Chapter Forty-One
RIVER
“Fuck, we have a man down. Elliot’s been shot!”
Elliot’s been shot.
He took a bullet—for me .
I crash to my knees, pulling off my balaclava. “El, you with me?”His eyes are closed beneath the balaclava. With blood-stained hands, I lift his head and rip it off over his head before gripping his face. “Elliot!”
Panic assaults me as I lower my gaze to his shoulder, claret seeping through the dark sweater he’s wearing.
Mason shoves me out of the way, cuts open Elliot’s sweater at the shoulder and down to the hem, and pulls him up, his hand moving to his back.
“It looks like the bullet was a through and through, and it hit the muscle,”Mason says.
Those words have my body almost sagging in relief. The shock of seeing the man I love bleeding rendered mealmost useless. But those words kickstarted my heart.
“Help me get him up. We need to move him. The Police are on their way, and we need to go. ”
“Jax?”I ask, remembering the guy they sent below deck before the real shit hit the fan.
“I’m right here… fuck. Is he okay?”
I glance over as he appears, Mia bundled in his arms.
“Through and through,”Mason says, packing it with a gauze he pulled from the outside pocket of his trousers. At least he had the foresight. I only brought weapons with me.
Jax briefly takes in the carnage surrounding us as the sound of sirens’ wail in the distance.
“Go, get out of here. I’ve got this,”Louis says, his gaze moving from Jax to Mason. He retrieves his phone and makes a quick call, speaking in French.
“Where’s Richard?”Jax asks as he approaches, eyes scanning the room for any sign of him.
“I’ll explain once we’re out of here,”Mason says, kneeling on the other side of Elliot. “But first, we need to move, now!”
Louis hangs up. “Gabe will take you to the hospital, but you all need to leave. You can’t be here when the authorities arrive.”
I let out a grunt as Mason and I hoist Elliot up between us. Fuck, he’s heavy.
“Who are you?”Jax asks, his gaze flicking to Mason and then back to Louis. Clearly, there’s something we’re missing.
“Mason will fill you in. Now go. Get her and your man to the hospital.”
He moves ahead and checks the surroundings before waving us forward.
“Go, Gabe is right there,”he says, pointing to the waiting SUV, the headlights blaring.
Jax nods. “Thank you,”he says as he crosses the gangplank, closely followed by Mason and me as we carry Elliot.
Gabriel already has the doors open, ready for us as we all pile inside. Jax takes the front passenger seat, Mia still in his arms, and Mason and I manage to get Elliot in between us in the back .
“We’ll be at the hospital within ten minutes. We have someone waiting for us,”Gabriel says, looking in the rearview mirror. “There’s a medkit behind my seat. And blankets on the parcel shelf.”
Mason leans forward and pulls it into his lap, riffling through it for some more gauze as I grab the blankets, passing one over to Jax for Mia and then using the other to cover Elliot. The full moon lights up the backseat of the car, allowing me to see his face clearly as I wipe his hair off his brow, his skin pale and cold to the touch.
“Elliot, can you hear me?”I say, as Mason leans over to pack the wound.
He groans, his eyes moving beneath his lids, but he doesn’t open them, and I wish for anything to see his warm brown irises staring back at me.
“Keep pressure there,”Mason says, moving my hand to Elliot’s shoulder.
“Come on, El, stay with me.”
With my free hand, I reach for his, and I swear I feel his fingers twitch beneath mine.
Jax starts speaking to Mason, but I completely tune them out, my ears still ringing from the rapid gunfire and how quickly that whole scenario escalated.
The bullet was meant for me, and I’d have taken it too.
Fucking Elliot. Who’s the one with the fucking saviour complex now?
The car quickly fills with the distinctive metallic copper scent that can only be associated with blood. The urge to open the window is strong, but I can’t risk it with the blood loss and his body temperature dropping.
Pulling my gaze away from Elliot, I glance up to see Jax looking over his shoulder.
“Fuck man, I should have been there,”he says, his guilt palpable, his jaw tight .
I shake my head and nod to Mia, tucked against his chest. “No, man, you were right where you were meant to be.”
It feels like an eternity before we pull up under a small carport.
“This is a private hospital and secure wing,”Gabriel says before climbing out.
Everything else happens so quickly as doors open, revealing a waiting trolley. We lift Elliot from the car, and as soon as he’s on the trolley, he’s quickly wheeled away. We all follow. I don’t even have time to assess my surroundings.
Someone says something to me in French, but Ijustshake my head.
Gabriel reaches out, grips my shoulder, and translates. “They need to take him through to tend to him, you need to wait here. But I promise he’s in good hands.”
A doctor and a nurse appear, and when they see Mia in Jax’s arms, they signal for him to follow them into an empty room. Knowing there’s nothing else I can do for Elliot, I go with them as they take us into a private room.
The doctor speaks broken English, but it’s enough for them to explain that they need to examine Mia. They only speak French when addressing Gabriel, but he translates, which we’re grateful for. A curtain is pulled over to give them privacy as they assessher,however we refuse to leave the room.
I sink into the chair and let my chin fall to my chest before running my hand through my hair.
When the curtains are drawn back, Mia is lying with an IV coming from her hand.
The doctorspeaks quicklyto Gabriel, who relays the information to us.
“She seems to be fine. They have her on some fluids, and they want to monitor her until she wakes up. They’ve taken some blood work to screen for toxins. But other than some bruising, she seems otherwise uninjured. ”
Jax lets out a heavy breath and then shakes the doctor’s hand.
“Thank you.”
She nods and then leaves us alone in the room with Gabriel.
“I need to go make a call,”Gabriel says, moving towards the door. I grab his elbow before his hand meets the door handle.
“Wait. Can you find out about Elliot for me, please,”I say, my voice cracking at the last word.
He nods. “Of course, I’ll also send Mason in.”
I forgot he was even here.
A few minutes later, Mason appears, his hair wet and he’s in fresh clothes.
He hands me a holdall. “Here, there’s a change of clothes, you can wash up and change in the bathroom,”he says, pointing behind me as he passes it over.
I glance down, noting how bloody and dirty I am from the fallout of what happened on the yacht.
“Go on, I don’t want Mia coming around and seeing you like that.”
He’s right. Inod and turn towards the small bathroom. “I’ll be quick.”
The sooner I clean up and change, the closer we should be to getting an update on Elliot.