He’s alive! Thank god, he’s alive!
Her inner celebration was fleeting, however, because the next things she noticed were that his lips were colorless, and his usually bright eyes were clouded with pain.
“Spiro...” His name was a plea and a prayer rolled into one. She jerked her gaze down his body, searching for his gunshot wound.
When she found the bullet hole, high up on the right side of his chest, she nearly retched her dinner into the sand.
Somehow, she managed to keep the snook down and instinctively pressed her hand over the bullet hole—they always say to apply pressure, right?Then she glanced up at Cami, who was staring in horror at the blond man.
Doc’s slug had caught the gunman right between his eyes. He’d fallen lifeless on top of his companion, but most of his gray matter was glistening on the sand behind him.
Under normal circumstances, Mia would’ve been gaping in terror and revulsion too. But she barely spared the dead men a glance before whispering desperately, “Cami! Quick! The first aid kit!”
Cami blinked as if she was coming out of a trance. Then she nodded and ran toward the life raft.
“Doc?” Mia’s urgent eyes sought out the one man who could tell her how bad Romeo’s injury was.
“For shit’s sake, Romeo.” Doc quickly unwrapped his ACE bandage sling. Mia had to strain to hear him above the sound of her heart thundering in her ears. Fear didn’t just have a taste, like sucking on an old penny; it had a sound too. “Why do you always have to play the part of the hero, huh?”
Romeo shook his head, unable to answer. He was sucking in air, but it sounded like he was drowning. His big chest worked in a terrible rhythm, the center sinking in.
“That’s right.” Doc tossed aside the bandage and flexed his fingers. “And now you’ve gone and given yourself a damned pneumothorax.”
Mia didn’t know what a pneumothorax was, but it didn’t sound good. “How can I help?” Her voice was thin. When she realized Doc hadn’t heard her, she determinedly cleared her throat and repeated her question.
“The bullet either pierced or nicked his lung,” Doc explained. “Which has allowed the air to seep out. And now it’s trapped between his lung and the wall of his chest, causing his lung to collapse.” Doc patted Romeo on the shoulder. “But don’t worry, brother. I got you. I’ll just have to stab you in the chest, okay?”
Some people might enjoy Doc’s deadpan bedside manner. Mia wasn’t one of them.
The last thing she wanted from Doc was jokes. What she wanted from him was amiracle, for him to snap his fingers or wave a magic wand and make Romeo whole again.Or for him to turn back time so she could stop Romeo before he could take the bullet aimed at her.
“You foolish, wonderful man,” she whispered to Romeo, barely noticing the hot tears that streaked down her face as she kept her hands over his wound, trying with all her might to stem the flow of his blood from his body. “That bullet had my name on it. Why did you step in front of it?”
All Romeo could do was shake his head.
“I know.” Her words caught on a sob as she felt more of his warm blood seeping between her fingers. “Like Doc said, you’re a hero. You can’t help it.”
She wanted to curse god or fate or the universe or whoever was in charge for being so stupid and cruel. The idea of Romeo dying to save her was so unfathomable, it had to be a mistake. Romeo was so good, so pure of heart, and she was...her.
Even though she didn’t believe in such things, she was desperate enough to plead with whatever higher power might happen to be listening.
Please! If you have to take someone, take me! Don’t take him! Don’t—
She wasn’t able to finish her prayer before Cami skidded to a stop next to them, handing Doc the first aid kit and asking, “What can I do?”
“Keep your mouth shut,” Doc said as he threw open the lid to the kit. “I need to concentrate. And I can’t do that with you being all quick and quippy.”
Mia saw Cami open her mouth to argue. Then Cami realized anything she might say would prove Doc’s point. She snapped her mouth shut again.
“Iodine,” Doc grumbled, digging around in the kit. “Where the fuck is the iodine?”
Cami pointed to a brown bottle tucked into the corner and Doc grabbed it.
“Okay, find me a scalpel while you’re at it,” he told her as he continued to root around in the kit. When Cami found that, too, he grumbled, “I suppose tubing would be too much to ask for?”
He and Cami both spent a handful of seconds scrounging through the medical equipment while Mia’s own lungs refused to work out of solidarity with Romeo’s.
Hurry, hurry, hurry!she thought hysterically, biting her tongue to keep from saying the words aloud.
