Page 20 of Enzo (The Amato Family #2)

I would never wish harm on another person. I know what it’s like to come close to losing the person you love, and wouldn’t want that for anyone—except maybe the bastards who tried to take Enzo from me—but having the distraction of work to keep me busy? I am grateful for that.

I’ve spent the last few days working at the clinic before being recalled to the Amato main house due to a potential emergency situation.

Soren, Rose, and I prepped the room while Doc waited for news of whether anyone would need our expertise.

Considering the Amatos have just discovered who’s been behind everything—the raids on their warehouses, Roman and Enzo’s accident, and the attempted murder of Carter Amato’s father—I don’t have high hopes that anyone is getting out of the situation unscathed.

Doc bursts into his office, orders pouring from him the moment the door opens. “What’s the blood situation?”

Since I’m the one who did the inventory, I answer. “We’re still low on O neg. The emergency kit from the hospital helped, but De Luca still used up a good amount. The next drive should even that out, though.”

“Okay. Where’s Jude on the chart? He’s our priority, unless?—”

Rose cuts in. “Unless Roman comes in more critically injured. We know, sir.”

“Yeah, except if you let his lover die, he’ll kill you,” I tell Doc, half teasing, half not, heart in my throat because I know exactly how Roman, Tennant, and Hollis are probably feeling right now. “Jude’s AB pos, by the way. Lucky fucker. We’ve got him covered either way.”

“Good. From what Ten says, he has multiple GSWs and a host of other injuries, so it’s going to be a long night for us all.”

“How far out were they?” Soren asks, as Doc scrubs in.

“They were leaving the Manasseros’ when I left, so I expect we’re about to be hit at any moment. Have any of you been in contact with the clinic?”

“I have,” Rose says. “They’re prepared. You know how many need medical services?”

“Not a clue. They’ll call it in when they’re on their way. We were prepared, though, and I don’t think any of our people are the ones who need help. It really depends on whether they left anyone aside from Jude’s family alive for the Boss.”

Considering they were supposed to be on the Amato’s side and turned out to be traitors…yeah, I have doubts about anyone living through the night.

Doc’s phone breaks the strained tension in the room, and he listens for a moment before rushing out the door. I follow closely behind him before the other two can.

We hit the front doors just as a car pulls up. If I didn’t have years’ of practice behind me, I probably would have eaten shit trying to run down the front steps behind Doc.

There’s little space to work in, even with the door to the car open as wide as possible, but between me, Doc, and Tennant, we get Jude transferred onto the backboard I snagged on my way out of the medical office.

Doc and I adjust our holds on the board, and carefully carry him up the steps and into the house with the help of some nearby house guards.

My heart pounds and my hands feel slick in my gloves as we carry Jude all the way into the medical office. This isn’t the first time something like this has occurred, but it doesn’t get any easier, especially not after Enzo.

Tennant may not show his emotions like every other person, but I’ve been around long enough to know he’s going to be a terror to everyone but his lovers until we can assure them Jude is okay.

My breath catches in my throat as we transfer Jude from the backboard to the table.

The reality that I’m about to work on someone’s loved one is…

harrowing so soon after what I’ve been through.

It was easy with De Luca because Carter doesn’t care about his father.

This situation, however, hits a little too close to home for my comfort.

I take a few deep breaths as I change out my gloves, centering myself so I don’t end up kicked out of the office because I’ve become more of a liability than a help.

“What are we looking at?” Doc asks.

“Wounds to his hip and shoulder are both bleeding profusely. Don’t think any of the bullets hit anything major, but between everything, he’s lost a lot of blood,” Soren replies.

“Set him up for a transfusion. I want to get some blood into him before we do anything else.”

“I’ve got the blood.” Rose rushes off to the storage fridge.

Soren gets the IV set up, and like a well-oiled machine, everyone slides into place as if we’ve all worked together for years.

It might be true for me, Rose, and Doc, but Soren is still new, and this is only the second big emergency the four of us have dealt with together.

