Chapter 8 - The Desperate Measure
Panic, cold and sharp, finally pierced through Dominic’s iron control.
He twisted awkwardly in the passenger seat, ignoring the screaming agony in his own shoulder.
"Marco, drive faster!" Dominic roared, pressing his bloody hands desperately against Evangeline's stomach wound.
"The clinic is burned down, boss!" Marco yelled back, swerving violently to avoid an oncoming truck. "Where the hell do I go?"
"The veterinarian," Dominic ordered through gritted teeth. "Dr. Rossi. On 4th Street. Now!"
Evangeline’s head lolled back against the leather seat, her skin turning an alarming, translucent shade of gray.
"Hey, look at me," Dominic commanded, his voice harsh with fear. "Do not close your eyes."
She offered a weak, agonizingly slow blink.
"It hurts, Ash," she whispered, using his name for the first time since the warehouse.
"I know it hurts. Stay awake. Keep the pressure on it."
He pressed his hands down harder, feeling the warm, sticky flow of her blood slipping between his fingers.
He had spent his entire life dealing in violence, dealing out death, but watching this battered woman bleed out in his car terrified him more than any gun ever had.
Marco slammed the SUV over the curb, screeching to a halt in front of a dark, closed veterinary clinic.
Dominic kicked the car door open, lifting Evangeline entirely into his arms.
He kicked the glass door of the clinic with his heavy boot, shattering it instantly.
"Rossi!" Dominic bellowed, storming into the dark waiting room.
An older man in pajamas scrambled out of a back room, holding a baseball bat.
He dropped the bat the second he recognized the fearsome boss of the Ashford syndicate dripping blood onto his linoleum floor.
"Clean off a table," Dominic ordered, carrying her directly into the sterile operating room.
Rossi didn't ask questions. He took one look at the gunshot wound and sprang into frantic action.
"I deal with dogs, Dominic," Rossi stammered, prepping IV fluids and tearing open surgical kits. "I don't have human blood for a transfusion."
"She's O-negative," Dominic said instantly, pulling off his own ruined jacket. "So am I. Hook me up."
Rossi stared at him in disbelief. "You've been shot too. You'll go into shock."
"Do it, or I'll kill you myself," Dominic snarled, sitting in a chair beside her operating table.
Rossi quickly ran a direct line between Dominic's arm and Evangeline's.
For the next two hours, Dominic watched his own blood flow into her veins as Rossi desperately dug for the bullet in her abdomen.
The pain in his shoulder was blinding, but he refused any painkillers, needing his mind razor-sharp.
He watched her chest rise and fall, willing her to fight, silently commanding her to live.
Finally, Rossi dropped a deformed piece of lead into a metal kidney dish with a loud clink.
"I got it," Rossi exhaled, wiping sweat from his brow. "She's stabilized. But she needs an actual hospital, Dom."
"She stays here," Dominic commanded, standing up shakily. "Nobody knows about this place."
He pulled a thick stack of cash from his pocket and threw it on the counter.
"Keep her alive, Rossi."
Dominic walked out to the waiting room, where Marco was pacing like a caged tiger.
"Is she breathing?" Marco asked, his face grim.
Dominic nodded, leaning heavily against the wall as dizziness washed over him.
"We need the ledgers," Dominic said, his voice entirely devoid of emotion.
"If she dies, Caldwell and the Mayor win. We need the proof to destroy them both."
"Where are the files?" Marco asked.
Dominic closed his eyes, remembering the exact moment he first found her chained in the warehouse.
"She told me to kill her," Dominic whispered. "She was willing to die rather than give them the location."
He opened his eyes, a dangerous realization dawning on him.
"She didn't hide them on a server or in a bank box, Marco."
"Where then?"
"She hid them in the only place Caldwell would never look."
May you like
Dominic pulled out his phone.
"She mailed them to my father."
