Braxton
Chapter nineteen
I’ve never felt relief like I do when I see Vanessa’s face on the small screen of Sawyer’s phone.
She’s here and she’s alive. I can tell she’s been crying, but seeing her beautiful face soothes the worry inside me.
The tracker Liam put in her mouth led us here, but it doesn’t have the capability to tell us whether or not we were following a dead body.
Liam told me to not let my mind wander to the worst-case scenario, but fuck, that’s been easier said than done.
“Mom and sister are in the room,” Sawyer says through the comms we’re all wearing.
There’re twelve of us total out here between my brothers and Liam’s team, and we’re all grouped into smaller teams of four. Sawyer, Knox, Linc, and I are hidden in the thicket of trees behind the house, while another is on one side of the house, and the third is ready to move in from the other.
“Okay. Time to say goodbye, Sawyer,” Liam says through the comms.
“We had a good run,” Sawyer says as he positions his drone on top of the hood of the SUV parked in front of the house.
Three men step toward the drone’s camera, and if so much of our plan didn’t hinge on this going right, I would probably laugh at their confused expressions.
I don’t get a chance to think about it further because, in the next breath, the drone explodes and black smoke is seen coming over the roof of the house.
In the next second, the four of us are running toward the back of the house where the window of the bedroom where Vanessa and her family are being kept is located.
“I got right,” Liam says through the comms.
“I’ll take left,” Jude replies.
“Wait, my left or your left?” Liam asks.
“Just start shooting the assholes on the ground.”
Two shots are fired, and Liam is heard through the comms again, saying there are now three dead foot soldiers.
When we get to the back of the house, I look through the window and see Vanessa crouched down between the bed and the window with her mom and sister. I knock on the glass, and Vanessa’s head whips toward me. She runs and places her hand on the glass. “I knew it was you.”
“Come on,” I say, trying to open the window from the outside. “We need to get you guys out of here while everyone is focused on the front.”
“It’s nailed shut,” she says.
“Stand back.”
I grab a large hunting knife from my belt, wrap my hand around the sheathed blade, and hit the window with the metal handle. It takes a couple whacks, but it finally starts cracking, and with the next hit, it shatters.
Linc pulls a retractable steel baton from his belt and starts clearing the glass from the pane as I slip my cut off and lay it on the bottom of the windowsill so no one gets hurt on their way out.
“Come on,” I say as more gunshots are fired.
Vanessa grabs Noel and lifts her so she can reach out through the window as I pull her from the house.
Irina is next, and Vanessa helps her lift her legs to make it easier.
Vanessa reaches for me just as the bedroom door swings open.
I look behind Vanessa and see Russ raise a gun, pointing it at Vanessa’s head.
“No!” I scream as Russ is tackled from behind onto the floor by Wyatt.
But it’s too late.
The gun goes off, and Vanessa slumps inside the broken window.
Wyatt flips Russ over and punches him three times in quick succession then jumps off the unconscious man while Barrett and Cash come running into the room.
“Help me with her!” I yell.
Wyatt picks her up under her legs and hips as I keep hold of her under her shoulders and step back.
Once her body is farther out of the window, Linc takes over, holding the lower half of her body.
Cash strips out of his cut and removes his shirt, tossing it to Linc so he can press it against the bloody wound on Vanessa’s back while Barrett secures Russ on the floor.
I turn Vanessa over, and her eyes are half closed, but she’s still conscious.
“Petrov and Russ are secured,” Ozzy says through the comms. “Everyone else is dead.”
“You got here in time,” Vanessa croaks out.
“Of course I did, baby. You’re going to be fine. We’ll get you patched up.”
“We need Hendrix back here now,” Sawyer barks. I don’t look at him or anyone else, my gaze staying firmly fixed on Vanessa’s beautiful face.
“My mom and sister are okay?”
“We’re right here,” Irina says, kneeling down next to her daughter with Noel next to her. “We’re safe, sweetie.”
Vanessa smiles then looks back at me. “Thank you,” she whispers. “You really are my knight in shining armor.” Her eyes close, and Irina starts crying next to me.
“Vanessa, wake up. You have to wake up, baby. Stay with me,” I beg.
Hendrix comes running around the side of the house and immediately drops to his knees. He checks Vanessa’s pulse. “Weak as fuck, but there. Help me turn her on her side.”
Linc helps lift her hip as I turn her shoulder, and Hendrix removes the bloody shirt from her back. He examines the entry wound then tells us to lie her back down before lifting her shirt in the front. “No exit wound. Liam, call the doc. She’s going to need surgery immediately.”
