Chapter 42 ETHAN
ETHAN
Water erupts around them as they surface. Jade first, her breath ragged, arms locked around Declan's slack, bleeding body.
"Help!" she screams, her voice raw.
I'm already moving, dropping to my knees at the edge of the pool, reaching down to grasp Declan's shoulders. He's a mountain of dead weight, blood blooming across his shirt, spreading into the water around them.
"I've got him," I tell Jade, locking eyes with her. "Let me take him."
She nods, though I can see the reluctance in her face. She doesn't want to let go, as if maintaining her grip on him is the only thing keeping him alive.
"On three," I say, leaning further over the edge. "One, two..."
I haul upward on three, my muscles straining against his bulk. For a moment nothing happens, then he starts to slide upward, water streaming from his clothes. Jade pushes from below, her face contorted with effort, and together we manage to pull his upper body onto the concrete.
I drag him the rest of the way out, laying him flat on his back. The entry wound is high on his left shoulder, a ragged hole pumping blood with each heartbeat. Exit wound must be underneath him. He's alive, but unconscious, his breathing shallow.
"Declan!" Jade scrambles out of the pool, her soaking dress clinging to her body as she drops to her knees beside him. "Declan, please, open your eyes!"
Behind us, Mateo has Becky face-down on the concrete, his knee in her back, though she writhes and screams obscenities. She's bleeding from a wound in her thigh. My shot, after she fired at Declan. Not fatal, but enough to bring her down.
"Call an ambulance!" Jade shouts at me, her hands pressing against Declan's wound, blood seeping between her fingers. "Call an ambulance now!"
"Already did," I tell her, stripping off my shirt to press against the wound. "Dispatched as soon as we arrived. They're on their way."
I need to keep pressure on the bleeding, keep him stable until help arrives. My training kicks in: assess, stabilize, maintain. Jade's hands join mine on the makeshift compress, both of us pushing down hard enough to slow the bleeding.
"Stay with me," she whispers to Declan, her voice breaking. "Please stay with me. You don't get to do this, you understand? You don't get to save me and then leave."
His face is ashen, lips tinged slightly blue, but his chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm. That's something.
"Jade," I say quietly, "he's breathing. His pulse is strong. That's good."
She nods, not taking her eyes off Declan's face. Her hands are stained crimson, trembling slightly as they press against my wadded shirt.
"I can hear sirens," I tell her, catching the distant wail. "They're coming."
Mateo grunts behind us, and I glance back to see him securing Becky's wrists with his belt, looping it through the metal railing of the pool steps. She's still thrashing, still screaming, but she's subdued for now.
"How is he?" Mateo asks, joining us at Declan's side, his face grim.
"Lost a lot of blood," I answer. "Bullet went clean through, but it might have hit something major. We need to keep pressure on it until the paramedics get here."
Mateo kneels opposite us, adding his hands to the pressure on Declan's wound. "Hey, Old Man," he says, his voice forcibly light, "this is a hell of a way to get out of work. You know I'm not covering your shifts, right?"
Jade's eyes flash with momentary anger, but I understand what Mateo's doing. Sometimes, even unconscious, people respond to the familiar.
"Yeah," I add, following his lead. "Real dramatic, taking a bullet. Always have to one-up everybody, don't you?"
A muscle in Declan's face twitches. His eyelids flutter.
"That's it," Mateo encourages, leaning closer. "Come on, hermano. Since when do you let a little bullet stop you? Remember that time in Kandahar when you carried Johnson three miles with shrapnel in your leg?"
Another twitch. His breathing changes rhythm.
"I bet he's milking it for sympathy," Mateo continues, though I can see the fear behind his forced smile.
Declan's eyes snap open.
"Fuck... you," he rasps, the words barely audible.
Relief hits me like a physical blow. Jade makes a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
"There he is," Mateo says, grinning despite the tears in his eyes. "Welcome back, Old Man."
Declan's dark eyes find Jade's face, confusion giving way to recognition, then concern. Always concern for others, even with a bullet hole in his shoulder.
"You... okay?" he asks her, his voice a scratchy whisper.
She laughs incredulously. "Am I okay? You just took a bullet for me, and you're asking if I'm okay?"
His lips twitch in what might be an attempt at a smile. "Answer... the question."
"I'm fine," she says, her voice softening. "Thanks to you. To all of you." Her eyes lift to mine, then to Mateo's, shining with tears.
"You came," she whispers. "Even after everything I said, everything I did... you came."
"Of course we came," I say simply. "We knew something was wrong."
Mateo reaches across Declan to take her hand. "The Kill Bill quote was a nice touch."
She smiles, then sobers, looking back at Declan. "Don't you ever do that again," she tells him fiercely.
"No promises," Declan murmurs, his eyes drifting closed again, though he's still conscious, still breathing steadily.
The sirens are louder now, just outside the property. Blue and red lights flash against the house walls, casting strange shadows across the pool deck.
"We need to talk," I say to Jade, my voice low and urgent. "All of us. About what happened, about why you sent us away..."
"I know," she interrupts, her eyes meeting mine, filled with regret and something that looks like hope. "I need to explain..."
The gate bursts open, and suddenly the pool area is flooded with uniformed officers, weapons drawn, followed by paramedics.
"Police! Everyone stay where you are!"
The moment shatters. Jade and I are pulled away from Declan as the paramedics swarm around him.
Mateo is explaining about Becky, pointing to where she's secured to the railing.
An officer approaches me, asking questions I answer on autopilot, my eyes never leaving Jade as she's wrapped in a foil blanket and led to a separate ambulance.
Our conversation will have to wait. But as they load Declan onto a gurney, as the paramedics work to stabilize him, as the chaos of emergency response swirls around us, I catch Jade's eye one last time.
The look that passes between us holds everything we haven't said yet. Everything we still need to say.
That she's still here. That we still have time.