‘You wouldn’t?’
‘Oh, but you did? Remember that little girl, Daniel? The one you arranged to be hung, drawn and quartered and dumped with no dignity?’ Jared’s face twists as he says it, and Daniel’s face pales—he’s grey. He falters a little, and it’s all I need. He’s distracted. I go for the gun, wrestling him for it. He’s stronger than I give him credit for. The gun goes off. It takes me a second as the pain resonates through my body. Daniel wears a look of shock as he looks to where the blood is coming from. He looks at Jared just as I do, and Jared pulls the trigger. Daniel’s face goes lapse as he crumples to the floor. I find myself on my knees as Jared rushes towards me.
‘Howard… Fuck… We need pressure on it. Lie down. They’ve taken the van. Keep pressure on it. I’m going to find another, okay?’
I nod because it’s all I have the energy for. He checks Daniel’s pockets first and comes up empty. Then he leaves the room.
‘You still with me, buddy?’ he yells from the next room. I am, but I don’t have the energy to say so. My eyes are heavy, and I’m tired so fucking tired. Willow… Willow… please be okay, I think to myself as I close my eyes.
‘HOWARD, WAKE UP, motherfucker. You are not fucking leaving like this.’ He has a pulse, but it’s fucking faint. I found some keys on one of Daniel’s lackeys, so I just need to get him to the van. I pick him up and carry him like you would a baby. That red stain is growing by the second, and I don’t fucking like it. I lay him out across two seats in the front of the van so I can keep an eye on him from the driver’s seat. Running around, I dial Zoe, stick it on loudspeaker, turn the key, and hit the accelerator.
‘Zoe, tell me you aint needed for Willow? ‘Cause I fucking need you now.’
‘They’ve just picked me up. I’m just seeing to her, but there isn’t a lot I can do. She needs the hospital.’
‘You en route there now?’
‘Yes, Logan is driving like a fucking maniac.’
‘Good, I’m on my way, may need you to stop when I catch up. Howard is in a bad way.’ Silence.
‘Zoe?’
‘What do you mean by bad way?’
‘He’s been fucking shot in the chest.’
Silence.
‘Oh my God. Have you got pressure on the wound?’
‘Yes, but I keep having to let go for gear changing.’
‘Well, don’t fucking change gear, just get here quick. He can’t die, Jared. Don’t you let him fucking die.’
‘Believe me, I am going as fast as I fucking can.’ I hang up and with one hand on the wheel and the other staunching the bleeding, I hit a hundred and ten miles per hour. The wheel starts to shake and the van is struggling, but I don’t give a fuck. Howard is not fucking dying on me. Not today. Not fucking ever. Every traffic light I get to turns green, and I’m fucking certain I have Brad to thank for that. I see our van after a few minutes. It slows, and Zoe jumps out of the back as I screech to a stop. Logan sets off again before Jacob even has the back doors closed. Zoe jumps in the passenger side. There is no room for her, but she kneels in the footwell. She has her bag and a roll of rubber tubing. With a stethoscope, she listens to his chest. Then to the side, jabs him with a scalpel and pokes the tube inside. It fills with blood, and it’s then I realise she has a bag attached to the tube. Fuck knows what it’s for, but between that and the road, my thought process is fucked. I can’t even ask her what the fuck she’s doing. She rips off his bloody top, pulls him up, and checks the exit wound.
‘There isn’t an exit, so the bullet is lodged somewhere.’
‘That a bad thing? Or good?’
‘Neither, depends where it is and how long it takes to find.’
I put my foot down again as we come out of a bend. I am not far behind Logan.
‘I called ahead, so they know we have two cases now, not just one,’ Zoe tells me, still putting pressure on Howard’s chest and feeling for a pulse.
‘They have enough staff?’
‘They said they were calling everyone in.’
‘Fuck, we need them both alive.’
‘They may have to prioritise, Jared. You may have to make that decision.’
‘They will keep them both alive.’
‘Jared you may have to make a choice.’
‘I won’t fucking let Willow die so Howard can live without her. They both have to live.’
‘Would Howard want you to save her over him?’
I don’t answer her because I know the answer, and I am not fucking going there. I couldn’t live without Devon, and I know Howard couldn’t live without his female.