Still, from checking Jude’s vitals, pumping blood, other fluids, and meds into him, and getting his tattered clothes out of the way, everyone does what they need to do, and it’s almost a beautiful dance. If only it wasn’t so fucking morbid.

Jude doesn’t regain consciousness, probably due to the immense pain he has to be in, which is a good thing.

Between the blood loss and the pain, being asleep right now is the best thing for him.

I take charge of administering a sedative in order to keep him under for the duration of the surgery.

The last thing we need is for him to wake up in a panic and hurt himself further.

“Okay, are you guys ready?” Doc asks. “First plan of action is to get the bullet out of his hip. I clocked one in his thigh as well. Soren?”

“There’s a graze on the top of his shoulder, and the other shot was a through and through. I’ll check it for particulates, though.”

“Rose, monitor him and assist Soren as needed. Kail, help me with field of vision.”

“Jayden will kill you if you fuck him up too much,” I remark, slightly apprehensive of Doc being the one to dig around in Jude’s body. He’s a talented doctor, but…surgery isn’t his forte.

“Well, I’m not a fucking surgeon,” he snaps back, further proving my point. Still, it doesn’t stop him from digging around in Jude’s hip for the bullet.

“What happened to asking the Boss to find one?” I ask a little too firmly, not willing to let him get away with snapping at me.

“Because surgeons are just walking around on the street, waiting to be picked up as a mafia associate,” he mutters.

“You need a time out,” I grumble under my breath, even as I clear the blood out of the way so he can see what he’s doing.

Doc lets out a victory noise when he finally manages to pull the bullet out of Jude’s mangled hip, and we work on repairing the damage done to the muscles there…as best we can anyway since… no surgeons are in this room.

“I know someone,” Soren says.

Doc pauses from where he’s starting to suture Jude up after we’ve done all we can for him. “Really?”

“One of my best friends is in his second year of med school. He wants to be a surgeon. I think he said he was going to try pediatrics?—”

Doc looks back down, saying, “Tell him to expect a call from Doctor Aidan Murry to discuss his future internship.”

“Good luck with that,” Soren replies. “Vonny doesn’t take phone calls.”

Doc finishes with the sutures. “Clean and bandage this, K. I’ll get to work on his thigh.”

We switch positions and I focus on wiping down the wound site, even as I still listen in to the conversation.

“How’s it going up there, Soren?”

“All done. I’m changing out his blood bag and then I can assist.”

“Stats, Rose?”

“Not in critical danger, for now.”

“Perfect. Back to your friend, Soren. Why don’t young people take phone calls anymore? It’s much more personal than a text. I don’t like talking to people much either, but for something so important, he’ll have to get over that.”

I snort as I wipe off as much blood as possible. “That’s if there’s an open spot for him and you can get Murry to agree to mentor him. He didn’t seem to be a big fan of yours, Doc. Doubt he’ll do you another favor.”

“I can be persuasive,” Doc replies with a pout.

Soren returns from his trip to the storage fridge. “It’s not that. He’s deaf. Theoretically, his CIs connect to Bluetooth, but according to Vonny he’d rather cut his implants out himself than try to understand someone on a phone call.”

“Impressive,” Rose says. “I thought nursing school was hard enough. I can’t imagine being deaf or hard of hearing and going all the way through med school.”

Soren chuckles a little. “Vonny’s ambitious.”

“Skype then?” Doc asks. “I’ll make sure Murry knows to have an interpreter.”

Done with the hip, I say to the room at large, “I’ll start cleaning and closing the wounds on his torso.”

“Good,” Doc answers. “How’s he looking, Rose?”

“Well, he’s not going to die tonight,” she replies. “Blood pressure’s a little low, but that’s to be expected. Everything else is normal range for his condition.”

“I don’t know if Vonny will go for it,” Soren tells Doc, going back to their previous conversation.

“Get the pan. I have the bullet, and I’m pulling it out now.

” It could be a figment of my imagination, but I swear I hear the metal of the bullet hitting the tray when Doc drops it in.

“Why? You know Cristian pays well. The hours will be more manageable than working in a hospital, and so long as he doesn’t mind patching up guys at the clinic when there’s not an emergency like this that needs his attention, it’s a good gig. ”

“He has two brothers; he won’t go anywhere without them.”

