Page 88 of Brandishing Betrayals

“Why here?”

“He’s going to need round the clock medical care. We’d hoped you’d help.” Nico shot me a tight smile.

I ignored him and dove for my closet. I pulled out the tackle box and duffle bag of medical supplies I kept on hand; things I’d grabbed from the hospital or the office over the years. It had been a habit that I still hadn’t broken since the days I dated the guys. Thank God I kept up the habit too, because they were in serious need of supplies.

“He looks like he’s lost a lot of blood,” I said, slipping on gloves.

“Doctor’s on his way with blood. He’ll help you,” Marcos replied, stepping out of my way.

“The neck wound, how bad?” I asked.

“They said it was graze, but deep,” Nico answered.

I nodded and grabbed scissors, going to work on cutting off Jason’s shirt. Someone had already field dressed his wounds, so he was no longer dripping blood everywhere, but he was still heavily bleeding.

“Nic, in the hallway linen closet on the floor is a pile of junk towels. Grab them,” I delegated.

A phone rang as I was cutting the gauze wrapped around Jason’s upper shoulder, where the bullet had penetrated his deltoid muscle. It didn’t look deep, but I didn’t have any local anesthetic on hand anymore, so it was going to be painful once I started digging around.

Marcos answered the call and walked out of the room, just as Nico walked back in with the towels. “Here,” Nico said.

“Fold one under his shoulder.” The last thing I needed was my mattress getting ruined.

Nico did as he was told and I grabbed a pair of hemostats. I was gathering up the rest of the supplies I’d need to remove the bullet and pack the wound with gauze before I wrapped it up. It was shallow enough that it didn’t look like it needed stitches.

“You realize I’m not a doctor,” I said wryly.

“Good thing, I am.” A male voice spoke from behind me.

I glanced up to see a familiar looking man carrying a cooler and a duffle bag of his own. He was tall with a bald head and warm chocolate eyes. “Dr. Griffin?” I asked.

“Yeah, Katalina’s friend, right?” Doctor Griffin asked.

“Maya.”

“Alright Maya, what do we have?”

“Two GSW’s, one to the deltoid muscle and the other to the upper gastrocnemius. I haven’t looked at it yet. Deltoid looks superficial. Possible graze to the neck. He’s lost a lot of blood.” I rattled off his vitals, while Griffin unzipped his bag and pulled on his own set of gloves.

For the next half hour, the two of us worked as a team to tend to our patient. Occasionally, I delegated tasks to Marcos and Nico, like grabbing a hanger from the closet to hang from the curtain rod to set up a makeshift IV pole.

Griffin had a bag of saline, antibiotics and universal donor blood on hand. I had quickly started a line for the blood transfusion and a saline bag in his elbow. “We’ll hold off on antibiotics for now,” he said. “He should still be ok. I’ll leave pills behind in case he needs them.”

I nodded and pulled out a blood pressure cuff. I checked his vitals again, repeating them to Griffin.

“Good.” Griffin finished up with the dressing on Jason’s calf. Neither gunshot wound would be stitched up, rather we packed the wound with gauze before we wrapped it tight with a self-adhesive bandage.

The bullet that had grazed Jason’s neck had left a two-inch-long gash that thankfully had not hit anything vital. The wound had required stiches though, and Griffin had used a local pain anesthetic to relieve any pain Jason might feel, in case he woke up.

Jason, thankfully, had stayed unconscious the whole time we worked on him. Griffin had brought several vials of anesthetic and syringes with him, but we hadn’t needed it. “I’ll leave this stuff with you. I can get more,” Griffin had muttered off handedly while we worked.

I had thanked him profusely. I no longer had access to those kinds of things working at the family clinic.

“Aright, I think that’s about it for me,” Griffin said when we finished up. He started packing up his things, while he pulled out other supplies and stacked things on my dresser. “You can have all this. I’ll grab more from the hospital.”

My eyes widened at the bags of saline and antibiotics, and other medical supplies. “Thank you, Griffin. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, no worries. Call me if anything changes. After the blood bag and saline are finished, you could remove the IV.”

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