‘Tell me now. Who needs care first? Who is most likely to die without intervention first?’
‘Jared, they are both in a bad way. It could go either way.’ She sobs. ‘I just don’t know.’
‘FUUUUUUCK!’ Howard would fucking die without Willow anyway, and he would never speak to me again if I chose him over her. I fucking know him too well.
‘Willow gets treatment first. We wait for the second wave to arrive, but you do what you can for him with my help. He is not dying today, Zoe. He can’t fucking die.’
Her eyes are brimming with more tears as she nods in agreement to my order. We drive the next few minutes in silence. Our van is abandoned, and as we pull up, I watch as Logan and Jacob haul Willow through the doors on a stretcher with doctors and nurses of our kind to treat her. As I pull in, I fling my door open and grab a second stretcher, and as we load Howard onto it, Zoe maintains pressure on his chest. He looks fucking grey, and I’m sure he’s not going to make it as a hand touches mine, and I see another doc takeover from me. Thank fuck! There is a load of medical terms thrown around, at which point I stop walking. Zoe goes into theatre with Howard and then she comes out a minute or so later. She comes over and hugs me. ‘It’s all on them now.’
‘What?’
‘How strong they are and how much they fight to survive.’
Jacob and Logan round the corner and come and stand with us. They are covered in Willow’s blood.
‘And now we wait,’ Logan says dejectedly.
I call Devon and make sure everything is okay there. ‘Baby, we can’t do anything but wait now.’
‘I’m coming to you,’ she demands, and I have a feeling that everyone will be coming.
‘Okay, but you don’t leave the house without Brad or Harrison, okay.’
‘Thought the threat was done with?’
‘Yeah, it is, but we can’t be too careful. So no dropping our guard until we’re fucking one hundred percent certain.’
‘Okay,’ she tells me.
‘And, baby?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I fucking love you.’
I hear her contented sigh. ‘Love you more,’ she says hanging up. I smile a little and wait for them all to arrive.
I WAKE UP and can barely see past the glaring white light. There are all sorts of sounds and scents overloading me. And the pain. Oh god, the pain. What happened to me? I try to lift my arm and can’t. I try the other. My nose itches, but I can’t even lift my arm to scratch it. I wiggle my fingers, or at least I think I do. I can’t feel them. They’re not numb—it’s just I can’t feel anything beyond the pain. It’s everywhere. I close my eyes and grit my teeth against it.
‘Hello, Miss.’ I look up towards the ceiling, not even able to turn my head towards her. ‘I’m glad the drugs have worn off. Now I’ll be able to administer some pain medication. I will just call the doctor…’ Her voice trails off as she leaves the room. She has a funny accent. I look around, best I can and see machines and a table with flowers on it. I get the scent of another female as the door swings open again.
‘Hey, Willow. How are ya feeling?’
At least she sounds normal. I try to answer, but my tongue feels like its stuck to the roof of my mouth. I try again. This time, my lips open but no sound comes out. ‘Wait, don’t try to talk, let me get you some water.’
Oh, thank god. I feel
like I’ve been in the middle of a sandstorm with my mouth wide open. She puts a straw between my lips, and I suck that water down so damn fast. I don’t stop until I’m sucking air and the straw is making that awful noise my mom smacks me around the head for. I wonder where she is, but it’s a fleeting thought, why would she start giving a shit now, when she hasn’t since dad died?
‘You feel better now?’
I open my mouth. ‘Th…th…thanks,’ I grate out against what feels like shards of glass. Jesus, the pain.
‘Just glad you finally woke up, girl. It’s been two days you’ve slept away.’
‘Brody?’ I gasp as I take a shuddering breath against the pain that speaking causes.
‘Shhhh stop talking. He’s on his way now. I just called him to tell him you’re awake.’
I close my eyes, feeling better already for knowing he is coming. Two days I was out. But why? What happened to me? Why am I in the hospital? My head swims with questions that I just can’t fathom, but as my eyelids blink closed again, I find it more and more difficult to open them. I try maybe a couple more times, but they are so heavy. And the pain is so much. Sleep takes me.
