Aria Ruso
I did exactly as Cade had asked of me. I didn’t move from my spot as I stayed on the floorboards of the back seat. I heard an occasional gunshot arise, but I didn’t move. I cursed myself for asking to come here when all I could do was sit in the car and wait. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I
could hold my own against any of the men who fought against Cade. I would have gotten myself killed ten times over.
But hearing the fight and knowing that I could do nothing was disconcerting. My heart raced, and my mind shot to all the ways I could potentially help. Maybe I wouldn’t stand a chance fighting, but I could help tend to the wounded people.
I peeked over the center console and through the windshield, finding everything outside just as intense as it had been when we’d first arrived. Somehow, I managed to pick Cade out of the crowd as he fought a man with his gun withdrawn. Carter stood nearby, fighting two other people.
There were so many people on the ground-so many injured and dead people.
I knew that if I could get into the fray, I could make a difference. I had enough field knowledge that I could save at least one life if I were out there, but I had a feeling I’d lose mine in the process. Maybe Cade’s decision to make me train hadn’t been a bad one, especially if, in a few months, I could hold my own in a battle like this. So many of these people would have a fighting chance if I were out there to help them.
I didn’t particularly care if Cade got himself killed, I decided. It would be inconvenient, but I didn’t think I’d care as much as I should. But the other people? Carter? They could be decent, and I didn’t think they deserved to die because nobody was close enough to help them.
Begrudgingly I admitted to myself that Cade didn’t deserve to die, either.
I watched as one of the only women in the fight stood against a man far taller and broader than her. Somehow, she had him subdued, dodging all of his hits. I wondered if that would be me in a few months. Taking out people much larger than me. Taking out Cade without much difficulty.
A scream worked its way up my throat as he grabbed the pistol from his holster and fired twice in her abdomen before she could do anything more. She gripped the spots on her stomach and hunched, but the man didn’t seem to care as he turned and found a fight elsewhere. She collapsed onto her hands and knees, examining the blood that coated her hands.
I didn’t know if she was one of Cade’s men, but she was injured. She would die if nothing was done, and she was close enough that I wouldn’t have to go through anyone to reach her.
As she began pulling herself toward a dumpster, using it as a makeshift blockade, I sat up and slammed through the door. I wouldn’t have to go through the fray of bullets and bodies to help her. I could just hunker down and keep her alive long enough for this fight to end. Maybe I could drag her back to the van. I’d seen Cade place a large first aid bag in the back of it, and I knew I could find something in there to keep her alive, but I didn’t have the time to search it now. I didn’t even know what I’d need.
I kept low to avoid any stray bullets, and I skidded to a stop beside the woman. Nobody seemed to notice as I crouched over her.
“Cock sucking motherfucker,” she snarled, holding her stomach and hunching over herself. I couldn’t even imagine how much pain the woman was in, but I knew that we were still in view of too many people here. We were in too much danger. “I had him,” she panted.
“You did,” I agreed, internally hoping that this was one of Cade’s people. It didn’t matter right now. My duty was to heal people, and it didn’t matter which people. “Let me see. I’m a nurse.”
Her shaking hand rose from the bullet wounds in her stomach, and from the location of them, I knew they’d hit something vital. One of the bullets had hit either a kidney or a major blood vessel, and the other could have hit half a dozen things to account for the heavy bleeding. “Shit,” I whispered, looking around.
I needed to get her back to the van, but disturbing the wounds any more could be a death sentence for her.
Staying here, though, would be a death sentence.
I went to stand, but something shoved me back to my knees. The woman’s eyes widened as she lay before me, and I gasped as a hand wound its way through my hair, tugging my head upward painfully. Shit, shit, shit. I had no idea how to get out of something like this. I could barely defend myself, let alone fight off a grown mafia man.
Too many thoughts to count rushed through my head, but my body refused to move a single muscle as his grip tightened. “You’re the boss’s little bitch. I saw you leave the car,” the man said.
A loud boom came so close that my ears rang, and I closed my eyes, anticipating some kind of pain. But nothing came. The man’s hand loosened on my hair, and he thumped to the ground behind me. I sucked in a sharp breath as I watched Cade come around the dumpster and kneel, staring daggers at me.
“What the fuck are you doing out here,” he bellowed. I couldn’t think of a time I’d seen him so angry. He’d been pissed nearly every time I’d been around him, but it had never been an uncontrollable rage in his eyes. It had never been anything so intense and all-consuming. “I told you to stay in the car.”
