Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry I had to ask you to risk your career for me, baby girl.” He squeezed my hand. “Couldn’t pull either of them out of the hospital fast enough to take care of Ink. I swear, I won’t make a habit of this.”
As he reached for the knob on the door at the end of the hallway, I tugged on his other hand so he looked at me over his shoulder. “I might give you crap for making the call, but if you’re ever in a similar situation again, I expect you to do exactly that. My job is nothing compared to someone’s life.”
“Fucking hell,” he growled before turning toward me. Cupping my cheeks with his large hands, he tilted my head back to claim my mouth in a passionate kiss that took my breath away.
Unfortunately, it ended too soon…when Echo flung open the door behind him and grunted, “Do that shit on your own time. Ink needs her help now.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, my cheeks filling with heat.
“You got nothing to apologize for,” he reassured me, jerking his chin toward Eli. “He’s the one I was dishing that shit out to.”
“Damn well better have been me,” Eli retorted, pressing against my lower back with his palm to guide me into the room filled with equipment any clinic would envy. “She’s risking herself to help us out.”
“I sure as fuck appreciate it,” the man sprawled on the exam table rumbled. “Really don’t want any of you to have to tell my mamma that I got shot, let alone died.”
“Nobody is dying here today,” I reassured him, rushing over to the sink to wash my hands before tugging on a pair of gloves. Then I began my examination of him.
“I’m Ink, by the way,” he said through gritted teeth while trying to smile. “Figured you ought to know if you’re gonna be getting up close and personal with my body.”
“You got a death wish, Ink?” Eli snarled.
“No, sir,” he replied immediately.
“Then keep your fucking mouth shut and your eyes and hands away from my woman.”
I held back a smile at Eli’s display of jealousy. It probably should have bothered me…but it was so hot.
“Nora,” I told Ink.
First, I assessed his airway, breathing, and circulation while applying pressure to the wound in his thigh, which already had a square of gauze covering it. Once I confirmed his ABCs were good, I murmured, “Your pulse and blood pressure are a little high, but that’s to be expected when you’ve been shot.”
“Hurts like a motherfucker,” he admitted.
“I’m sure.” Turning to Eli, I asked, “Can you apply pressure to the wound while I perform a brief neurological assessment?”
“Sure,” he quickly agreed, gently placing his palm over mine and giving Ink a giant smile.
When I slid my hand away from Ink’s thigh, he pressed down. Ink groaned in pain. “Shit, man. Do you have to push down so fucking hard?”
“Yes, he does,” I replied, retrieving my penlight from my bag to stimulate his pupils.
Ink shot a dubious look at Eli but didn’t protest again.
The direct and consensual responses were good, so I quickly swung the light back and forth between his eyes to check his pupillary responses. “There doesn’t seem to be any issues with the optic nerve, and your pupils are equal in size without being abnormally dilated or constricted.”
“That good?” Ink asked.
“Yup,” I confirmed with a nod, tucking the penlight back into my bag. “Just need to check your temperature, and then I can get to work on that gunshot.”
After I confirmed he didn’t have a fever, I gestured for Eli to lift his hand. Peeling the gauze away from Ink’s skin, I peered at the entry wound. “The good news is that you were shot in the lateral aspect of the thigh.”
“Why’s that good?” Ink asked.
“The muscle mass is thick enough to allow a bullet to pass through without hitting major blood vessels or bone,” I explained as I prodded at the edges to test how much blood seeped out. I was relieved to see that the bleeding was controlled. “But it depends on the bullet’s trajectory, so I’m gonna need to take a look at the other side of your leg to make sure there’s an exit wound and see where it is.”
“That makes sense, but I gotta admit that getting up here wasn’t as easy as I made it look.”
At Ink’s confession, Eli and Echo moved to either side of the exam table and helped him roll onto his side. I nudged the hem of his athletic shorts up a little to get a better look at the exit wound. “Looks as though your muscle tissue provided a path for the bullet to travel without coming out this side too quickly.”
“I woulda thought the faster, the better,” Echo muttered.
I continued to prod at Ink’s wound while I explained, “It seems counterintuitive, but the faster the bullet goes through your body, the more damage it does along the way. The higher kinetic energy creates larger tissue displacement.”