***
‘Hey, sis, it’s just me. I came as soon as I heard you were awake, and here you are sleeping again.’ He laughs. ‘Can’t even wait up to give your big brother some grief, huh?’
I can hear him. I’m in that state where you can’t quite wake up, but you know you’re not dreaming, you just can’t do anything. I try to smile, but it doesn’t happen.
‘She’s had a high dose of pain relief,’ the woman with the funny accent tells him. ‘It could be a while before she wakes again, but she will wake eventually. She’s starting to heal too, which is a really good sign.’
***
The room is dark with dim lights. My head hurts, but not so much that I can’t bear it. I lift my head, checking down my body. I have both legs strapped up in slings hung from the ceiling, and both my arms look like they’re either in huge bandages or plaster casts. Just lifting my head gives me pain, but I need to assess the damage. I can’t lift either arm to feel my face, but that also feels bad. I can see some kind of contraption stuck to my face. I notice it properly now my eyes are in focus. I can see metal rods going into the sides. What the fuck happened? I want to scream but can’t. The door opens, and I get Brody’s scent—relief floods me instantly.
‘Hey, Will.’ He beams. His arm is in a sling, but his smile is huge like he’s happy to see me too. I can’t smile, so don’t, but I need some answers.
‘What… ha…hap…’
‘Willow, your jaw is wired. Don’t try to speak. It will be coming off real soon, okay?’ I sigh in relief at that. ‘I’ll explain everything when you can talk properly, but for now, you need to rest up and heal, okay?’ I blink my eyes. They feel real heavy. I let sleep take me under.
***
Howard
As my eyes come into focus, I realise I’m not in my own bed, not in my room, not even at home. Where the fuck am I? I blink as the light hurts my eyes. Fuck knows how long I’ve been here, or why I’m even here. I close my eyes and fight against the fog filling my addled brain. I hear someone, and I open my eyes, trying like fuck to focus. A woman in a blue uniform starts messing with the machines. I look over as she gets a thermometer ready to stick in my ear. It beeps after a second of being there, and she writes something down on her chart, then she wraps a cuff around my arm, presses a button and waits while it pumps up, almost cutting off the circulation in my lower arm. I can feel my heartbeat in my fucking fingers—it’s that close to stopping the flow. Its starts to deflate and she writes more shit down. I open my mouth to speak and realise I have something shoved in it. I choke against it, making her look up.
‘Oh, hey, handsome, you’re back with us? Sit tight while I get the doctor.’ I find the strength to lift my hand and feel around at what’s in my mouth and what it’s attached to. It’s a tube, and it goes all the way in, and from there it goes to a machine that’s filling and dispelling air. Like two concertinaed tubes that fill and lengthen and then squash down as the air is pushed out and into this tube that I apparently swallowed. Fuck, I need it out. I struggle and try to pull it free, just as a doctor walks in. All the machines attached to me are beeping like a shoplifter just did a runner, and all I want to do is find out why the fuck I am here and what the fuck is going on.
‘Get, Mr Stone,’ one doc shouts and that calms me instantly. Am I back on pack homeland? Must be if Mr Stone is here. I wait while they get him. ‘Now, sir. No more struggling, okay? We’ll get these tubes out when the time’s right. But for now, you must sit tight, okay?’
‘What is it, doc?’ I hear Jared’s voice.
‘Mr Stone, we just need him calm. He isn’t fully able to breathe on his own, but he’s pulling the tubing out. I thought it best you speak to him.’
‘Sure.’ Then he comes over to me. ‘Howard, calm the fuck down. We need you better. Willow needs you better.’
Willow. Like a flood, all the memories slam home like a fucking horror movie. I want to speak, ask how she is… I watched her dying in front of me, desperate to help her but fucking Daniel got in the way. And now I’m here. Willow, where the fuck is she? Is she okay? I look at Jared, pleading with him to tell me something, anything, so long as she’s okay. He doesn’t keep me waiting.
