to do, but our wounded brother’s breathing is ragged and slow, so I’ll sit back and let the others do anything that they think will help.
“Oli, get my phone and text Jake. Tell him what’s happened. They’ve got to be headed for Dad’s, or maybe the airport thing was real.”
I do as he says, asking a question of my own in the meantime. “But why would they go without Jaxon? They need his blood.” The words are barely out of my mouth before an answer comes to me. He’s not the only one with the right bloodline. I’m pretty sure it hits us at the same time if the looks on my brothers’ faces are any indication.
“Fuck, they’re going to try to take Jazzy too!” Declan yells as he continues to help Jaxon breathe. I follow up with another message to Jake before shoving his phone in my pocket. There’s only so much we can do right now, no matter how terrible we feel, and Jaxon needs us focused on him if he’s going to make it.
“How long, Kai?” Thomas shouts over the sound of the rotor. None of us have had a chance to put on a headset.
Kai doesn't hear him, so I grab one and shove it on my head. “Kai, Tom wants to know how long.”
