“I’m alright, Liv,” Riley said reaching down to me. Her face was tight with worry, and her hands shook as she pulled me to my feet, but she didn’t appear to be hurt. “I thought we agreed you were going to stop trying to get yourself killed.”
“Get off me,” the man writhed but Ty had his knee pressed into the stranger’s back, pinning him to the floor.
“Hold him still and I’ll tie his hands,” Jake said.
He raced over and sliced a section of twine free from a nearby display using one of the bright green steak knives we had pilfered from his mom’s kitchen. The man struggled against their efforts but between Ty’s weight and Jake’s quick work with the cording, they had him restrained within a matter of seconds. The rope wasn’t very thick, but Jake had wrapped it around the man’s hands so many times that there was little chance of him tearing it free.
“Let me go,” he said flopping about on the floor.
I whistled through my teeth at Bella and nodded toward the man. She trotted over and lowered herself to the ground in front of him, her teeth bared and her hackles raised. When she growled at him, her hot breath moved his hair, and the man went still, his eyes wide with fear.
“Good girl,” Jake said, smiling over at her.
“Thanks, man,” Ty clapped Jake on the shoulder, and the two of them rose to their feet.
“Whatever,” Jake said as he bent to scoop Ty’s hat up off the floor. “Here’s your stupid hat.”
“Get outta my way.” Christa pushed her way through the pack that had gathered around us and ran toward Ty. “Oh my God, Ty, your leg. It’s bleeding!”
“I…what?” Ty’s brow furrowed in confusion. The moment his eyes landed on the crimson saturating the denim above his knee, his face paled. “Aww, hell.”
Zander and I dove toward Ty at once and caught him just as his legs gave out. His body sagged against us, limp and motionless. The weight of his hulking mass dragged all three of us down onto the floor. Blood was dripping from his thigh onto the scuffed tile beneath us.
“Eli,” I shouted. “Eli, get over here. Ty’s been shot!”
“No, I— I’m alright.” Ty’s voice shook, and his eyelids fluttered even as he struggled up onto his elbows. “It don’t even hurt, y’all.”
“Just hold still,” I said pressing his shoulders back down to the ground. “Eli!”
“It’s fine. I can’t feel nothin’,” Ty whispered staring down at his leg.
“I need a belt,” Eli said. Before he had even situated himself on the floor, Jake dropped one into his hand. “Lift his leg and prop it up.”
Falisha dug a towel from her backpack and dropped to the floor next to Zander. He nodded grimly, slid his hands beneath Ty’s thigh, and lifted it a few inches from the floor. He held it just long enough for Falisha to slip the folded towel beneath it. Eli slid the strap around Ty’s leg, a few inches above the hole in his jeans, threaded it through the loop, and jerked it so hard that Ty cried out.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Ty growled, biting his bottom lip so hard it drew blood. “Okay, I felt that.”
“Sorry kid, but we gotta stop this bleeding,” Eli said. “Light! I need more light over here.”
Within seconds, every flashlight beam and cell phone flash in the room was focused on Ty. He sliced through Ty’s pant leg from cuff to crotch, exposing a pair of blue boxer-briefs and a gaping hole in Ty’s thigh muscle. Riley’s hand shot to her mouth. Tears filled her big brown eyes.
“Damn,” Falisha scowled.
“No,” Christa screamed, and lunged toward us, but Jake hooked an arm around her waist. “Let me go, Jacob. Ty!”
“It’s…okay, darlin,” Ty said weakly. “I’m alright.”
Jake looked positively terrified but refused to let Christa free. He did his best to shield his sister from the gruesome scene, but she fought against his shaky grasp, desperate to get closer. Zander held Ty’s leg in place. I smoothed the hair from Ty’s pallid face while Riley dug the medical kit from my pack and started emptying its contents onto the floor. Guilt settled deep into my gut as I sat helplessly by, watching Eli try to fix the mess I had made trying to save them all.
Ty was sweating profusely, but his skin was starting to feel cold to the touch. His breathing was labored, and his body sank further into mine as the puddle of blood beneath him grew. Soon he started to shake.
