Kendall
I come to with Mia holding these awful smelling salts beneath my nose.
“Camden,” I gasp, sitting up, and Mia struggles to her feet. She’s too pregnant to move quickly, but she does the best she can helping me up.
“Go slow,” she warns, but her face is pale and I know something is wrong. I’m trying to remember what it is but passing out has made me so dizzy and fuzzy…
Camden.
I rush into the living room and Camden’s on the couch, absolutely covered in blood. Dante and Angelo both have their hands on his back, holding pressure, and Jimmy Sawbones, the doctor to all the famiglia in the area, has just come in the door, rushing to the living room.
I just stare at him, knowing that I’ll get in the way if I go over there.
“Did you see the wound?” I ask Mia, and she slowly nods.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” I whisper.
“It’s bad,” she agrees, and I feel faint again but I manage to keep consciousness, tears streaming down my face.
“I can’t fix this,” Jimmy says almost immediately. “We have to take him to the hospital.”
Dante doesn’t argue, grabbing his keys.
“Let’s go.”
“What is it?” I ask Jimmy, clutching at his arm in desperation. “Where’s he hit?”
“In the back,” he says, not mincing words. “It’s stuck in there, and it could be close to his heart.”
“Oh my god,” I sob, and Mia grabs me as I try to get to Camden.
Elora ‘s also downstairs, standing next to the couch which now has Camden’s blood all over it. Her face is pale and she looks like she’s about to pass out.
I go to her, grabbing her and hugging her tightly, and she slowly, very slowly, hugs me back.
“He’s going to be okay,” I say, but my voice is choked with tears and I don’t know if I believe it.
“He’s going to be okay,” she repeats in a near-slurred voice. She’s in shock, and I’ve been there. I’m probably right there with her because I can’t imagine Camden not making it. I can’t imagine any scenario where he’s not in this world.
“I’ll drive you both to the hospital,” Mia says quickly as Jimmy and Angelo and Dante move Camden to the car, Jimmy still holding pressure on the wound.
I follow Mia, trying not to look at Camden, trying not to look at the blood soaking his white shirt red.
I feel like I’m standing outside my body, as if I’m on the outside looking in, and its disconcerting.
At the hospital, the police ask a million questions but all of us just keep saying we don’t know, that he was in a bad part of town and he must have gotten caught in the crossfire. They don’t seem to believe us but none of us care.
They can’t charge us for bringing in an injured man.
I keep thinking of all the blood, of Camden’s face, how pale he was, almost gray.
I keep rubbing my stomach, waiting and waiting.
Elora comes to me after speaking with the doctors.
“It’s an artery around his heart,” she says in a shaky voice. She’s holding together so much better than I thought. “He’s lost a lot of blood. They’re taking him to surgery to remove the bullet now.”
“God,” I whisper, and I hug her tightly. She’s shaking all over.
“I have to call Mama,” she murmurs, and I let her go and she walks outside of the hospital.
Mia takes my hand. “You need to sit down. You fainted just a little while ago.”
I listen to her, letting her take me to a chair.
I haven’t completely broken down yet, not since I fainted, and now I’m feeling it approach like a freight train.
“God, Mia, what am I going to do?” I ask, searching her face, tears bursting from my eyes.