“Everybody leaves the nest eventually,” Doc mutters.

“Trust me, when you meet them, you’ll understand.”

There’s something in Soren’s voice that catches my attention, and I’m curious about these friends of his.

The idea of finally having a lead on a surgeon—or future surgeon—I want to learn more about the man who’s managed to steal my friend’s heart.

Even if Doc isn’t ready to admit it yet, I’ve been watching the two of them, and I can tell Doc is totally smitten with the younger man.

It’s adorable—not that I’d ever say that out loud.

“I’m done here,” Doc tells him. “Clean it up?”

“Yes sir.”

Doc moves to help me clean and stitch up Jude’s torso and face.

Most wounds are deep enough to require stitches, but there are only a few truly deep enough to scar.

Not that I believe Jude will care about that considering he’ll not only need extensive physical therapy on his hip, but that it was his own family who did this to him.

My suturing skills aren’t as neat as Doc’s, but there are too many cuts for one single person to handle, so they’ll have to do.

“I think we’ve done all we can here,” Doc says when he finishes the last stitch on Jude’s face.

“I’ll clean him up a little more,” Rose tells him. “We don’t need any of them freaking out because there’s so much blood on him. He’s getting stronger, though, and his BP’s good.”

“Let the bag finish emptying and then we’ll switch out his IVs. I want to get some painkillers in him now, and ease off on the sedative. We’ll assess him when he wakes. You can clean him up after we switch everything out.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll update Tennant and Leandro,” I offer.

“Hollis is probably pissed we weren’t able to send anyone along sooner, but don’t let them give you any grief.”

“Never do, sir. I know how to handle them.” Tennant and Hollis, and even Roman, may scare most people, but I’ve been working here for too long for any of them to have an impact on me.

As expected, Tennant is waiting in the hall outside the office. He’s joined by Roman, but that doesn’t change the way I plan on approaching this. Mafia heir or not, Roman Amato is just another loved one waiting for news, and treating him any differently won’t help him or his lover.

“We’ve managed to get the bullets out of him, stitch him up, and wipe him down as well as we can for now.

Doc will give you a full diagnosis when Jude is awake—which should be in a few hours as we’ve already started tapering off the sedatives.

I can tell you now, he’ll need lots of physical therapy for his leg, but Jayden will have to do his own assessments.

We’ll let you in once we clean up a little. ”

Roman nods and leans against Tennant, the taller man wrapping his arms around the mafia heir. “Thank you, Kail.”

“He got very lucky,” I warn them. “But we’re confident he’ll recover.”

I don’t want to worry them, or get stabbed, so I don’t mention that it might not ever be a full recovery, based on what I saw going on inside Jude’s hip alone, but Jayden is good at his job, and if Jude is as stubborn as any of his lovers, he’ll be fine.

Seeing the relief mixed with fear on Roman’s face, and the way Tennant holds his young love tightly to him…it’s as though I’m looking in a mirror, except I don’t have anyone but myself to lean on.

That pain and uncertainty? It’s plagued me since I realized Enzo was the one hurt in the accident that wasn’t an accident.

My heart twists and I quickly excuse myself to go back into the office. My last conversation with Enzo plays in my head as I help make Jude comfortable on one of the hospital beds then clean up the tools and equipment we used.

I’m well aware I was within my rights to say something about how I felt, but that doesn’t change the situation.

Enzo is the one who was physically hurt.

The impact to him is huge. How our new circumstances affect me is nothing in comparison.

Neither of us can lessen our hurt for the other, but…

the middle ground is something we need to find, together.

“You okay?” Rose asks quietly as we’re washing up.

I glance at my friend and give what I hope is a believable smile. The look she gives me back says I don’t pull it off, but now isn’t the time for this discussion.

I give her a shrug. “Not really, but I will be.” And I do fully believe that.

Enzo and I will fix this rift before it turns into a chasm, and we’ll learn how to live our lives in a slightly new way. I refuse to entertain any other scenario.