“I couldn’t just let her die,” I said, gesturing to the quickly paling woman. “She needs a hospital.”
“Does it look like we’re in the position to take a trip to the hospital?” he shouted, rubbing a hand over my face. “Stupid, reckless fucking woman.”
I ignored his insults. “I can’t drag her back to the van. We have to carry her gently, or I’m afraid she’ll bleed out.”
Her eyes looked dazed, and I recognized that look. She was minutes from crashing, and I needed to keep her awake. Keep her alert. Cade looked between her and me before shouting another few curses and reaching for her. “You go in front of me and open the back door.” I nodded, and the second he had her in his arms, we took off. I sprinted, ignoring the gunshots and hoping they weren’t aimed at us. I noticed that the fight was beginning to die down in favor of Cade, but a few enemies remained. Enough that there was still a threat.
Cade groaned, and I watched as he stumbled in his sprint, but he didn’t drop her from the fireman’s carry or run. I did as he ordered and opened the door, and he laid her inside.
She was unconscious.
I rushed toward her and felt for a pulse. It took a moment to find the thready beat, and in less than ten seconds, there was nothing. My heart sank as I realized that despite my efforts, she was gone. I knew what that meant, and I knew that if she had passed this quickly, there was nothing that could have saved her.
I whipped around to Cade and finally took a good look at him. His fists opened and closed as he likely tried to work the stiffness from his fingers. Blood oozed from a hole in his forearm slowly, and his jaw looked slightly reddened from a bruise that hadn’t yet formed. He had a splatter of blood on both of his pant legs, but it didn’t look like it had come from him.
He grabbed both of my arms and shoved me hard into the van, getting right in my face. “What the fuck were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself and others killed. I told you to stay here.”
“You don’t command me,” I shouted back. “I’m a fucking nurse, and I’m not going to let people die when I can help.”
“Does that look like helping?” he asked, pointing to the woman in the van who looked like she could just be sleeping. I wanted to think of her that way, but no matter how hard I tried to cover the truth with my mind, I couldn’t forget the feeling of her heartbeat fading.
I ground my teeth, holding back tears. “I tried.”
“You tried to get yourself killed, maybe. In battles like this, people die.
Your reckless behavior almost got you killed.”
“I’m not going to watch people die and do nothing,” I shouted back, shoving at his immovable chest. My shouts reverberated down the block as all the grunts and gunshots seemed to fade out. “If you expect that from me, then you need to change your damn expectations.”
He ground his teeth as his tight grip on my arms burned through me. It was bruising, and it would be sore tomorrow, but I didn’t care. I continued pushing at his chest until he took a small step back.
“I’m going to help the injured people, and you’re going to fucking deal with it,” I spat at him.
“Only my people,” he said to my back as I walked away.
“I don’t take orders from you,” I shouted over a shoulder. He didn’t say anything in return.
***
I lost track of how many hours I spent on the block, tending to the wounded and sending them to either the main house to be further treated or the hospital. Only a handful of people were lucky enough to escape nearly uninjured. And after I finished with Cade’s men, I went to examine the survivors on the other side, only to find that Cade and Carter had already killed each of them.
I wanted to shout at them for the brutality of what they’d done, but I knew it would have been a mercy for some of them.
I knew that many of them deserved death, but it still sat wrong with me.
I followed multiple vans back to the main house and got to work on all the injuries that people had sustained. I dug bullets from small wounds and stitched up others. I had to set a couple of broken bones, and by the time I’d finished, I could hardly keep my eyes open. There were makeshift blanket beds for over a dozen people, all spread throughout different rooms so they could be observed overnight.
I prayed that nothing severe happened as I slept, as I needed a few hours of uninterrupted rest.
I made my way toward my room, my feet dragging as I considered the potential injuries that could cause problems overnight. A few of Cade’s soldiers would be doing hourly checks on all those people, so I hoped all would go well.
I sagged as I reached my bedroom door and pushed it open.
Four makeshift cots sat inside with wounded men sleeping on them. It took a moment to process that my room had been commandeered. What would I do? Where would I sleep? I realized whom I had to talk to about these things and sighed deeply, closing the door to my room quietly and turning in the opposite direction.
I stopped outside of Cade’s room and paused for just a second, wondering if going and finding a couch would be the best idea. The last words we’d shared had been hateful, angry ones, and I was too tired to continue that conversation right now.
I was too tired to sleep on a couch in the main room.
I lifted my fists and begrudgingly knocked.