"No." We hear grumbling coming from Mayson, and my eyes go back down to him as he tries to shake his head from side to side.
"If he came here," Ethan says, "then he’s running from someone."
"If he’s running," Casey says, stepping forward, "then we need to get him the fuck out of here. Far away from here."
Ethan nods his head and looks at me. "What can you do to make him comfortable so we can take him out of here?"
"Take him out of here?" I open the bag and grab my stethoscope. "Are you insane? He needs a hospital. First off, he’s been shot. Then his legs need to be checked out. I don’t even know what is going on internally. He can have a head injury we don’t know about. He needs a hospital."
"He had to have been in his right mind to drive here." Ethan looks at me, and I want to agree with him.
"Any normal person wouldn’t be able to walk ten steps with his injuries," I say. "You guys are trained for this," I tell him. "You’re trained to shut it down and fight through everything until you get to your hub." I throw up my hand. "Or whatever it’s called."
"Chelsea," Casey says my name, and I look up at my uncle, who now squats down in front of us. "Honey, he can’t go to the hospital. Ethan is right."
"You are all insane." I shake my head. "I will get him as stable as I can, and then his doctor can treat him."
Ethan looks at Casey, and the two share a look. "Honey," my uncle Casey says, and I know what is coming. But even if I know it’s coming, hearing the words makes me shake my head. "You can treat him."
"Are you two crazy?" I look at them both and then up at Quinn, who is looking at me. Nothing is on his face but worry. "I can’t do this." I get up, waiting for someone else to say how fucking crazy this is. Quinn now averts his eyes, and when I look at Emily, she wrings her hands.
Emily steps forward now. "If anyone can help him, you can." She comes to me and puts her hand in mine.
"I’m a nurse. I am not a doctor. He might need surgery, and that is not even my specialty." I look down now as my eyes focus on the bullet wound. It’s leaking down his side to the floor, where there is a puddle of blood now. "An X-ray needs to be done to make sure I know where the bullet is lodged. We need to get him hydrated."
"I can get anything you need," Casey says, "except the X-ray machine."
"Bullet…" We hear from Mayson, and all eyes turn back to him as he hisses through the pain, using all of his energy as he says the next words. His eye close as he starts to talk again. But he stays alert enough to tell us everything. "Went straight through." I grab a pair of gloves from my bag. "My legs." I look down and see the seeping, soaked pant legs that I didn’t even notice. "Stabbed four times." He trails off now, and we know because his head turns to the side. My head spins when I think of his wounds and how the injuries point to his hands being tied. My eyes fly to Ethan’s. He’s looking at me, knowing what I’m going to say next.
“This wasn’t just a five-minute thing,” I say to the whole room. "He was tortured," I whisper, looking at him. He doesn’t have a chance to answer me because two car doors slam, and everyone looks toward the front door. The rain has finally slowed.
My father, Beau, and Ethan’s father, Jacob, run up the stairs. Both of their eyes assess the situation. My father finds my eyes right away, making sure I’m okay, and then he looks down at Mayson.
"Did he attack you?" he asks, confused by this whole scene.
"I’ll fill you in, Uncle Beau," Quinn says. "But first, we need to get him over to Chelsea's house."
"My house?" I snap. "Why my house?" My heartbeat is going so fast now it echoes in my ears.
"Now wait a second," my father snaps, stepping forward and holding up his hands to stop everyone. "We are not bringing him to her house."
"This needs to be under the radar," Ethan says to him. "I would never ever put her in harm’s way, but we need someone who can monitor him."
"Then hire someone." I stand and take off my gloves. "Just like Uncle Casey can get whatever I need, I’m sure you can get a doctor who can take care of him.”
"Honey," Jacob says, looking at me. "I don’t think anyone can take care of him as well as you can. If it came down to it, there is no one I would want except you."
"You took an oath," Ethan says, and I glare at him.
I then say the words that shock not only everyone in this room but even me. "Get him in the truck."
Chapter 4
Mayson
"Get him in the truck." I hear Chelsea's voice, and try to open my eyes, but one is sealed shut. The other one is blurry from the sweat and blood dripping off my forehead. I try to lift my hand, but nothing happens. Not even a twitch. I focus on what is going on around me. I can hear everything, and I want them to know, but I can’t communicate with them. “Someone needs to apply pressure on his bullet wound to make sure he doesn't lose anymore blood,” Chelsea says, and I hear people move all around me. “I need a belt,” she yells, “to tie around his legs to stop the blood flow until we get him back to my house!”
"Be careful moving him," Ethan says as the men lift me, and the pain rips through me. My stab wounds in my legs feel like they are ripping open. The bullet wound in my side feels like someone lit a match and put it straight inside it. In my head, I’m roaring out in pain, but in reality, the only thing that comes out of me is a groan. "We’ve got you, Mayson," I hear Ethan say from beside me. Ethan and his family are the only ones who call me Mayson. Everyone else uses Carey, my last name, and I don't know why, but it’s only when I hear those words does my body let go. The tension leaves, and I soak into the darkness.
"Come here, you fucking piece of shit." His voice came out in a snarl as his spit flew on my face, and he grasped my hair in his fist. "You thought you saw the last of me." He chuckled as he grabbed my chin in his hand as hard as he could, squeezing. "Hiding like a fucking coward." I looked into the eyes that I prayed I would never see again. Eyes that haunted my dreams.
Letting my chin go, I knew pain would come next, and I was not wrong when he kicked me right in the ribs. One. Two. Three. He always went for three. My hands were tied together around a tree in the middle of the forest.
I closed my eyes, trying to focus on anything but the pain, and it was just too much for him. "Oh, no, you don’t." He grabbed my hair into his fist, pulling my head back. "Not yet, you fucker." He smiled as he looked at me. "You close your eyes when I tell you to," he said, shocking me when he head-butted me.
"We will place him on the flatbed," Chelsea says. "I’m going to ride in the back with him to make sure he’s stable." I feel myself being carried. “It’s pitch black. I need a flashlight," she tells Ethan, and I can tell she is irritated with him. I’ve been around her a total of ten times, and each time, I've learned something new about her. But I got her irritated look after ten minutes.