Page 24 of DOG Part 2
“No.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “That was a long shot. We’ll use ice. David, sterilize the tweezers and knife, please. Adele, get me some ice and scissors.”
They both hurried across the kitchen, doing as told, and I moved over to the table. My heart must have been beating faster than it ever had before, but I didn’t even notice. In the face of disaster I was suddenly awash with an unexplained calmness.
Kane barely fit onto the table. His legs hung off the end onto the chairs Skate and Tom had placed there. His eyes were still closed as I did a quick once over to inspect the damage. The two bullet wounds were obvious, but from an initial inspection it didn’t look like there was too much bleeding still going on.
“I need scissors,” I said over my shoulder, still staring down at Kane.
“Here they are,” Adele answered from only inches away.
She placed the thin tool in my hand and I set to work cutting Kane’s t-shirt open. His leather jacket had already been taken off and placed in a ball under his head, which made the task of unclothing him much easier.
“Just two bullets?” I asked as I cut.
“We think so,” Tom answered. All four of them were hovering close by, and I might have found it annoying, but I also didn’t have a shred of energy to spare when it came to caring.
The shredded shirt fell off underneath Kane, revealing that the shoulder wound and side stomach wound were on the same side. The sigh of relief I’d been holding in came out as I inspected his stomach.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” I said softly.
Kane let out a low moan, his eyelids flickering.
“I’m going to get the one in his side out first,” I said. “Adele, ice that spot for a minute. Someone else ice his shoulder too.”
Kane’ mom hurried around the side of the table with a washcloth filled with ice and pressed it to his side. Skate got busy on his shoulder.
“I need the knife and tweezers,” I said, praying that I would only need the latter. If Kane was lucky the bullets weren’t too far in and I would just be able to pull them out with the tweezers. If they were lodged deeper than I would have to make an incision on each side of the bullets with the knife to help me get some range of motion.
Once the knife and tweezers were in my hand I leaned down to inspect the wound in Kane’s side. Relief washed over my body immediately. I could see the bullet. Thank freaking God.
“Once I get the bullet out we’ll need to flush the wound with cold water and then I’ll stitch him up,” I said, bending low to get to work.
Kane groaned as I removed the bullet, encouraging me to work faster.
“Water,” I snapped as I pulled the bullet out with the tweezers and dropped it on the table.
Tom appeared next to me with cold water and I poured it along Kane’s side. “We need a clean towel.”
Someone handed me a fluffy hand towel and I pressed it against Kane’s side.
“Hold this while I thread the needle,” I told Adele.
Kane was groaning again, and Adele was speaking to him low while I held the needle up in the light and pushed the thread through it. I moved quickly, stitching his skin together as fast as I could. Getting stitches without being numbed first wasn’t a fun thing to endure, but Kane didn’t cry out like most people would.
“Shoulder now,” I said as I cut the thread. The hardest part was over, and my stomach was already feeling lighter.
We repeated the actions on his shoulder. By the time I had finished putting in the second set of stitches and had inspected him to make sure there were no other bullets, Kane was unconscious.
“Should we be worried?” Adele asked, staring at me with her eyes wide.
I swallowed hard. The blood of the man I was falling in love with covered my hands and the remnants of surgery lay strewn around the edges of the table. All four people stared at me, waiting for a verdict.
“He really can’t go to the hospital?” I asked again, looking at Tom.
Tom’s jaw ticked. When he shook his head his eyes fell to the floor and he looked like he was about to cry. It was an odd state to see a tough biker dude in.
“If he went to the hospital that would be the end of him,” Skate answered.
