Page 322 of Redeemed

“Colton has her,” she says. “She’s okay.”

Knowing she’s taken care of, I give Wes my whole focus. Pressure doesn’t seem to be helping enough to stop the bleeding, and Cal notices, too. He rips his belt off and tightens it right above the stab wound.

“You can stop now, Luc.”

As I sit back, Wes opens his eyes. He stares at the ceiling for a second before focusing on Cal, who’s leaning over him to clean the wound. It’s only for a few seconds before he passes out again.

“Come on,” Cal grits out as he starts suturing the wound. “You’re not fucking dying on us.”

The tension in the van is at an all-time high as we watch Cal carefully stitch up… something. An artery? A vein? I don’t know, some type of blood vessel.

By the time Cal is done with that and halfway through closing up the wound, Wes comes to again. He looks a little more alive this time but still pretty damn awful.

“Ow,” Wes groans weakly.

Cal rolls his eyes. “You’ve handled worse than this, you wimp.”

Wes winces. “I don’t… think you’re very good at this.”

“Oh, stop your whining,” Cal grumbles.

“Asshole,” Wes says, his voice barely audible.

“At least I’m not the idiot who got stabbed.”

“I see your bedside manner hasn’t improved, Dr. Graham,” Kellan says dryly. Then he winks at Wes and whispers, “I say you sue him.”

Wes gives him a tired grin that turns into a pained grimace a moment later. “Where… Thel…”

“She’s here,” I say. “You want her?”

It takes Wes a second to be able to speak again. “Need.”

Tentatively, Athelia turns around to face us. I move farther into the van so she has room to sit next to Wes. With a sniffle, she runs her fingers through his brown hair.

“Hey,” she whispers when he finds her. “I’m here.”

Wes’s eyes fall closed for a few seconds before he looks up at her again. He tries to reach for her face, but his hand only makes it halfway.

“Don’t.” Athelia intertwines their fingers. “Just—just stay still.”

“My soul,” he whispers. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m just scared, that’s all.”

“It’s gonna be okay, baby,” Cal says without looking up. “He’ll be fine. Just take a deep breath for me, all right?”

Wes frowns. “You can be nice to her, but not me?”

“Shut up and let me concentrate.”

“Typical,” Wes mutters. He weakly squeezes Athelia’s hand. “I’m gonna sue Cal.”

That makes her laugh, even as her tears fall. “Yeah?”

“Mmm.”

Cal moves on to bandaging the wound, and then he removes his belt. “Need to keep an eye on his pulse, but he should be okay.”

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