“Eli, you need to hurry up,” I urged. “He’s going into shock.”
“I’m going as fast as I can without killing him myself,” Eli growled, tying off the tourniquet.
“I’m so sorry, Ty,” I whispered.
“Hush.” Ty’s voice was barely above a whisper, his bloody hand patting mine as if I were the one in need of comfort. “Ain’t none of this your fault, Sweets.”
“Yeah,” Christa glared at me through tear-filled eyes. “It is.”
“She’s doin’ the best she—” Ty’s hand went slack against mine and his eyes fluttered closed. His head flopped to the side, and his large body went limp against me.
Panic rose in my chest. “Ty!”
“Calm down. He isn’t dead, just passed out,” Eli said, shaking his head at me as if I were an overreacting child. “Probably a good thing, too, because this is going to hurt like hell.”
“What are you doing to him?” Christa balled up her fists. “You better not hurt him, or I swear to God—”
“I have to get that bullet out, kid, or your little boyfriend here’s going to die,” Eli said. He turned to Riley, jerking his head toward the medical supplies she was laying out. “Got any alcohol in there?”
“Not much,” Riley said apologetically. The bottle was less than half-full. “Will peroxide work? I’ve got plenty of that.”
“Good enough,” Eli said holding out his hand. “Hold on to the alcohol for now. I’ll use that to sterilize.”
She uncapped the brown plastic bottle and handed it to him then stepped back as if he were about to dump gasoline on a fire. The second the liquid hit Ty’s wound it sizzled like cold water on a skillet sending a rush of pink bubbly fluid into a pool on the floor beneath him. His brow furrowed, but otherwise, Ty didn’t move.
“You, with the mouth,” Eli jerked his head in Christa’s direction. “Make yourself useful and hold my light for me.”
Jake let her go, and she dove onto the floor at Ty’s side, tears streaming down her face. She grabbed the largest of the flashlights and aimed it directly at the wound on Ty’s leg, a pained expression on her face. “Like this?”
“Perfect,” he said. “The rest of you get over here and hold him down. You have to keep him completely still. It looks like the bullet is lodged against the femoral artery. If he moves, and I nick that thing he’ll…just hold him still, okay?”
Eli scooped up the last bottle of rubbing alcohol and poured what was left of it over his hands. He ground them together furiously then held them up away from his body. Falisha and I moved into position and held Ty’s shoulders down. Zander straddled Ty’s injured leg pressing it firmly into the towel, immobilizing it. Riley positioned herself on Ty’s other leg while Jake held his hips against the ground, a look of abject horror on his face.
“Don’t do this,” Jake whispered to him, and then looked up at his sister’s tear-stained face. “She needs you.”
“He’s going to be okay, Jake,” I said mechanically.
I was not so sure. Ty’s breathing was shallow, and his face had lost its color. What worried me the most was the peaceful look on his face.
Eli’s face hovered just inches above the bloody wound on Ty’s leg as he worked to free the bullet from his flesh. Sweat rolled down his forehead. Every time his glasses slipped down his nose, he’d pushed them back up with the butt of his wrist, leaving a trail of blood across his face. He didn’t seem to notice the war paint, let alone the terrified looks on our faces. After a few more minutes of digging and grunting, he bolted upright, his blood-soaked fingers holding a wad of flattened metal.
�
�Gotcha, you little bastard,” he exclaimed tossing the bullet to the floor. “Riley, hand me the lighter, the curved needle, and the thread from the sewing kit.”
Riley sat down and gently pressed her weight into Ty’s leg freeing her hands. She uncapped another brown bottle of peroxide and handed it to Eli, then set to work threading the hook-shaped needle as he had requested. It took her a few shots, thanks to the dim lighting and her shaky hands, but eventually she got it.
“Tie it off, and give it here,” Eli said hastily grabbing the needle from between her fingers. His face was taut with concentration. Sweat poured down his face unchecked, slicing flesh colored trenches through the blood that had begun to dry there. “Grab the lighter and pull a flame.”
