Chapter 54 Blood and Loyalty
Gunfire echoed through the parking garage, bullets ricocheting off concrete.
Pierce's weight pressed Elena into the ground, his body a shield over hers. She couldn't see anything, couldn't move, just felt the impact of each shot vibrating through the floor.
"Derek, how many?" Pierce shouted.
"Three shooters! East and west positions!" Derek's voice came from somewhere close. "We're pinned!"
More gunfire, more glass shattering, the screech of tires.
"Marcus, report!"
"Engaging east position!" Marcus's voice crackled through the comm. "Leo, cover the vehicle!"
Pierce shifted slightly, one hand still cradling Elena's head. "On my count, we move to the SUV. Derek will cover."
"I'm ready," Derek called out.
"Three... two... one..."
Pierce hauled Elena up, his arm around her waist, practically carrying her toward the SUV fifteen feet away.
Gunfire exploded and derek stepped into the open, laying down covering fire, his gun trained on the shooters.
They were almost to the vehicle when Elena heard it.
The sharp crack of a rifle.
Derek's body jerked. He stumbled, going down on one knee.
"Derek!" Elena screamed.
"Keep moving!" Pierce shoved her toward the SUV, then turned back.
Derek was on the ground now, blood spreading across his chest, still trying to aim his weapon.
Pierce grabbed him, hauling him up with one arm. "I've got you!"
Elena threw open the SUV's back door. Pierce dragged Derek inside, laying him across the back seat. Elena climbed in after him, her hands already pressing against the wound.
"Drive!" Pierce shouted to Leo, slamming the door.
The SUV peeled out, tires screaming. More bullets hit the reinforced windows, spider-webbing the glass but not breaking through.
Elena pressed both hands against Derek's chest. Blood pulsed between her fingers, hot and relentless.
"Derek, look at me!" She leaned over him. "Stay with me!"
Derek's eyes were unfocused, his face pale. "Boss..."
"Save your strength," Pierce said from the front seat, twisted around to see them. His face was ashen.
Elena ripped open Derek's shirt, exposing the wound. Upper left chest, just below the collarbone. Blood was everywhere.
"I need supplies!" Elena shouted. "First aid kit, now!"
Leo reached back with a tactical medical kit. Elena tore it open, pulling out gauze, pressure bandages, anything she could use.
"Derek, this is going to hurt." Elena packed gauze into the wound, applying direct pressure. Derek gasped, his back arching. "I know, I know. Just breathe."
The SUV swerved through traffic. Leo drove like a man possessed, running lights, taking corners at dangerous speeds.
"How is he?" Pierce's voice was tight.
"He needs surgery. The bullet's still in there." Elena's hands were covered in blood. "How far to the safe house?"
"Twenty minutes."
"He might not have twenty minutes!" Her voice rose.
"Then try your best to keep him alive." Pierce's voice cracked slightly. "Please."
Elena worked frantically, applying pressure, monitoring Derek's breathing, talking to him constantly.
"Stay with me, Derek. Come on. You're not dying in the back of an SUV. You hear me?"
Derek's eyes fluttered. "Elena..."
"Save it. You can yell at me later for getting you shot."
"It's not... your fault..."
"The hell it isn't." Elena's voice broke. "You took that bullet for me."
"Would do it... again..."
"Well you're not going to get the chance because you're going to live." Elena pressed harder on the wound. "You're going to live and I'm going to save you and then I'm going to kill you myself for scaring me like this."
Derek managed a weak smile before his eyes closed.
"Derek!" Elena checked his pulse. It was still there, it was weak but there. "Pierce, he's fading!"
"Give me five minutes." Pierce said. "Just five more minutes."
Those five minutes felt like the longest five minutes of Elena's life.
When they finally pulled up to the safe house, a nondescript building on the outskirts of the city, Pierce was out of the vehicle before it stopped moving.
"Get him inside!" Elena commanded. "I need a clean surface, boiling water, and every towel you have!"
Pierce and Leo carried Derek inside, laying him on the kitchen table. Elena was already scrubbing her hands in the sink, her mind shifting into full doctor mode.
"Pierce, I need you." She turned to face him. "You're going to assist."
"I'm not a doctor..."
"You're what I have." Elena pulled on gloves from the medical kit. "Scrub your hands. Now."
Pierce moved to the sink without another word.
Elena laid out instruments, scalpel, forceps, retractors, sutures. Everything from the tactical kit. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to work.
"This isn't a hospital," Pierce said quietly, drying his hands. "Can you actually..."
"I've done emergency surgery before. Not in ideal conditions, but I've done it." Elena positioned herself over Derek. "I need you to follow my instructions exactly. Can you do that?"
"Yes."
"Okay then, Let's save him."
Elena opened the wound where the bullet entered. Blood came out instantly, and Pierce used gauze to wipe it away so she could see.
"Retractor," Elena said.
Pierce handed it to her and she positioned it, pulling back tissue to expose the wound path.
"I can see it. The bullet's is stuck near the collarbone." Elena's voice was steady and clinical. "Forceps."
Pierce handed them over. Elena worked carefully, finding a way around the bone and tissue, trying not to cause more damage.
Derek's breathing hitched.
"He's stable," Pierce said, monitoring the makeshift vital signs. "Keep going."
Elena gripped the bullet with the forceps, applying gentle traction. It shifted then she adjusted her angle, pulled again.
The bullet came free.
"Got it." Elena dropped it into a metal dish. "Now I need to repair the damage."
For the next forty minutes, Elena worked with absolute focus. Repairing torn blood vessels. Checking for fragments. Cleaning the wound. Suturing layer by layer.
Pierce followed every instruction without hesitation. Handed her instruments. Applied pressure where she directed. Never shook.
When Elena finally stepped back, Derek's chest was rising and falling steadily. The bleeding had stopped and his vitals were stable.
"He's going to make it," Elena whispered.
Pierce sagged against the counter. "You're sure?"
"He needs antibiotics, monitoring, rest. But yes." Elena pulled off her bloody gloves. "He's going to make it."
They carried Derek to a bedroom, got him situated. Elena started an IV line, administered antibiotics, covered him with blankets.
Derek's eyes opened briefly. "Doc..."
"Rest," Elena said firmly. "You're going to be fine."
His eyes closed again, breathing evening out into sleep.
Elena checked his vitals one more time. Pulse steady. Breathing normal. Color returning to his face.
"He's stable," she said quietly.
Pierce stood in the doorway, watching. "You saved his life."
Elena stared down at Derek, at the bandages covering the wound, at the IV drip keeping him hydrated.
She'd just saved him but he'd been shot in the first place protecting her, and she didn't know how to process that yet.