A shot was fired. It startled everyone outside. Melvin’s first reaction was to punch one of the guards on the face and took over his gun. The other man pulled his gun from the back of his pants but Melvin was too fast for him. He shot the second man on the leg and arm and took his gun too.
A second gunshot was fired. Jamie went into the room, she got down on the floor to avoid a stray bullet. She looked for Gabriel, he was not far from the door, he was on the floor. She saw Eddie still with a gun in his hand, he too was on the floor near the armchair where she had sat.
“Eddie! Did you shoot him?” was the first thing that came out of her mouth. “Gabriel!” she shouted in panic.
His shirt and jacket was stained with quite a significant amount of blood, but he was conscious. He sat up and checked on his wound. His left abdomen was bleeding.
“Are you fucking crazy? What the hell did you do?” she screamed at Eddie. “Come on we have to get you to the hospital,” she looped her arm around Gabriel’s waist. She saw his blood gushing out of his wound, “Oh my God … we have to hurry, can you stand?”
Eddie had a smirk on his face, he looked beaten down and his eyes were hollow.
Melvin kept his gun pointed at Eddie as he approached him to confiscate his weapon, “Don’t do it, man,” he said to Eddie.
But everything happened much too fast for Jamie to grasp what was going on. Another shot fired. The first thing she saw after that was the blood splatter all over the armchair, Eddie’s body slumped on the floor next to it with an open wound on the back of his head. He had just shot himself through his mouth.
Her mind went blank for a long surreal second. She gasped in horror and completely forgot how to breathe. Everything was happening in slow motion in her mind.
Eddie’s men saw what happened and they fled as soon as they realized their boss was dead.
She felt the weight on her shoulder, she couldn’t stand up and help Gabriel to his feet, he was too heavy. Her eyes kept going back to Eddie or what’s left of him. It was a nightmare, but it wasn’t, it was really happening and she had to decide her next move.
“Melvin! Melviiin!!” she screamed her lungs out. “Help me get him up, we have to take him to the hospital!” “Gabriel … Gabriel … are you alright? Can you get up and walk to the car?”
He grimaced and looked at his wound, “I can try,” his voice was weak. He used all his strength to get himself up. Melvin came running and helped them both up. The walk to the front door was slow and painful, Gabriel’s blood was dripping on the white marble floor. His face was pale.
Jamie reached into her pocket and turned on her phone. Her hands were trembling, she misdialed the number three times. “Doctor Blake … this is an emergency … Gabriel’s been shot … we’re taking him to the hospital, please … we need your help, he’s losing so much blood,” she explained as best she could.
By the time they reached the car, Gabriel was barely conscious. He dozed in and out of consciousness and his blood was everywhere. Jamie put both her hands on his wound to keep pressure on it, she could feel the warm blood coming out of him and it terrified her.
“Please … hang in there Gabriel … we’re almost there.”
The car was moving above the speed limit, but her attention was solely on Gabriel who didn’t seem to be doing very well.
“You can make it Gabriel … you have to …” she said. She was really saying it to herself. He has to make it. She didn’t want to lose him and the horror was real. With his blood kept coming out and dripping down the floor, with every minute passing by, his chance of survival was getting slimmer.
He curved a weak smile on his face and touched her face, “You did well, Jamie … I’m glad you’re alright.”
The reality that she might be losing him was creeping up inside her, she held his hand and pressed it against her cheek, “I love you … please don’t leave me,” she tried to hold back her tears but it pushed out of her eyes and nothing could stop it.
Gabriel closed his eyes, he was drifting out of consciousness, “Everything … Jamie …” his voice almost inaudible.
She was puzzled, he was mumbling unconsciously, she thought.
“What you’re worth to me …” he said again with his eyes still closed. It was the question Eddie asked when he pointed the gun to her head. “Everything …” he said again. It was the last thing he said to her before he was completely unconscious.
**********
“We have a pulse,” the nurse said when they arrived. “Very weak pulse, let’s get him to the E. R.” she said again.
“Gunshot wound to the left abdomen … massive loss of blood, we need CT scan, I need to know the damage stat … prepare the O. R. be ready for surgery … let’s get his vitals first,” Dr. Blake Wolf led the team as they pushed the gurney to the E. R. “Make a note please … VVIP patient … this is Richard Gabriel Love in our hands … somebody check the lab, I’ve requested for blood transfusion.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Jamie was shaking, she had blood all over her hands, arms, face and clothes.
Dr. Blake held her arms in front of the E. R. “I’ve been his physician for over 10 years … this is the best place for him to get the treatment he needs … I need you to stay stable and calm, a nurse will help you clean up … we might need your blood for transfusion because we don’t have enough in the lab.”
His words gave her hope, there’s still chance, and she can help. She nodded, she had to pull herself together if she wanted to see this through.
Dr. Blake disappeared into the E. R. THe last thing she saw was Gabriel being stripped down and hooked up to all sorts of medical equipment. The doctor put on his gloves and at least 7 other people in the room to assist him. The door was closed and she was escorted by the nurse to clean up.
“Perry … I need you …” she called him before they took her clothes and samples for forensic evidence. She told him what happened, in a stutter between her sobs. As if everything just hit her all at once, the kidnapping, the gun to her head, Eddie, Gabriel, she burst out crying.
“I’ll be right there,” Perry didn’t need any more details, he dropped everything he was doing and got there as fast as he could.
By the time he was there, the police were already there. No one would give him any information because Gabriel was a VVIP patient and the circumstances surrounding his condition. He searched up and down the hospital with no luck. The only face he recognized was Melvin’s and he was talking to the police, still covered in blood. His heart sank, what’s going on? There was nothing on the news but he knew it was something huge.
“Eddie’s dead … Gabriel’s been shot … you can’t say anything to anyone … please just get here, I need you here,” she was sobbing uncontrollably when she said it.
His stomach hardened, she didn’t say about her own condition. Then his phone rang, it was Jamie. She said she was in the E. R. and they will let him see her first before she’s being prepared to have her blood drawn. He ran as fast as he could to the E. R.
She was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed in a hospital gown. As soon as she saw him, she burst into a cry again. She sobbed in his embrace, “They said he’s critical … they need my blood … they won’t say anything else … I don’t know what’s going on … I don’t think he’s doing alright, Perry … I’m scared.”
He rubbed her back and kissed her forehead, “I’m sure they’re doing the best they can … and he’s a tough guy, have faith … don’t cry okay? Don’t cry until you need to cry, he’s fighting right now … fighting to come back to you,” he curved a smile.
A nurse approached them and told him to wait outside.
“You can do this babe, okay? I’ll be right outside … I’m not going anywhere,” he said before he left the room. He had stopped her from crying. She took a deep breath and forced a smile.