‘Howard, Willow is gonna be fine. She’s been awake but is on heavy pain meds so she gets the rest she needs, but she’s healing well. You need to do the same, and you only have half a fucking lung working, so stop pulling the shit out and relax or they’ll put you back to sleep.’ I close my eyes, taking in what he’s just said. Willow is going to be just fine. Thank god for that. I close my eyes again, each time I blink it’s getting harder to open them again, but I can sleep now, knowing that she is okay. I’ll heal faster, and I’ll be able to see her. My eyes open once more, before whatever the nurse put into my vein takes hold, and I go off to the land of nod.
I wake to voices: Jared and Devon, having a conversation. I don’t understand fully what about, but I can’t help but listen. It’s not like I can move away.
‘Has his family been told?’ Devon asks.
‘Yes, I called them myself. It was fucking horrible, but they’re on the way.’
‘Awe, babe. I’m so sorry you had to make that call.’
His family? His? Not Willow. Has someone died? My eyes open and swivel to their direction. Jared notices and comes right over to the side of the bed.
‘Hey, how you doing?’ I frown and bite down on the fucking tube.
‘Howard, stop… fuck, get the nurse.’ Devon leaves the room, and he puts his hand on my shoulder in an effort to calm me. I want this shit out of me. A nurse comes in, clucks her tongue and shakes her head. Then presses a button somewhere that sets off an alarm above my door. Two more nurses come in.
‘Can I ask you two to wait outside please while we take care of the tubing?’
‘Sure,’ Jared agrees. The nurse pushes my tongue down with a stick as the other injects my drip with some shit that makes my head woozy.
***
I open my eyes. It’s dark and with only a dim light in the corner. I look around the room best I can—Brad is sitting in the chair by the bed. I can’t see him properly, but I know he’s there. And so is his female. They’re both sleeping. I wonder how long they’ve been here. A nurse comes in, and they startle awake. She begins checking my OBS and checks the machine that’s attached to this fucking tube in my mouth.
‘Hmmm, doing really well, he’s only at twenty-five percent now,’ she tells them, clearly not realising that I’m actually fucking awake. Or maybe she thinks because I can’t talk, I’m fucking stupid. Twenty-five percent of what? I want to ask but can’t. So fucking frustrating.
‘Oh, hey, you’re awake?’ I widen my eyes at her since it’s the only form of communication I have right now. Although I can move my hands, they are practically tied down under the bedding. F
UCK, this is torture. As she leaves the room, Brad’s face pops into my line of sight.
‘Hey, motherfucker, glad you could join us.’ He smiles. The nurse comes back in and is busy fixing another dose of sleepy juice for me. I feel it spread around my body like warm liquid, and I try to fight it, but it’s no use.
***
I wake up, and my throat feels sore as shit. I’m fucking parched. I lick my lips. They feel like fucking sandpaper. I need water. I find Devon in the room when I turn my head. She’s nodded off in the chair. I try to speak, but it sounds like a whisper, even lighter than a whisper. But I need some fucking water. I feel around where my hands are, and they touch what feels like a remote control. I fumble with it and find it’s the alarm for the nurse when the red light sets to flashing and the incessant beeping goes off in the corridor. Devon sits up and looks at me straightaway.
‘Water?’ I whisper and no sooner does it leave my lips, she’s up and pouring me some from the jug by her chair. Bringing it up to my lips, she tilts the beaker slightly, ensuring I’m only getting a dribble. I growl in frustration, making her laugh. But she tilts it a little more, allowing me to get a mouthful. It feels fucking amazing until I swallow. Then it feels like someone has raked a Stanley blade up and down my windpipe.
‘It will hurt for a while. The nurses said to expect it because of the tubing.’ I swallow again, this time prepared for the pain. And despite it, it’s the best fucking drink I’ve ever had. The nurse comes in and immediately starts to give me more sleeping shit. All I’ve done is lift my head and swallow, and I’m fucking exhausted. My eyelids droop again, and I can feel myself going off all too quickly.
‘No fucking more,’ I whisper, not sure if she can hear me or if I even said it out loud. But I need to be awake. They can’t keep putting me back under.
WHEN I WAKE this time, I’m fully aware of the pain in my chest, and it itches like a motherfucker. I bring my hand up to scratch it and feel a dressing. It’s fucking huge. I was shot once, right? What the fuck is this? I try and sit up, and pain shoots through me.
Fated Love (Stone Pack book 3) Page 13