“On it,” Liam replies through the comms.
He looks up at Linc and Knox. “Take the ATVs back to where we parked and drive like hell back here. We don’t have time to waste.”
Knox and Linc sprint to the tree line and disappear. We brought three SUVs and a moving truck filled with ATVs so we wouldn’t be heard coming through the forest that surrounds the property.
Ozzy and Liam come darting around the corner.
“What can we do?” Ozzy asks.
Hendrix opens a pocket on the vest he’s wearing and grabs a packet of something, ripping it open with his teeth. “Help me get her on her side again.”
“Should we be moving her around so much?” I ask, terrified that we could be doing further damage.
“You want her to bleed out?” Hendrix asks as we shift Vanessa.
“Of course not, asshole,” I grit out.
Hendrix pours some sort of powder over her wound then throws the empty packet on the ground. Next, he reaches into another pocket and pulls out several packs of gauze and some tape.
“The powder will clot the blood, and I’m putting a new dressing on until we can get to the doc’s house. If we can stem her blood loss, she’ll have a much better chance of surviving. That takes moving her around.”
“Hendrix was a medic, Braxton,” Liam says. “He knows what he’s doing. He’s saved more than one life in the field.”
I don’t respond. Hendrix keeps two fingers on Vanesa’s wrist, tracking her heartbeat. And honestly, I don’t know what I’ll do if it stops.
It’s less than five minutes before Linc screeches to a halt in the SUV next to us, sending dirt and grass flying everywhere.
“There are blankets in the back. Grab one and bring it over,” Hendrix orders.
Linc opens the trunk and jumps out of the driver’s seat, doing what Hendrix said.
“Alright, open the blanket, and when we turn her, lay it under her. We’ll use it as a makeshift gurney.”
As soon as the blanket is under her, I stand and grab the corners as Ozzy does the same at her feet. Liam and Linc fold down the two back rows of seats in the SUV so Ozzy and I can get Vanessa situated, then Hendrix and I hop in the back on either side of Vanessa. Liam jumps in the driver’s seat.
As Ozzy is about to get in the passenger seat, Irina runs up to the SUV. “I need to go with my daughter.”
Ozzy looks at Liam. “I would love to be able to take you, too, but there isn’t enough room,” Liam tells her.
Linc steps next to my mom. “My brother has another SUV in front of the house. We can take you and Noel there.” Irina looks unsure, but Linc gives her a charming smile. “It’s safer this way, ma’am. And they need to go now.”
Irina nods. Ozzy jumps in the SUV as Linc leads Irina and Noel around to the front of the house.
“Sawyer,” Liam says through the comms we’re all still wearing as he drives back to the main road. “Go with Linc and Knox to the doc’s. Abel, call the cleaner. We’ll meet you back in Shine. Comms going down.”
We all take the pieces out of our ears and brace ourselves as Liam rushes us down the highway.
“Pretty convenient for you to have a doctor on call in the middle of nowhere,” Ozzy says.
“Convenient for me,” he agrees. “I doubt she’d agree.”
No one says anything for the next twenty-seven minutes that it takes to get to this doctor’s house.
I know the exact amount of time because when I’m not staring at Vanessa’s face, I’m checking the clock on the dashboard.
We pull around to the back of an old farmhouse, and there’re two women dressed in scrubs waiting for us with a gurney.
“Hey, Doc,” Liam says, jumping out of the car. “Long time.”
“Not long enough,” a blonde woman shoots back. Liam laughs and walks around to the back of the SUV, opening the trunk.
Hendrix jumps out first, and the other woman wheels the gurney up next to the bumper to make the transition from the SUV to the gurney easier.
Once Vanessa is secured, we make our way toward the house and take a ramp down to the basement.
Hendrix is rattling off what he did to help in the field, how long ago Vanessa was shot, and the stats he was able to take.
Irina, Noel, and Knox follow Liam and me down the ramp. They have a whole setup down here with a desk and even some chairs in a little waiting area. The woman with the doc wheels Vanessa through swinging double doors, and I move to follow, but the doc steps in my path.
“We’re taking her into surgery. You can’t go in.”
“But—”
Liam places his hand on my shoulder. “Listen to the beautiful doctor, Braxton. If she says you have to wait out here, we wait out here.”
“Don’t try to suck up to me,” the doctor says to Liam, then turns her attention back to me. “Try not to worry. Hendrix did everything right before you moved her. I’ll send Sarah out with an update as soon as we know the extent of the damage.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
The woman turns, and before she reaches the double doors, Liam calls out, “You’re just as brilliant as you are beautiful, Doc.”