Chapter 4

“Doc!” Garet’s lips moved, nothing but a choked sound coming out at first as he pressed his hand to Curtis’s upper thigh. Blood spilled over his hand. “I can’t get it to stop.”

Matt rushed to his brother even as Doc began shouting orders. Lawson shoved several tables together with Reed, then helped Matt lift Curtis onto them.

“Keep the pressure on it until I tell you to move, boy.” When Garet didn’t respond, Doc grabbed his shoulder and gave him a firm shake. “Garet, I know this is hard, but I need you to stay with us.”

Gasping in air, Garet nodded, leaning his full weight on Curtis’s blood-soaked thigh. “This is my fault. He was showing me how to use the new press drill. I didn’t clamp the piece of sheet metal down properly. He shoved me out of the way when it started spinning…”

“It’s not the femoral artery, so we have time. But he’s lost a lot of blood. Reed, call an ambulance. Wren, I need my big kit, from the gym.” Doc squeezed Garet’s shoulder. “Keep doing what you’re doing.” His gaze snapped to Lawson, who’d gone white, stroking Curtis’s hair and speaking to him softly as Reed gripped his Dom’s hand, tears streaming down his face as he spoke to the emergency operator. “Hold him down.”

Curtis came to with a rough sound, twisting as Lawson pinned him with both hands on his chest. “Garet? Is he okay?”

Rushing to the gym, Wren unlocked the storage closet. Grabbed the huge metal kit, returning to the bar to set it on a table nearby.

Doc opened the kit, looking between Reed and Lawson as he took out a black tourniquet with a metal rod across it. He placed the band loop around Curtis’s upper thigh, tightening it with the rod which he secured in place before waving Garet back. The bleeding had stopped. On a small white label, Jared jotted down the time with a sharpie from the kit. “What blood type is he?”

Reed blinked, but Lawson answered without hesitation. “O-negative. Noah made sure I remembered in case…” He swallowed and shook his head. “Dallas is too, but he’s in New York.”

Finally, something Wren could help with. “I’m O-negative. I found out when I got my blood tested in prison.” He tongued his bottom lip uncertainly. “They checked me for everything.”

With a sharp incline of his head, Doc motioned for Wren to sit. He pulled out an alcohol swab. “Take off your shirt, that button-up won’t roll high enough on your arm.”

Heart pounding, Wren tugged open enough buttons to yank his shirt off before laying his arm on the table beside him. Held still as Doc disinfected his inner elbow, then tied a tight tourniquet around his upper arm. He took out the needle and met Wren’s eyes for a moment before inserting it. Blood flowed into the tube.

“Keep breathing, Wren.” Doc’s words had him drawing in the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. The Dom smiled at him. “Good boy. I’ll need you to keep this going until he’s stabilized. The ambulance won’t be here for another fifteen minutes.”

“Will this help him?” Wren couldn’t imagine losing Curtis. He brought so much life to The Asylum. And Noah… Wren’s throat tightened as he imagined how Noah would react. Curtis was one of the most important people to the man. He gave him the love and affection he gave so few, and it would destroy him if anything took Curtis from him.

“It’s the only thing that will. Matthew, come keep an eye on him. Matthew!” Doc snapped his fingers, tearing Matt’s focus away from his brother and Curtis as he inserted the other end of the tube into an artery in Curtis’s forearm. “You want to save him, soldier, do as I say.”

The demand didn’t even make Matt blink as he came to Wren, but Wren frowned, confused. He’d never heard Doc use nicknames with any of the subs, and that one didn’t seem like it would apply to Matt in any way.

“Don’t ask.” Matt took his hand. “Squeeze, it’ll go faster.”

Wren nodded, his stomach flipping, though he kept breathing as he’d been told. The room around him went fuzzy as he struggled to stave off the darkness creeping across his vision. The EMTs arrived. He couldn’t follow the rapid exchange between them and Doc, but he shook his head when the young woman asked him if he needed to go to the hospital.

Reed went with the ambulance, Lawson, Matt and Garet taking Lawson’s car to follow. Doc began cleaning, and Wren stood, needing to make himself useful.

“Wren, wait!” was the last thing he heard before he tipped sideways. Pain exploded in the side of his head. The darkness refused to let him follow that last command.

Lips moving, he tried to see Doc. To apologize. But he was on the floor. He couldn’t rise.

Or see.

Something bad had happened. Someone was bleeding. Noah. Noah had gotten stabbed, protecting him. Because of him, Noah would die.

He shuddered, a sob tearing from his throat. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You should have let them have me.”

“Shh, I’ve got you, boy. It’s going to be okay.”

Not Noah’s voice, still...familiar. Noah wasn’t here, but someone was. They’d said it would be okay.

And he believed them.