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Brooke looked up, on her knees beside Addy, her eyes red. “They took them. They took them, and then they shot Addy.”
“Who took them?”
“I don’t know! Men. Two men with dark hair. I think one of them was her ex because he was really angry about her being here with you.”
“Which way did they go?”
“Uh…”
“Which way?”
Brooke pointed south. “That way. Toward Bandon.”
No, toward Medford. Cesare was heading for the airport, Nico knew it.
“Are you on the phone with Luca?”
“Y-y-yes.”
“Tell him to send deputies to Rogue Valley International. That’s where they’re going.” Nico dropped to his knees beside Addy, ignoring the sting from the glass. “How bad is it?”
“There’s an ambulance on the way,” one of the men told him.
But would she survive that long? Addy was naked from the waist up and struggling to breathe, blood trickling from a wound to the right side of her chest. The terror in her eyes sent another wave of fear through Nico.
“Do something,” Brooke begged.
A guard pulled off his shirt, and he was about to press it over the hole when a hand stopped him.
“Looks like a pneumothorax,” Deck said, sounding eerily calm. “Is there an exit wound?”
“Can’t see one.”
“I’m gonna need this.” Deck tugged at the card attached to a lanyard around the guard’s neck. “Addy, I know it hurts, but watch me and focus on breathing, okay?”
“Can’t… Can’t…”
“Someone get the first-aid kit from the lockbox in the back of my truck. Code’s six-one-seven-four.”
Nico did as instructed and when he came back, Deck had pressed the plastic ID card over the hole. Addy wasn’t breathing any better, but she wasn’t breathing any worse either, and Nico had to take that as a good sign.
“Here you go.”
“Hold this in place.”
One of the guards took over while Deck rifled through the contents of the bag. It wasn’t the kind of civilian kit you’d buy in a drugstore. No, this looked more like the supplies Lev Belinsky’s bodyguards used to carry in their SUV, a necessity in Russia where “accidents” were commonplace among oligarchs. Fall out of favour, and you’d soon find yourself falling out of a window.
Deck wiped the blood from Addy’s skin, and in one smooth motion, he replaced the plastic card with an adhesive dressing.
“Your lung’s collapsed, sweetheart. I’ve sealed the hole, but I need you to breathe.”
Addy managed to nod, her eyes wide with fear, but she was still gasping. Nico wasn’t an EMT, but even he could see that one side of her chest wasn’t moving as it should.
“Any news on that ambulance?” Deck asked.
Running feet came from behind them, and Luca turned the air blue. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. How bad is it?”
“I’m thinking tension pneumothorax.”
