Page 79 of Saving Wyatt

“He forced you?” He grimaced.

“No. That’s not what I meant. I…I didn’t want to like your brother that way. I don’t want to lose you. But…”

His eyes narrowed, probably from trying to see in the dark, but it felt like he was judging me instead.

“So you like him?”

I licked my lip and sagged in the passenger seat. “I more than like him, but…I don’t feel comfortable talking about it. I know you’ve known about him for a while, but he’s still very private and I don’t want to disrespect his wishes.”

Warren sighed in response.

He didn’t say anything for the rest of the ride, but when we came to an abrupt stop in front of the abandoned farm in Hummingbird County, he turned to me before he got out of the car.

“You wouldn’t lose me. Ever. I just don’t want you to get hurt. Either one of you.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t get a chance because he ran out and slammed the door shut behind him.

Whatever I was about to say I shook off and followed suit, running to the injured man on the ground. He was being held up by another man, King, the local dog groomer, and Wyatt was applying pressure over the injured man’s clavicle. There were other men lying around them, all still and quiet, and a shiver coursed through my spine as to what that meant.

I turned to Wyatt as I dropped to my knees. He looked a mess. There was blood all over his clothes, and his face was wrinkled with worry and pain. He looked like he needed a hug. And I wanted nothing more than to take him in my arms and hold him there until it was all okay.

But there was a life on the line.

I turned my attention to the injured man on the ground, and I instructed Wyatt to pull his hands away gently so I could assess the situation.

Blood pooled as soon as Wyatt let go, and I told him to apply pressure again while I opened my med bag, and Warren knelt beside me and proceeded to help me sterilize my hands.

“I need to pack his wound to slow down the bleeding. How long since he’s been shot?”

Wyatt closed his eyes and rocked back and forth as if trying to remember. It was King who answered my question.

“Ten minutes? Maybe longer,” he said.

I frowned, but I didn’t stop. Warren opened the first pack of gauze and handed it to me as I dug my finger in through the entry point and tried to find a vein, or a pulse. With my free hand I started stuffing the gauze in, trying to do the mental math to figure out how much risk he was in.

“If he’s been like this for more than ten minutes then perhaps the bullet didn’t hit the subclavian artery and vein. But I’m not taking any chances. Maybe he just got lucky, so…give me.” I turned to Warren and got another gauze from him.

Once I was satisfied with the amount I could stuff inside, I put pressure on the wound and waited, watching the man for any signs of blue skin or difficulty breathing.

All eyes were on me. I could feel them burning holes in my skin, but I didn’t care. I only had eyes for one person and one person only. The injured man.

“What’s his name?” King answered. “Nino, can you hear me?”

The man, Nino, opened his eyes very slowly but closed them back up again.

“Shit. He’s passed out. We need to wake him up. Right? We need to—” King started shaking him, and I stared him down.

“No! Let him. His body is in immense pain right now. This is just his body trying to protect him.”

“But…but what if he doesn’t wake up.”

He sounded terrified. He must’ve been a friend or a relation. I didn’t know. Just like I didn’t know what the hell they were all even doing here or why there were three men dead around us.

“King, I’m going to do my best to make sure that he does wake up, but you have to trust me and you have to stop shaking him. I’m trying to stop his bleeding.” I used my most authoritative and composed voice I could muster.

Thankfully, Wyatt stepped up behind King and pulled him back, and when King tried to reach for Nino again, Wyatt wrapped his hands around King so tight the man had no choice but to stay put and cry, watching me work.

Warren stared at me as if waiting for further instructions, but I didn’t have any for him. I closed my eyes and kept on applying pressure, counting down the minutes and planning all my next steps.