Riley flicked the flint on the yellow Bic and stretched her arm out toward Eli. He slid the point of the needle into the loose fabric on his pant leg where he could easily free it then held the tip of his knife over the flame and waited until it turned black.
“Hold on tight, everyone,” he said, grimacing as he moved the hot metal closer to Ty’s open wound.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Christa sobbed and grabbed his arm, her flashlight rolling in a circle at her feet. “You already got the bullet out. You are going to hurt him. Just sew him back up and leave him alone.”
“Do you want him to die?” Eli barked at her.
“I—no!” Christa narrowed her eyes at him.
“Then, get your goddamn hands off me,” Eli said firmly through gritted teeth. “I cannot close him up without cauterizing the wound first, or he will bleed out internally. Now, either hold that light still or give it to someone who cares more about Ty then they do about themselves!”
Christa’s mouth snapped shut, and she released his arm gripping the torch tightly in both hands. She aimed the beam of light directly at Ty’s leg and ground her teeth together. Angry tears rolled down her face freely.
“As I was saying,” Eli glared at Christa, and then turned to the rest of the group, “you need to hold him still.”
The rest of us pressed firmly against Ty’s body as Eli jammed the hot metal blade into the exposed tissue of his leg. The contact made a sizzling sound and Ty jerked sharply, his back arching up off the floor. He thrashed against our hold for just a moment before falling slack once again. The air around us filled with the sickening smell of burnt flesh and I fought against the lurch in my stomach.
This was my fault.
If I had paused to think for a moment, maybe the crazy gunman situation could have been diffused without bloodshed. But I was barely in control of my own body at the time, let alone my mind. The second I saw that gun pointed at Riley, something in me snapped. It was as if I were watching from outside my own body.
“Why didn’t you just leave?” The man was sobbing now. His body shook with the effort. “I told you he was dangerous. If you had just gone when I told you to, none of this would have happened.”
“Shut up,” Jake growled at him.
“He didn’t mean to hurt nobody,” the stranger said. “He was just trying to protect us.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jake asked, shooting to his feet and looking around. “Is someone else here with you?”
“Y—Yes…my brother, Gabe,” the man simpered shaking as tears ran down his face. “But please don’t hurt him. He was only trying to—.”
“Where?” Jake cut the man off shining his flashlight beam around the area. “Is he hiding close by?”
“I—I can’t,” the man sputtered. “You don’t understand.”
Jake’s face tightened in anger. He picked up the discarded shotgun and pointed the barrel in the man’s face. He turned away from it pressing his face into the floor as if to hide. His shoulders were tense, and he cringed when Jake yelled down at him.
“Where the hell is he?” Jake growled pressing his foot into the man’s back. “Where is Gabe?”
“You blind, boy?” His voice took on that gravelly timber. A maniacal laugh ripped through the man’s chest as he lifted his head from the floor and glared up at Jake defiantly. “I’m right here.”
* * *
“How’s he doing,” Riley asked staring down at Ty’s limp form.
“The bleeding seems to have stopped, and his color is a little better, but his pressure is still lower than I would like to see,” Eli said. “We’ll know more when he wakes up.”
“You mean if he wakes up,” Jake muttered glaring over at the head case stranger.
“Don’t go there, Jake.” I narrowed my eyes at him and then jerked my head in Christa’s direction.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Jake said, grinding at his eyes with the heels of his hands before turning his attention back to Gabe (or whatever his name was). “It’s just…that crazy bastard shot Ty, Liv. Why are we letting him stay? We should just throw him outside and leave him for the leeches.”
“You can’t do that,” the man pleaded. “Please, just—let us go!”
The second he moved, Bella was on her feet, her teeth bared, snarling up at him. She had stationed herself in front of him hours ago and hadn’t moved from her spot once. Every time the man shifted or made a sound, she was there to remind him just how terrified he was of dogs.
“It’d probably be best if you get a grip on yourself, mister,” Falisha said nudging his shoulder with the end of his own gun. “Bella here doesn’t seem to like you much.”
