Page 148 of Scorned Beauty

Then he left. “Be careful!” I shouted after him.

Men swarmed around us, securing the perimeter. I ran over to where Paulie was checking on Lucy. Both were sitting on the sidewalk. His suit was disheveled and there were smudges of dirt on what was once his pristine white dress shirt. Carlotta was on her knees, sobbing in front of them.

“I’m fine,” Lucy mumbled.

“Can you check her out?” Carlotta asked me.

“We can take her to the hospital,” I said.

“I’m fine. I didn’t even lose consciousness. I just skinned my palms when Dad pushed me away. You should be the one to be checked out, Dad.” Lucy glanced at me. “He got hit by an SUV.”

“Sideswiped,” Paulie corrected.

“That was more than a sideswipe,” Lucy argued.

Carlotta stood in front of him and glowered. “You’re really okay? You told me you’re okay.”

He hesitated in answering. He was looking pale. His lips were losing color. Dammit. Maybe he was bleeding internally.

“Call 911. And have them send an ambulance ,” I told Hector. I switched into nurse mode.

“Dad!”

“Paulie!”

I turned in time to see him collapse sideways onto the pavement. Oh no!

I shoved Carlotta aside and sank to my knees in front of Paulie. He was breathing rapidly. His neck veins were bulging. Not good. I laid him flat on the sidewalk and ripped his dress shirt open.

“Knife!” I shouted. Three blades were shoved under my nose. I grabbed one of them and split his undershirt in two.

The beginnings of bruising were taking form on his chest.

I sprung to my feet and asked Hector, “ETA on the ambulance?”

“Six minutes.”

That might be too late, but I had to be sure. Good thing I always kept a medical kit with me in the trunk of the Audi. I grabbed it, and rushed back to Paulie, and measured his vitals. Blood pressure was low. I could barely make a pulse.

I tried to remain calm. I heard the sirens of an ambulance, but they were distant. And God knew if they were coming for Paulie.

Carlotta was crying and mumbling prayers, gripping Paulie’s hand. Lucy was the one who asked, “What’s wrong? Is he bleeding internally?”

“There’s a sac around the heart that’s filling up with blood and preventing it from beating properly.” Cardiac tamponade usually happened with piercing chest wounds from a bullet or knife. I’d seen enough of them while doing backroom surgeries for the mafia. I remembered a study I’d read that it was flagged rare with blunt force trauma because it wasn’t diagnosed and treated at the scene, leading it to damage the heart before the patient reached the hospital, eliminating it as the source of injury.

Getting struck by a large SUV would do it.

“I need your permission to relieve the pressure.” That was why I always kept plastic tubes in my med kit. The fucking mob prepared me for this. If I could save one life before I kissed my NCLEX goodbye for performing this illegal procedure without a license, I wanted it to be Dom’s dad. I couldn’t even stop to think if I would get thrown into jail.

“Do it,” Lucy cried.

I looked at Carlotta’s face. I understood her hesitation. Her fear. The life of the love of her life was in my hands.

So I added, “I’ve seen this many times. If we delay, it could cause irrevocable damage to his heart.” Which could be fatal.

She nodded. “Okay, yes.”

A calm blanketed me. If Paulie died, Carlotta would hate me forever. I didn’t know what would happen between me and Dom. But I knew if his dad died and I did nothing when I was almost a hundred percent certain of his diagnosis, I would never forgive myself.