Talk about a mess. The bullet had exited through the fleshy part of Will’s tricep, leaving behind a golf ball-sized wound with ragged edges and exposed muscle.
No wonder he howls in pain anytime he’s moved,she’d thought, glad she’d skipped lunch because if she’d had anything in her stomach, she would’ve lost it when John shoved a wad of specialized clotting gauze into the gaping injury and she’d watched it soak up blood like a sponge.
Will had been sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, and as John had gone to work wrapping the remaining gauze around his arm, he’d groaned and grimaced until tears had leaked from the corners of his eyes and snot had dripped from the end of his nose.
“Get the morphine,” John had said, and Dana had scurried over to Doc’s medical bag.
It’d taken her too long to locate the pain relief. Doc’s kit was stuffed full of things she didn’t recognize and couldn’t even begin to name. But finally, she’d found the morphine.
Snapping two tablets free from the foil packaging, she’d raced back over to Will and John. And now, she carefully placed the tablets on Will’s tongue.
“Swallow them down,” she told the dark-haired man.
All the gunmen had removed their masks. Seeing their faces made her realize two things. One, they were young. Barely into their thirties would be her guess. And two, they didn’t look like the monsters she’d imagined.
In fact, they looked like average everyday Joes. The kind of guys who’d sell her a car or do her taxes or fill her prescriptions.
Funny. But you always imagine your executioner to be hideous.
And the menhadbeen going to execute them. She’d caught that much of their conversation before Doc had pulled his feat of heroism.
She shuddered at the memory. Never in her life had she been so terrified.
And, of course, John had picked up on her horror.
Tied to the chair, there’d been no way for him to offer her a hug of comfort. Even still, he’d scooted his chair close to hers, until their shoulders had touched. And his warmth and steadiness had been the only thing to stop her from crying out in fear or fainting dead away.
“Goddamnit!” Doc yelled now, and Dana turned to look at the scene on the bed.
Doc straddled Fin’s waist and his gloved hands looked like they’d disappeared inside the man’s chest. There was blood.Everywhere.It had soaked through the quilt and was dripping over the side of the bed, creating a terrible, crimson puddle on the floor.
Fin’s booted feet scrabbled against the footboard. His head thrashed side-to-side. And the sound coming from the back of his throat reminded Dana of the growling howls of a cat caught in a trap.
“Hold his legs!” Doc hollered at Cami. “I need him still so I can find this fucking artery!”
Cami, who had been beside the bed trying to hold Fin’s shoulders down, ran to the foot of the bed and threw herself over Fin’s jerking legs.
“More help!” Doc yelled over his shoulder. “I need more help over here!”
The big man, the one named Jace, had been standing in the corner watching the people he’d taken hostage work to doctor his friends. But Doc’s cry for help had him racing across the room, his heavy footfalls sounding like thunder on the worn wooden floorboards.
“More! More!” Doc yelled. “I need at least two more sets of hands!”
“We good here?” Dana asked John while eyeing Will. The leader of the band of thieves was quieter now that they’d stopped messing with his injury. And the slow dilation of his pupils told her the morphine was already beginning to take effect.
John shrugged. “Don’t know what more we can do for him.”
“Okay.” She nodded, determined to help Doc.
She pushed to a stand too quickly, however, and the skipped meal combined with her pounding heart to make her dizzy.
“Careful there.” When she staggered sideways, John’s hand instantly curled around her elbow. “You can sit this one out if you need to.” His hazel eyes were filled with concern.
My heavens, he’s handsome,she thought. And then quickly followed that up with,Jeez, Dana. Now’s not the time.
“No.” She shook her head, dragging in a few deep breaths until her head stopped spinning. “I’m okay. Let’s help Doc.”
Doc instructed Jace to hold down one of Fin’s shoulders. He had Dana sit at the head of the bed and hold down the other. John became Doc’s surgical nurse, reaching into Doc’s med kit and pulling out equipment when Doc asked for it.
