Chapter 21
ALEX
Alex’s muscles strained trying to hold down the larger man as Kyle worked to remove the bullet. His stomach churned, the thought of what was being done mere feet from him sending wave after wave of nausea crashing over him.
He kept his gaze focused on the woodgrain of the table, struggling to keep his focus as Kyle asked Ava to provide suction to give him a better view.
“Ugh,” Alex groaned as he slid his eyes closed, his hands pressing down on Sebastian’s bulky shoulders.
"Almost," Kyle said, his brow furrowed with concentration. The metallic scent of blood filled the air, mingling with the stale odor of the old cabin. "Can you suction again?" Ava’s fingers trembled as she reached for the baster, the cold plastic slippery with blood.
Bile crept up in Alex’s throat, and he eased his pressure slightly as he struggled to swallow it back down. Sebastian, still awake, groaned in pain, shifting on the table under Alex.
“Hold him,” Kyle growled.
Alex placed firmer pressure against the man’s shoulders as he risked a glance down the table. Kyle pulled the bullet free, but immediately after a spray of red blood shot from the wound.
The sight made Alex’s eyes go wide, his pulse racing. His knees wobbled as he desperately tried to remain strong and be of some use in this situation.
“Oh no,” Kyle murmured, his face covered in blood. “I must have nicked an artery. If we don’t find the bleeder…he’s going to bleed out in minutes.”
Ava stared at him, her lips parted as another squirt of blood doused them.
Kyle pressed his lips together, worry etching his face as he pressed a thick pad of gauze into the wound, desperately trying to find the damaged vessel.
A curse escaped under his breath as he shook his head.
Alex began to feel lightheaded, dizziness sweeping over him.
“Alex,” Ava called, her voice garbled and distant. “Alex.”
The second call of his name was more crisp, and he snapped his gaze to her, his lips tugging into a deep frown.
"Alex, stay with me," Ava commanded, her voice steady and firm. She didn’t flinch as she grabbed the blood-soaked gauze, her hands moving with precision. "We need to save him. We don’t have another option."
“I’m getting kind of woozy here.”
Sebastian cried out as Kyle worked feverishly, trying to find the source of the bleed. A second later, he slumped against the table, his eyes sliding closed.
“He’s passed out,” Ava said. “Ace, sit down before you pass out, too.”
Alex bobbed his head, a blinding pain behind his eyes making it impossible to focus. He tugged out a chair and collapsed into it.
“I can’t find it. I can’t find it.” Kyle shook his head, his voice taut with panic. His hands shook slightly as he continued to search, the blood pooling faster than they could clear it. “Damn it, where is it?”
“Doc, calm down.”
“This isn’t a moment to be calm, Ava. If there was ever a time to panic. It’s right now when he’s bleeding out in front of me.” Kyle’s pinched features turned pained as the doctor faced the prospect of losing his patient.
Ava grabbed his chin between her thumb and forefinger, twisting him to face her. “Doc, focus. You’ve got this. What do you need from me?”
“Ahhh…” He licked his lips nervously, his eyes still wild.
“Think, Doc,” she told him.
Alex gripped the arms of the chair, amazed at how steady Ava could stay in these situations.
“S-suction. And light. I need this blood out of here, then we need to try to mop things up and see where the blood appears.”
She bobbed her head, grabbing the baster and working quickly to remove as much blood as she could before she stuffed gauze inside the wound, swabbing it around.
Kyle immediately leaned forward as she pulled it away, his eyes searching as she held the light. “I see it. I can repair it, but I’m going to need you to remove as much blood as you can from the wound while I work.”
“Got it,” Ava said as he prepared a suture for the nicked artery.
While Ava did her best to keep the area blood-free, he delicately sutured the vessel’s tear closed. When he removed his blood-stained fingers from the wound, she suctioned out the last baster full of blood before he pressed gauze inside.
When he removed it, he heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s good. No more bleeders. Now, I need to close him.”
Ava bobbed her head, holding the light as he worked to finish the surgery. With the wound bandaged, Kyle collapsed into a chair, swiping at the sweat on his brow as he stared at Sebastian. “Whew, that was…not easy.”
“But you did it, Doc. And that’s why you’re a part of this team.”
Alex shifted his gaze from the bandage over Sebastian’s belly to Kyle. “She’s right. That was…impressive.”
“Thanks, Mav,” Kyle said with a grin.