“The feeling is mutual,” he grumbled meekly and closed his eyes.
“Why won’t he open his eyes?” Christa whined. “You fixed him, so he should wake up now, right? Can’t you just give him some medicine or something?”
“There’s no medicine for this, Princess,” Eli said patting Christa’s shoulder awkwardly.
“She’s right, Eli,” I said, swallowing hard against the helplessness rising in my chest. “There has to be something else we can do for him. Something we haven’t tried.”
“You know what? There might be one thing,” Eli said, digging through the med kit. He tossed aside bandages and gauze and pulled out a large needle. “Do any of you happen to know your blood type?”
Chapter 4
Jekyll and Hyde
“We’ve done all we can do for him at this point,” Eli said taping a gauze pad to the crook of my arm. “The rest is up to Ty, now.”
“And God,” Riley whispered, crossing her chest.
“Someone get her a snack and some juice.” Eli pointed at me. “Sit down before you fall down, would you?”
“He’s gonna pull through, Liv,” Zander whispered as he helped me over to a chair.
I hoped to hell that he was right. I had given him who knows how much blood in an effort to help save him, but he wouldn’t need saving if it hadn’t been for me in the first place. The poor guy survived a solar storm, a leech attack and two days as a military prisoner with barely a scratch to show for it. Less than twelve hours in my presence and he was struggling for his life. If Ty didn’t make it, there was little chance I was ever going to forgive myself.
“Hold on, Ty,” Christa whimpered clutching his hand. She laid her head on his chest. “Please.”
“Is he going to be okay?” The stranger leaned as far forward as his restraints would allow. “Please, I—I have to know.”
“You almost killed him, you crazy son of a—,” Jake spat as he stormed in the man’s direction.
“Take it easy, Jake,” Zander stopped him with a hand on his chest but quickly pulled it back and rubbed it against his pant leg. “He can’t hurt anyone, now.”
After the man’s Jekyll and Hyde routine earlier, we had all decided it best to restrain him completely. Jake and Falisha dragged a heavy wooden chair over from the Renaissance Era display and held him down. Zander secured his hands and feet with wire he had pilfered from the museum’s overhead speaker system. We’d taken turns guarding him ever since. The guy was a bomb waiting to explode, and none of us wanted to be there to see the timer hit zero.
>
“Calm down, sir,” Riley said making her way over to the man in the chair. “What is your name?”
“My—what?” He looked up at her, genuinely confused.
“I thought he said his name was Gabe,” Falisha said.
“No,” the man shook his head and sighed. “Gabe is…he’s my brother.”
“But earlier—.” Falisha began.
Riley held up her hand and shook her head. This man had tried to kill Riley just hours ago, and her proximity to him set my nerves on edge. Despite how weak I was feeling from my recent donation, I couldn’t sit idly by and watch my best friend put herself in harm’s way.
I struggled to my feet and made my way over as quickly as my shaky legs would allow, just in case he decided to have another go at it. Zander was at my side ready to catch me should my blood-deprived body fail me. He did not attempt to thwart my efforts. He knew better.
The man was twitching and obviously unstable, but Riley was completely calm as she approached him. If she had an ounce of fear, her voice never once betrayed her. The tranquility that surrounded her was disarming.
“I am not interested in Gabe,” Riley smiled at him. “I want to know more about you.”
“Me?” He seemed taken aback. “But Gabe is…”
“Gabe isn’t here right now,” Riley said matter-of-factly. “It’s just us.”
He looked around as if to confirm she was telling the truth. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he seemed much calmer and relaxed. As calm as one could be in his position, that is.
“It’s okay.” Riley placed her hand on his shoulder. I tensed nearly as much as he did at the contact.
“I’m—my name is Tim,” he said his shoulders sagging against the hard wooden chair back.
“Hello, Tim,” Riley said.
“Is she serious, right now?” Jake muttered setting Ty’s hat next to him on the floor. “What is this, speed dating?”
“Jake.” I glared back at him, willing him to shut up.
Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two Page 4
