Everything turns into a nightmare of screaming people and shouting guards, and I am on my knees in the dirt, pressing my hands against the wound to stop the blood that won't stop flowing.
"Stay with me!" I sob, my hands slick with his blood. "Dad, please, stay with me! Don't you dare leave me now!" The bodyguards surged forward, with their guns drawn.
"Call an ambulance!" I yell. "Someone help!"
Chapter 33
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IRIS
The ambulance sirens are still wailing in my ears when the twins come running down the street, their faces tight with alarm as they push through the crowd of onlookers gathering around us.
"What the hell happened?" Roman demands, dropping to his knees beside me where I'm still pressing my hands against our father's chest trying to stop the blood from pouring out. "Who shot him? Did you see anyone?"
"There was a man," I say, my voice shaking so badly I can barely get the words out. "He was wearing a hoodie, he just pulled out a gun from nowhere, I tried to push Dad out of the way but I wasn't fast enough."
"Did you see his face?" Kirill asks, his tone sharp as he scans the dispersing crowd. "Anything distinctive about him at all? Hair color? Build? Scars?"
"Just the hoodie," I say, my hands trembling as the paramedics arrive and gently pull me back so they can work. "Bright blue. He ran off into that alley over there, I don't know who he is, I don't know anything."
"Don't worry about it right now," Roman says, placing a hand on my shoulder while his eyes track the paramedics loading our father onto a stretcher. "We'll investigate everything later, just stay close to Dad, okay? We need you to stay calm for him."
I nod even though my mind is already spiraling into dark places I can't control.
The paramedics work quickly, lifting the stretcher into the ambulance while one of them shouts medical terms I don't understand, then Roman is pulling me into the back of the ambulance with him while Kirill runs to get the car.
The ride to the hospital is a blur of beeping monitors and the paramedic calling out vitals while I sit there with my father's blood still wet on my hands, staring at his pale face.
When we arrive at the hospital, they rush him straight into surgery while a nurse tries to guide me to a waiting room, but I refuse to move from the hallway outside the operating theater.
Roman and Kirill catch up minutes later, both of them looking grim as they take positions on either side of me.
"What if it's Ilay?" I blurt out suddenly, the thought that has been clawing at my brain finally escaping my mouth. "What if he sent that man? He threatened to kill all of you, what if this is him starting to make good on that promise?"
They both look at me with identical expressions of concern.
"What if it's him?" I say again, louder while my voice cracks. "He told me he would wipe out this entire family if I didn't come back to him, maybe I should just go back, maybe if I go back he'll stop, I don't want him to kill anyone else, I'm so scared that this is all my fault."
"Iris," Kirill says firmly, stepping in front of me. "You need to calm down right now."
"I can't calm down!" I shout, my hands shaking as I gesture wildly. "Don't you understand what kind of man he is? He's capable of genocide, he threatened an entire country just to get me back, he could easily send someone to shoot Dad as a warning, maybe I should just leave, maybe if I disappear he'll leave you all alone."
"It's probably not him," Roman says, as he tries to talk me down. "We have more enemies than just Ilay Ivanovich, this could be anyone with a grudge against the family, there are dozens of people who would want Dad dead."
"No, you don't understand," I say, shaking my head frantically while tears stream down my face. "You don't understand what he's capable of, you didn't see his face when he told me to run, he's already planning to kill all of you, maybe if I just go back to him then he'll stop, maybe he just needs me to come home."
"Iris, stop," Kirill says, his voice cutting through my panic like a knife. "You're spiraling into hysteria right now."
"He's just misunderstood," I say, barely hearing him as my thoughts race faster than I can process them. "He needs help, he needs someone to show him that violence isn't the answer, he needs me to fix him."
"Okay, that's enough," Kirill says, stepping closer and gripping my shoulders. "Listen to me very carefully right now, he doesn't need you to fix him, we need you to stay here with us, what we need you to do right now is calm down so you don't faint in this hallway, you're hyperventilating and if you pass out while you're unconscious when Dad wakes up from surgery, he's going to put a bullet through both our skulls for not taking proper care of you, so please, just breathe."
I take a shaky breath, trying to force air into my lungs. "Yes. Okay. I need to calm down. I need to stop thinking. I need a drink or something to take the edge off."
Roman raises an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "Are you sure alcohol is a good idea right now?."
"I don't care," I say, desperate. "Just get me a beer, please, I need something to stop my hands from shaking like this."