Ava grabbed the receptacle she’d used for the blood and carried it into the kitchen along with the baster. “Do you think he’ll need a transfusion?” she called.
Kyle followed her, returning with blood-free hands that he wiped against a wad of paper towels.
“Please tell me the answer to that is no,” Alex said with a grimace. “I’m a universal donor, and I really don’t want to see any more blood today.”
“Sorry to say, I think he’s going to need it.” Kyle pressed his stethoscope against Sebastian’s chest. “He’s pale, and he lost a lot of blood. I don’t like this sluggish heart rate, either.”
Alex murmured a curse as Kyle pulled out tubing and an empty blood bag.
“Sorry, buddy,” Kyle said as he grabbed an alcohol swab from his bag and ripped it open.
The cold, wet wipe sent a shiver down Alex’s spine. “Man, I really hate this.”
“Try to relax, Ace,” Ava said as she returned to the dining room with clean hands and a clean cheek, but blood still staining her hair.
“Ugh, you have blood in your hair, Sparky.”
She slid her eyes sideways to it before she tried to wipe it away with her paper towel. “Consider it a really gross highlight.”
She tossed the paper towel aside and skirted the table, grabbing Alex’s hand in hers. “It won’t be too bad, babe.”
"I hate needles." Alex grimaced, feeling wooziness washing over him again. As the blood trickled into the bag, he couldn’t shake the bitterness churning in his stomach.
Here he was, saving the man who had haunted their lives, the man who had sent his wife into hiding.
He pressed his lips together, wrestling with the conflicting emotions of gratitude and resentment.
“I know,” she said with a wrinkled nose. “But I’ll give you a cookie after.”
“I don’t want one of Shadow’s stupid cookies,” Alex said with a frown. “I don’t even want to save his stupid life after all the roses he gave you and stuff.”
Alex jumped as Kyle pierced his skin with the needle.
“Ow, Doc. Call your shots, huh?”
“Thought it would be better if you didn’t know.” Kyle adjusted the tubing, allowing the bag to fill with Alex’s blood.
“Ugh, it’s soooo gross,” Alex said, letting his head fall back against the back of the chair.
Ava squeezed his hand. “You’re doing great, Alex.”
“I hope he appreciates the lengths we’re going to to save his stupid life.” Alex slid his eyes closed, trying not to think about the blood pouring from his body. It was a small price to pay, he supposed, to help the man who had made certain Ava didn’t perish in a fiery plane explosion.
Kyle’s phone jangled as he rose, allowing the blood bag to continue to slowly fill. He dug into his pocket before he groaned. “Oh, great.”
“What is it?” Ava asked.
“Julia.”
Alex lifted his head. “What? Are you joking?”
“Nope. What should I do? I can’t answer it.”
“Is that going to work?” Ava said. “The last time you disappeared, Julia moved heaven and earth to track you down.”
“Yeah, but she needed Mav’s help, so we should be safe. I’ll just ignore it.”
“Answer it,” Ava insisted.
“And tell her what? Sorry, Julia, Alex and I snuck out to save someone’s life because Ava is actually alive and found him?”
“Leave off the last bit,” Ava said.
Alex shifted in his seat, wincing as the needle pinched in his arm. “She’s right. Answer her and tell her…we…went to meet Raven. And Raven was shot.”
Kyle’s hands trembled as he shook his head, swiping to accept the call. “Julia, hey.”
“Where are you?” her voice asked over speakerphone. “You were going upstairs with Alex, and now both of you are gone.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Umm, well, the thing is…we, umm…”
Alex nodded at him, his eyes wide, encouraging him to stick to the story they’d hastily discussed.
“Umm, we got a text from that weird guy, Raven. And we went to meet him. And he was…shot. And so I’m just…you know, removing the bullet and stuff. Being a good doctor.”
Ava patted his shoulder.
“Seriously? You got a text from Raven and didn’t think to tell anyone? After everything that’s happened? Kyle, this could have been a setup.”
“Lucky that it wasn’t,” Kyle said with a nervous chuckle. “Anyway, I’m pretty busy here, so I really need to go. Bye, Julia.”
He ended the call, tossing the phone down on the table as he shook his head. “That was way too much. This night keeps getting worse.”
“Are you sweating?” Ava asked.
“Yep,” Kyle said with a bob of his head. “Julia has that effect on me. She’s such a do-gooder. She makes me feel guilty with just a word.”
“My dude, you are an adult. You don’t need Sunshine’s permission to leave the house.”
Kyle scoffed. “Says the guy who suggested we sneak out to begin with because he was terrified of Sierra and Julia.”
“Fair enough, but I just didn’t want to be detained. Also, I’m a terrible liar. I’m literally awful at it. And I’m worried Julia is going to see right through me and realize that I’m not sad anymore, and then just magically know Ava is alive.”
Ava rubbed his shoulder as he scrubbed his face after speaking.
“Same.
“Oh come on, you’re a world-class liar,” Alex shot back.
Ava nodded. “Yeah, didn’t you totally lie to Julia right from the start.”
“That was before. Never mind. I just…don’t want to be the one to blow it. Especially with Shadow here waiting in the wings to claim my spot.”
“No way, Doc. Shadow is not taking your spot. This guy is never going to be Ava’s back-up husband. Not ever.”
“He’s right,” Ava said. “Shadow is only sort of on the team.”
Kyle offered them a soft smile. “Gee, thanks, guys. I appreciate that. And it looks like you’re all finished, Mav. Now, I just need to get this blood going into Shadow.”
Kyle removed the needle from Alex’s arm, squeezing any blood from the tube into the bag before he set it up to trickle into Sebastian’s arm using gravity.
“Okay, that should do it.”
“Anything I should watch out for as he recovers?”
“Ava, we can’t leave you,” Alex said.
“Of course, you can. And you will. You need to get home and play grieving widow. And work on getting Chris out of the way.”
Alex heaved a sigh as he thought about the man who had nearly stolen Ava from him. He’d also oddly brought them back together. He didn’t know how he felt about the fact that the man’s big mouth had nearly cost Ava her life. “How are we supposed to do that?”
Ava pressed her lips together. “Go yell at him. Blame it all on him.”
“Oh, I bet that’ll do it.”
“I’m serious. Chris doesn’t like to think he’s done anything wrong. My death should already be eating away at him. You need to give him a little nudge further toward the guilt.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Kyle said as he performed another check of Sebastian’s vitals, “do we need to be concerned that he could like…off himself over this?”
Ava shook her head. “I’ve never known him to be suicidal.”
“You’ve also never known him to be a part of a criminal organization,” Alex pointed out.
“I know. But I think this may be what makes him see the light. Look, just…go needle at him a little bit, and see if he’ll confess to anything or maybe agree to leave The Board behind.”
“He can’t just leave them,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “I doubt they’ll allow that.”
“Then help him,” Ava said. “I know you hate Chris, but…Alex, we need him out of this so we can focus.”
Alex heaved a sigh, wrapping his arm around Ava as he rose on shaky legs after the blood draw. “Fine. Whatever it takes to bring you home.”
He kissed the top of her head. Leaving her behind after all of this would be hard, but he had to make it safe for her to return. He couldn’t live without Ava.
“All right. You need to watch for, uh, fever, racing heart or slowing heart, labored breathing. When he wakes up, if he’s confused or disoriented at first, that’s normal, but once he’s acclimated, those are signs something is wrong.
” Kyle ticked the warning signs off on his fingers.
“Excessive bleeding from the wound, coughing up blood, pain beyond what’s tolerable. ”
“Got it.”
“Ava, don’t hesitate to call me. We’re an hour away. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
She nodded at him. “Hopefully, there will be no issues.”
“With any luck. Now, let’s go bag us an angry architect.”
“I am not looking forward to this at all,” Alex said with a shake of his head.
Kyle shrugged as he packed up his things. “I kind of am. You be good cop, I’ll be bad cop. You know, you go in with the whole poor me, my wife is dead act. And I’ll slam him against a wall.”
“That could work,” Alex said with a pensive glance into space.
“Good luck,” Ava answered as she wrapped an arm around Alex.
“Thanks, babe. Let’s hope you’re home soon.” He pulled her closer, pressing his forehead against hers. “I don’t want to go.”
“I’ll be okay, Alex,” she whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He kissed her lips softly before he slowly backed away from her. “Give Gizmo a kiss from me.”
“I’d like to keep that kiss for myself, but fine. I’ll give it to Giz.” With a fleeting smile, he stepped through the door with Kyle, his heart aching. Worry coursed through him as he took one last glance before he swung the door shut behind him.
He froze the image in his mind of Ava in her sweats, offering him a soft smile and a wave.
An ominous thought bounced around in his head as they climbed into the van to return to the Hamptons. What if this would be the last time he saw Ava?